The cannabis plant has several pests that could destroy your buds as well as the entire plant and spider mites are the worst by far. If left uncontrolled, the spider mites could infect other plants and lead to the distraction of your cannabis farm.
What Are Spider Mites?
These are not insects. Spider mites belong to a group of arachnids since they have eight legs and lack antennae. If you see a kind of spider spin web on your plant leaves, that is a red flag! You need to act quickly without delay.
Spider mites have a high rate of reproduction. You won’t believe the two spider mites you saw last time are now more than fifty. One female spider mite can lay millions of eggs within a month. For this reason, you should eradicate spider mites immediately.
Spider mites like marijuana and they eat chlorophyll, the substance that helps the plant in the photosynthesis process. They can come in any setup and can destroy your cannabis garden terribly.
You will not notice them unless you walk around the farm see some dot-like creatures on your plant leaves. For this reason, ensure to inspect the plants daily, or you can hire a skilled and experienced laborer to run the farm at optimal levels.
How to Eliminate Spider Mites
Using Sprays
Copyright: Unsplash I Licence: CCO Public Domain
Spider mites prefer a warm environment to a cold one; therefore, a first simple yet inexpensive step to fight these devastating creatures is through the cold water spraying. It is preferable if you can spray during morning hours.
Spray a jet of water on leaves and its undersides. To increase the effectiveness, you can lower the pH of the water to about 3-4 while adding citric or phosphoric acid.
If you choose to use pesticides, then use a contact spray. Contact spray is by far the best as it stays outside the leaf foliage.
Do you have a question about specific production grower online? Confirm if you want them.
Use of Spinosad Products
Unlike other pesticides, spinosad products are not harmful to the plants or humans. They are organic and safe. For this reason, you can spray the product on plants without fear of possible adverse effects.
Bonus: spinosad can be used to battle many other marijuana pests such as caterpillars and thrips.
Use of Insecticidal Soaps
Insecticidal soaps have power in weakening the spider mites’ outer shell. They are safe to humans and do not stay on your plants for a long time. However, getting it on your marijuana bud will affect its smell. So, try to avoid this.
Use of Insect Predators
This method can no longer be considered old fashioned. If you are serious about controlling spider mites in your garden, this method can help you. Insect predators such as predatory mites and ladybugs can help you in controlling the number of spider mites in your cannabis garden. However, this method works best in a small scale set up.
With that said, using insect predators is recommended if you have a spider mites infestation near the harvesting period. Use of chemical sprays will change the taste and smell of the bud.
Fan Blowing
Copyright: Unsplash I Licence: CCO Public Domain
Spider mites like staying in a hot still air environment and they cannot survive in a windy climate. Therefore, getting a fan blowing on top of your plants can help keep the spider mites away.
The Entire Treatment Of the Grow Room
Treating the entire grow room with a pesticide means you are eradicating spider mites from your cannabis garden. However, this method is best applied if you have an infestation on a grandeur scale. Otherwise, if possible, you should avoid it.
Final Thought
While these ways can help eliminate spider mites from your garden, the most important means and a remedy, of course, is prevention. You need to know what is attracting the spider mites inside your grow room.
Maybe they come from the vegetable garden or any other plant other than marijuana that is in close proximity. Whatever is attracting the spider mites to your cannabis grow room, you should use the above remedies to eliminate them for good.