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Clover Mites: ever heard of them? You've certainly seen them! · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily. Today I'm talking about clover mites.
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  These are red mites that you might see in your front yard, on walls,
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  on stones, you might see them on your lawn.
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  They are getting confused with red spider mites. A lot of growers are getting
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  confused with these and red spider mites. They're a completely different species.
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  Red spider mites are not always red, that's why they're often called two-spotted
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  spider mites. they become red as they get older.
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  And red spider mites, tetronychus urticae, are a very, very problematic pest
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  on any crop, but also greenhouse and grow room, indoor hydroponic crops especially.
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  They eat the leaf surface, they form a web, they can destroy your crop and make
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  it unsellable and completely unusable.
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  Now, clover mites, which are the red ones
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  that appear on your on your driveway on
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  on walls and things like that they do eat plants but
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  they mainly feeding off um the lawn
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  or the clover in the lawn as the name suggests and yes
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  a few of them may enter your house especially during the autumn and
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  the winter when when it gets cooler but they're not
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  going to be causing an infestation on a
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  hydroponic crop and they're not going to be causing an issue in greenhouses
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  i've never heard of um a
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  infestation or problem with clover clover mites
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  they are easy to identify because they're bright
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  red compared to red spider mites which are a dull red they're they belong to
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  the genus bryobia which i've never heard of until i started doing this podcast
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  we had a inquiry yesterday from a lady who wanted to kill them and i said what
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  crop are you growing? What's the problem?
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  And she's like, oh no, I'm not growing any plants. So what problem are they
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  causing? She's like, um, they're not causing any problem. And so I emailed her
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  back and says, well, why do you want to kill them?
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  And she said, because I'm scared of them. And I said, well, that's not a justifiable
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  reason for killing another animal.
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  It's just because you're scared of it. So I refused to sell her any insecticidal soap.
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  But that is the way most people deal with it, is insecticidal soap.
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  But they are doing you no harm.
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  So just live and let live, you know, as the song goes.
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  What else can we say about clover mites? The name suggests they just clover, but that's not true.
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  They're polyphagous, as they say. the number of different plant species,
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  but not to the point where they become a pest.
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  Now if I had thrips hanging around my front door, which I often do because of
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  the thistles that I've got in my front garden, ornamental thistles called cardoon,
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  I've got loads of thrips arriving on my front door. That's not a great sign for my indoor grow room.
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  I have to make sure my tent has got a good inlet filter on it,
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  so I would be worried about thrips.
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  I'm worried about bringing spider mites in to my grow room
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  because of my clothes when
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  I've been out in the garden especially if I've been you know mowing
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  the lawn and things like that but I wouldn't be worried about clover
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  mites coming in so the bright red mites you see on the on
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  the walls don't worry about them a lot of people I've
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  seen on social media saying oh you don't see those bright spiders
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  you used to see on walls anymore what's happened to them you know oh
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  you know use of pesticides and things like that and it's
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  no they're still there i saw some today it's just
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  you're too busy sat in front of the tv on the sofa watching social
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  media and you get out there in nature you will
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  see loads of bees you will see ladybirds you will
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  see red mites on walls and things like this you'll see all sorts of things you
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  might see a hedgehog or something like that just get out there that's coming
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  from a hydroponics podcast that's been hydroponics daily for today bit off topic
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  but clover mites and what they are and and and what they do thank you very much
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  for listening until tomorrow goodbye.