Avoid Spidermites forever!

They are tiny and will kill your indoor crops if not noticed in good time....yes it's the dreaded Spider mite - every hydroponic indoor growers nightmare! The adult spider mites will live up to one month laying several hundred eggs - so these are a pest you really do not want near your plants.

Spider mites regardless of age will cause extensive damage to your crops, despite been only 0.5mm in size. It takes around only 5 days for spider mites to evolve from eggs to adults when provided temps of 80˚F. Today I am going run over the basics of how to avoid getting spider mite in your hydroponic garden.

Spider mites suck!

If you haven't had the personal experience and wondered how these dreadful tiny pests can ruin crops - it is due to them constantly sucking the sap from the plants leaves, which interferes and eventually stops the plant naturally regulating its water retention and transpiration. Your plant will begin to develop mottled and or yellow speckles on it's leaves as it struggles to survive..

This may be your first indication of spider mite in your growing area, they will begin on the underside of the plant leafs working around to the top of the leaf surface constantly draining the plant in the process.

Did you miss the first signs then don't worry because as the spider mites increase in population they will create networks of webs which they use to travel branch to branch. Leave this unaddressed all plant leaves will be brown or yellow and then the plant will die - as it will have no longer have the ability to create it's own food.

Think you have Spider mites?

An easy way to check is to simply hold a white piece of paper under your plants leaves and give the branch a shake or tap...this will cause any spider mites leaving on the leaves undersides to fall off and be visible on the white background immediately. They could appear as black specs or amber coloured dots - you won't miss them on white paper!

Biological or Chemical Spider mite Eradication?

So now you know you have spider mite - depending on their development stage and your plants stage - it's time to decide how you are going to eradicate them from your plants and indoor growing area. As spider mite are not true insects, but in fact they are arachnids, which means they can only be killed with miticides or formulations designed to interrupt or kill biological activities of ticks or spiders.

The manner on which you approach the spider mite infestation will be dependant on what stage of development your plants and of course personal preference. Many treatments can be applied up until harvest and others can only be used in vegetative periods - always check the product's instructions for correct use.

The other popular option for a spider mite infestation - is biological pest control, using natural predators such as Spical Plus Spider mite Predators which will allow you address the problem natures way, once the Spider mite Predators are free on your infected plant(s) they will target and eliminate, visit our Pest Control section of our website for more information on Spider mite products for prevention & cure.

So how did you get Spider mites?

Either you are growing your crops in dessert like conditions (which spider mites love) or you have transferred them in to your growing area via cuttings or even your clothing.

If you are growing in dessert conditions then things are way too dry, and you will need to add humidification to the grow area visit our Humidity Control section to see a full range of humidification control options and previous blog posts where the growing environment is discussed in more detail.

Moving forward when accepting cuttings consider creating a quarantine area for them and spray them with Spidermite SMC+ 750ml Spray - just to be 100% they are spider mite free.

My final tip would be to change your clothing or have specific clothes for your grow area only. Start to think twice....e.g don't pop into your grow area after cutting the lawn, doing any other outside work or even playing with the cat or dog - these are simple ways to transfer what you don't want in your growing area!

Conclusion

Once your harvest is complete (i hope you managed to save it) ...you will need to disinfect all areas of the grow area walls, floor, ceilings, growing containers - everything needs to be super clean and growing environment temperature and humidity in check - plus remember how you may have got them last time - else it will be déjà vu...

Do you have any tips for avoiding Spider mite - let me know in the comment section below?