If you’re growing cannabis plants, there are numerous factors that could affect your yield.
One of the most irritating pests are spider mites. They tend to show up right before the plant is beginning to flower.
This can be a very frustrating problem, but it’s not something you can’t fix. Your first step will be properly identifying these pests, then we can figure out how to solve the situation.
If you don’t take care of this infestation ASAP, these spider mites can cause irreversible damage to your plants, and no one wants that.
What Are Spider Mites?
As their name suggests, spider mites are related to spiders.
But they do have biological ties to arachnids, some of which include scorpions and ticks, and like some of their relatives, spider mites are able to spin webs.
So what’s the issue? Spider mites not only can damage your plants, but they breed at a quick rate.
One female spider mite can lay up to 1400 eggs in a year, and they can hatch in just a few days.
Once born, spider mites can breed in as little as five days. So if you have an infestation, you’re not going to be able to keep it from getting out of hand for too long.
Spider mites will literally suck the life out of your cannabis plant.
They have sharp mouths that they can insert into the cells of your plant and suck up what is inside.
As a result – you will begin to notice little specks on your plant that are usually white, orange or yellow in colour.
How To Tell If Spider Mites Are Present On Your Cannabis Plant
We’ve explained exactly what a spider mite is, but you also want to be able to identify one.
This will allow you to catch an infestation early and prevent it from escalating into a major issue.
As we’ve said, spider mites will create small speckles on the leaves of your cannabis plant.
However, in the first stages, these marks are often very small, making them difficult to identify. Some people even mistake them for mildew which could prove to be catastrophic.
Spider mites are not large bugs.
In fact, they usually don’t get much bigger than roughly 1mm, so you’ll have to search for them diligently.
It’s always nice to have some sort of magnifying lens as this will make it easier for you to spot spider mites.
You can also look for other signs on your plant, which might be good indicators that the spider mites are present.
For example, your plant may not be growing as much as you expect or the buds might be smaller or deformed.
You could also see some leaf discoloration, maybe the underside turns brown or white.
It’s also possible that your leaves seem to be dying even if it’s a young and otherwise healthy plant.
But one of the most obvious signs is the presence of webs on your plants.
These might be similar to a spiders web but spiders don’t usually nest here.
Getting Rid Of Spider Mites
We won’t mess around here, spider mites can be a real pain in the rear.
That said, the sooner you take on the issue, the better chance you have of being successful.
As a grower of cannabis plants, it’s always prudent to be prepared in case you get spider mites and have some back up products ready.
Using Chemical Products
No one wants to treat their plants with chemicals but sometimes you have no choice.
We will suggest that you try natural ways before you pick up the insecticides.
If you’re not successful or think that you have an infestation that’s too bad, there are a number of chemical methods to use.
Ortho, Bio-Advance are example products but located information on application , and execution are useful in dealing with treatliing pests.
You will have to decide which one is best for you and spray it correctly.
For instance, if you’re looking for a fully organic way then using something like Spinosad is going to be totally harmless to you and your plants.
It is super effective against spider mite, and you can add it to your plants water so it’s always getting a similar dose.
Essentria IC3 is another organic option and it does kill spider mites. But remember when you spray that you will have to be spraying it every day until that pest section is done.
Lastly: there are many insecticide soaps that can be made to spray on the plant. However, it is not a one spray treatment and you will have to spray between one and three times before you see any results. To keep you from going backwards, you should spray pretty consistently.
Using Natural Methods
When battling any type of pest or plant disease, we always recommend a natural way if you can!
There are a lot of ways to go about as well, and you could potentially choose a combination of them.
Just keep in mind that you will likely need to go through this process a few times to get the best result, especially since spider mites are so resistant:
- You could take some time and hand-pick out the spider mites. It is important to keep a close look at your plants for the next few days to ensure you have not missed any. It is feasible to pick them off, but it would probably just be easier to prune the plants and remove the affected leaves.
- You can also use a vacuum cleaner, set it to low power and if you hover it over the plant, it has enough power to get rid of spider mites but not enough power to damage the plant itself.
- Water is a great organic deterrent to pests. All you need to do is spray down the plants using your hose and it will take care of them. This was not going to do any damage to the plant but will get rid of the spider mites. If you want to really maximize this effort we would suggest spraying the plants with a water and soap solution.
- Neem oil is very effective with lots of pests, spider mites included. You can use it as is, but much more effective is to mix a pesticide together with water, black soap and neem oil. You simply spray your plants down with this solution and you will observe the numbers of recently all but vanish. One important point is that while this will kill adult mites, it will not kill eggs, so you may have to re-apply it with hatchlings in mind.
- Ladybugs will eat spider mites, but not your cannabis plants. Collect some and drop them off, and you will notice a pretty big decrease in numbers of mites. This might not be the best way to go because if you are growing your plants outdoors they might just fly away.
- There are variety of essential oils that can be used kill spider mites, such as lemon, peppermint, eucalyptus, cinnamon and rosemary.
Preventing Future Infestations
Now that you’ve managed to get rid of the spider mites from your plants, the last thing you want is for them to come back.
So now it’s about protecting your plants from getting reinfested.
You can establish a maintenance plan to ensure your plants are healthy and completely mite-free, including:
- It’s important to keep an eye on your plants regularly. Look for spider mites, as well as indicators that spider mites might be present, such as the issues we discussed in previous chapters.
- Be sure your room has proper humidity. Spider mites flourish in dry environments, therefore if you keep the room humid, you should have no problems.
- Spider mites are more likely to be found growing outdoors, therefore indoors, you are better off using a hydroponic system.
- Indoor growers don’t risk bringing outdoor plants indoors and running into cross contamination problems. If you do have to bring anything foreign into the growing area, quarantine it for a couple of weeks so you can be sure everything is safe.
- Ensure your plants are in a clean and sanitized environment. If you clean regularly, you should routinely remove issues, including spider mites, and things like moulds too.
- If you ensure the grow room is well ventilated, this automatically regulated temperatures, should warm and humid, this will either put off, or deter spider mites from setting up shop. Use a fully commercial A/C system; where this is not possible, at least use some simple electric fans because they will help.
- If you leave conditions for spider mites to be favourable (i.e. high humidity, low temperature, and good ventilation), then they are not overly difficult problems, particularly as they do have a dislike for temperatures below approximately 75ºF.
Conclusion
Spider mites can be a huge pain in the ass if they infest your cannabis plants as they can be very hard to eradicate.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not doable.
You may need to do repeated treatments a few times to be successful but once you get rid of them, make sure to give them a hostile environment so they will not want to come back.