Those are mites and the sooner you eliminate (or reduce) them the better. They can go from just a few to a full-blown invasion in a matter of days.
There are several different ways to get rid of them but using a multi-pronged approach (officially called integrated pest management if you're going to do any google searching) is going to be best.
A few things to remember:
- NO MATTER WHAT, EVEN WHEN YOU THINK THEY'RE GONE, KEEP ON USING YOUR MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH FOR AT LEAST 3 WEEKS OR MORE AFTER YOU STOP SEEING THE PESTS! This is important because they can lay eggs on the undersides of leaves and in the soil that will hatch and repopulate if you let your guard down too soon. Depending on where you are in your grow, you may have to continue your eradication efforts until harvest.
- Your goal is going to be to cause population collapse and this takes 2-3 generations to complete. Bug generations, not people generations.
- I ran into a mite issue a few grows ago. I grow organically so I used insecticidal soap every couple of days, neem oil (do your research) every couple of days, and I made sure that the top of the soil was consistently dusted with diatomaceous earth. Alternating between neem and insecticidal soap tends to work better than just doing one or the other.
- When using the insecticidal soap and neem oil, spray the tops and undersides of the leaves as well as the top of the soil to get any eggs or bugs crawling there. Killing the eggs is very helpful in eradicating the population.
- Do NOT get soap or Neem oil on the buds if you're in the flowering stage. If you're in the flowering stage, skip the Neem oil completely.
- If you're not growing organic, there are more options to consider including BT, peroxide sprays/drenches, etc. These tend to be pretty effective at getting rid of pests but they also destroy the soil biome in organic grows that you don't have to worry about when using synthetic nutrients.
- Make sure that your environment is dialed in. If the environment is conducive for cannabis growth, that usually means that it's NOT conducive for pests. That goes for different bugs, molds, fungus, etc. Amazing how nature works! Temps, humidity, watering regime, and air circulation are the top 4 in order of importance for pest mitigation/control.
- As 9fingerleafs mentioned, physically removing leaves or plants that are heavily infested goes a long way. This reduces the population significantly and will help a lot in causing population collapse.
- To help make sure that future grows don't run into the same problem, think back on what a possible source could be. Did you use soil that had eggs in it? Maybe you used a clone that had eggs on it? Do you use your watering can to water houseplants that might be infested? Did you wear shoes into your tent/grow area that might have had pests or their eggs on them? Did you have a friend who grows in your tent who may have inadvertently introduced them to your grow? There are lots of possibilities and you may not know for sure, but being aware of the pest vectors will help for the future.
The good things:
- As long as you start now and are persistent in your multi-pronged approach and you keep at it even after you stop seeing pests, it's likely that you can recover and have a strong harvest.
- Pests happen to every grower eventually and it's easy to think that it's all your fault. What is important is that you learn from it and use that knowledge on subsequent grows!
- You're doing a good thing by reaching out and doing research so you should be proud of that too!
Keep us posted with how it goes!
