May 3, 2021

Spider Mites On Buds At Time Of Harvest – What To Do!

If you’ve spent the past few months picking out and purchasing your cannabis seeds, creating your grow environment, and growing your seeds, the last thing you want is to notice spider mites on your buds when you’re just about to harvest! If you’ve noticed spider mites, you might start to fear that all your work has gone to waste, but if you act quickly you might be able to save your harvest!

What Are Spider Mites?

If you’ve been inspecting your trichomes somewhat regularly you might have noticed spider mites, but often times they’re noticeable to the naked eye as well.

Closely related to ticks and spiders, these mites have 6-8 legs, and an oval shaped body. They are often a brown color but they also can have hints of green or red in them.

Spider Mites on Buds at Time of Harvest

Spider mites are a bad thing to notice on your cannabis grow because they get their nutrition by literally sucking the nutrients out of plants. This can cause your plants to wilt, your leaves to curl, and the overall health deteriorate which will affect your buds when you harvest.

Along with this, spider mites can reproduce very quickly, with one spider mite able to lay over 100 eggs at a time and can begin laying eggs at only 5 days old, so that means they can quickly grow to an infestation that will kill your cannabis grow.

How To Identify Spider Mites On Cannabis Plants:

Now that you know the importance of keeping your grow spider mite free, you’ll need to understand what to look for!

  • You plant isn’t growing as quickly as previous grows.
  • Your plants or leaves are turning a yellow or brown color.
  • Leaves have discolorations or spots on the underside.
  • Small white and silver webs on the leaves or stems.
  • Hold a white piece of paper under one of your leaves, and gentle shake the leaf, if you see specks of a dust like material fall onto the paper, then you might have spider mites.
Spider mites on cannabis buds

How To Prevent Spider Mites:

It’s far easier to attempt to prevent spider mites rather than trying to get rid of them once you already have them.

Below are our basic steps to prevent a spider mite infestation:

  • Keep your growing environment at the proper humidity and temperature. Spider mites are more prone to dry grow environments, so if you ensure your grow environment is the right temperature and temperature for your strain, this will help keep spider mites away from your cannabis grow.
  • Keep an eye on your plants! Just by occasionally inspecting your grow, you’ll be able to spot spider mites sooner, and be able to get rid of them before they reproduce and become an infestation.
  • Keep your plants away from other vegetation or plants which could become a gateway for spider mites. If you have other non-cannabis plants growing nearby, they can come with other insects that might be harmful to your cannabis plants.

How To Get Rid Of Spider Mites On Your Buds:

After you’ve discovered that you have spider mites on your buds before harvest, it’s time to act quickly so you can get rid of them fast and save your grow!

I always recommend using natural removal methods before using insecticides. Insecticides are often very effective, but they can be dangerous to your grows.

Naturally Remove Spider Mites From Your Buds:

  • Vacuum spider mites off of your plants and buds! Use a handheld vacuum on the lowest settings possible to gently suck the mites directly off your plants and buds.
  • Pruning infected leaves. If you’ve noticed that spider mites are on a few leaves but haven’t traveled to the rest of the plant, prune off the infected leaves to protect the rest of the plant.
  • Use ladybugs! Ladybugs naturally eat spider mites and they won’t hurt your grow. You can purchase ladybugs at a plant nursery to help protect your plants from spider mites!
  • Use neem oil or other essential oils. Insects such as spider mites don’t like the smell of neem oil specially, and it actually helps to kill them (slowly) as well as repel them.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I Smoke Weed With Spider Mites On It?

Although there haven’t been any medical studies on these effects, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’ve noticed spider mites on your bud you’re about to smoke, there’s a decent chance that someone also sprayed insecticides on those buds, so you definitely don’t want to smoke those!

Final Thoughts on Spider Mites:

Spider mites are a big concern when you’re growing cannabis and they can be detrimental to your grow. That being said, prevention is a lot easier than removal. So it’s important to be inspecting your buds for spider mites on a frequent basis to ensure your plants don’t have any of these pesky mites!

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Jacob


Jacob is the owner and lead author here at BudInformer.com.  He's been involved in the cannabis growing industry since 2012.  Based outside of Denver, Colorado, his passion involves sharing his knowledge of growing and the cannabis industry.

Jacob Hydra

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