Submitted by RANGERDANGER : The problem with beneficials: They're expensive They aren't for heavy infestations And if they do kill all the pests, they'll all starve to death and when you get pests again you need to get more. When using any insecticide, it's essential that you use it every 3 days for 2--3 weeks. Insects go through 4 stages in their life: egg, larva, pupa and winged adult. Some of those stages they're not on the plant but below it. Insectiside are meant to work on adult pests. So if the spray kills all the adults there are still eggs larva and pupa still alive. If you don't repeat the spray every 3 days for 2--3 weeks you'll never get rid of them. Currently the best/safest insecticides are: neem tree oil and pyrethium-based sprays, insecticidal soap and homemade pepper/garlic sprays. For tiny f insects an ionizer is effective. Because the life span of most plant pest is so short, it's essential that you switch insecticides if you have an on-going problem. Pests build up a resistence to a specific insecticides. A few may survive because of a resistence to specific insecicides. The ones that survive the sprays will produce progeny that also have this resistence. I once had a real bad whitefly problem. They developed a resistence to the product I was using. I came up with a free, totally safe )but time-consuming) way to get rid of them that may work for you if you have the same conditions as I did. The outside nighttime temps were about 50 degree's F. Every other night for 2 weeks I would take the plants out at night and spray them with a fine mist from the garden hose and leave them there for about 15 minutes before bringing them back inside. In a growroom you are creating a perfect environment not only for the plants but for pests as well. If you create a temp. hostile environment the pests will leave. Something else: Don't spray insecticides on budding plants. It will make the buds taste nasty and will leave dead insects in/on the buds which you don't want to smoke. When you switch to 12/12, the plants are 'tricked' into thinking winter's on it's way and it's time for the plants to bud. This also tricks the insects and they start producing huge amounts of eggs. A friend of mine got through the budding process by using a vacuum cleaner daily to remove the adults. A better way to deal with insects than killing them before they become a problem is giving them a light spray of insecticide every 2 weeks to prevent them from establishing themselves. Also, prevent them from getting into the growroom by wearing clothes in your growroom that are only worn inside the growroom to prevent them from hitchiking on your body from outside. addendums: After spraying with insecticides, go back the next day and spray with plain (or better yet sparkling) water to prevent a build-up of insecticides from clogging the plants' pores. -Don't spray when the HID lights are on. The droplets can act as a lens and burn the plants. Best time to spray is about 30 minutes before the lights come on. -If you do get pests, spray the walls and floors and all other surfaces with water to which a bit of bleach has been added between crops. btw, spider mites aren't insects; they're arachnids.
