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Russet Mites · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hi, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily with me, Dr. Russell Sharp,
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  and today we're talking about russet mites.
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  Russet mites are a type of arachnid.
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  Now, the main mite that causes a problem in hydroponics is the two-spotted spider
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  mites, or red spider mites.
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  But increasingly a problem are russet mites, and these are much smaller and they're not coloured,
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  and so they can be harder to diagnose and i
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  think often they will get misdiagnosed misidentified
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  as either thrip larvae or potentially springtails but they are an arachnid and
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  the one that affects most hydroponics crops is the hemp russet mite and that
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  affects hops and it affects legal cannabis,
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  and they belong to a family called the Ereophyidae, so not the most difficult
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  scientific name in the world.
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  They are the gall and the rust mites.
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  Now normally they produce galls, most of these species produce galls,
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  but the hemp rust mite doesn't produce galls, but it's still in this family.
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  Its scientific name is Aculops cannabicola.
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  Cannabicola, it's a good name isn't it and so it'll survive on many types of
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  plants but it particularly loves hemp and nettles and cannabis which are all
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  closely related so as i say it's much smaller it's torpedo shaped torpedo shaped and sorts of yellow.
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  This is a pest that you're going to need a hand lens for. They are extremely
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  small and difficult to observe.
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  The colour is almost translucent.
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  So as I said, they're elongated, torpedo-shaped, soft, segmented,
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  and the body is divided into two parts, the head with the mouth parts and the rest of the body.
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  And unlike most arachnids, which have eight legs, obviously spiders have eight
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  legs, camel spiders, have you ever seen those? Look horrific.
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  They've got eight legs. They look like aliens. these have
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  only got two pairs of legs so so they've
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  got four legs like a dog or a cat
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  so not an insect they'd have six legs so that's
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  interesting and you'd really would need a
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  very good hand lens or a stereo dissecting
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  microscope to count the number of legs though on a
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  russet mite its life cycle is fairly simple it
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  has eggs lays eggs on your leaves and then
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  goes through two nymphal stages so it has
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  an exoskeleton that emolts and then just turns into an adult
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  okay so larvae the first stage and
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  nymph the second stage the the eggs are
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  microscopic though you're probably not going to see them because
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  they are 0.05 millimeters in diameter
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  and 0.2 millimeters long so that is
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  crazy small just like red spider mites they
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  cause damage by sucking the contents of the plant cell open it
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  up for infection and just severely degrading
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  the the life of the plants it won't form a
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  web though like red spider mites so you won't get that
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  sort of enclosing of the growth and the curling of the leaves that
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  you get with red spider mites but your plants will become very stunted if you
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  get a severe infection so if you have not been inspecting your plants for pest
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  and disease regularly you're the first sort of sign that you've got russet mites
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  will be that Your leaves will suddenly become dull.
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  Greyish, bronzed, upwardly curl, and just become far more stunted. And you'll see it for...
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  It'll go through the crop if you've got lots of plants slowly.
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  Russet mites are more of a problem in the United States, I think, than in Europe.
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  I don't know, I've not heard of many people getting russet mites.
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  It will be one of these ones that you get in on clones, snips.
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  Cuttings, and so always quarantine cuttings.
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  Never, ever put cuttings into a grow room or a mother room for any crop type
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  without quarantine and for at least a few weeks to really stimulate,
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  the production of the pests and any mildews to show signs of disease or first
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  because you know as soon as they go into your room that's it you've got them
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  for life then unless you've got some really good eradication policy.
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  The good news is that all the methods of control that you would use for spider
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  mites are probably going to work for russet mites so especially the predatory
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  mites that you can buy and things like garlic extract and other things like you know Dr.
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  Hydro spider might control and things like that so they're they're
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  all going to work for russet mites russet mites the predatory mites
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  might struggle more though they will eat them but on
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  certain crops if you've got lots of trichomes then they can because they're
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  so small they can hide under the trichomes away from the predators which is
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  annoying and potentially in you know means that the control might be more difficult
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  than it would be for spider mites so that's something to consider I'd be interested
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  to know if UV light helps control.
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  Russet mites because they're so transparent i
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  would imagine they haven't got much in the way of pigments to help them protect themselves
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  against the uv light so it'd be
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  interesting to know what effect that has on on russet mites
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  they can become absolute infestations there are some horrible
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  videos and pictures on the web of russet mite
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  infestations that are pretty grim will you know give you
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  nightmares actually i've just done some more research there and it
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  says that hemp russic mites don't affect hops and
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  other closely related plants so maybe i've
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  been misinformed there so that's according to colorado
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  state university via google ai so i
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  might look into that a bit more but certainly lots of plants pests and diseases
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  do affect the two but in this case not so much as i say it's part of the gall
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  producing family the erio erio fidia and there are some amazing galls that produce.
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  So a gall is like, have you ever seen a leaf and it's got, it might be a green
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  leaf with like red spots, red growths on it. That's a gall.
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  And they can be caused by wasps. They can be caused by viruses and they can be caused by mites.
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  And the mites make the plant produce.
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  So the mites gets the plant to form the gall,
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  to feed the mites inside it and so
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  it gets the plants to produce certain hormones or the
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  gall mite might produce hormones and they're
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  plant parasites and they live inside these galls normally so
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  they might be bright red bright orange green on oak
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  trees they almost look like little acorns they're that big and some galls can
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  be massive as i say but the uh the hemp russet mite is unusual in it it's a
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  it's a gall mite or a rust mite that doesn't actually form a gall it doesn't
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  need to i suppose it just feeds like a red spider mite.
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  Not much is known about gall mites really, considering how impressive their galls are.
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  Only about 10% of the species are thought to have been named.
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  I'm from Warrington originally, and the museum in Warrington,
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  one of the very first museums, public museums and libraries in England,
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  and it had a massive display of galls and gall mites, probably the only one in,
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  for a fairly small town to have a museum gallery
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  dedicated to gall mites but there it was so that's how
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  i know gall mites originally don't think there was
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  any hemp russet mites there in that display probably too.
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  Small for it to make a good display so that's
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  been hydroponics daily for today hemp russet mites small.
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  Torpedo shaped mites that you might get in on your.
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  They might travel in on the wind as well i forgot to say they
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  actually can travel on the wind they're that small so
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  another reason to have a really good inlet filter but
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  you're probably if you're going to get them it's going to be on a cutting either
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  in the compost to grow media or on
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  the plants on the plants itself so quarantine your plants if
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  you do have an infestation treat them with either predatory mites
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  that will eat them or a good quality product designed
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  for spider mite control so red spider mite controls
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  will kill off hemp russet
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  mites so something like dr hydro spider mites
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  protection spray so the garlic base and
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  other additives and things like this so if you would like to know
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  more about russet mites if you think i've got this wrong if you
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  have any other interesting facts about russet mites
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  and how to control them then please get in touch that's been
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  hydroponics daily for today as i say i've been working on the
• 8:29
  the book of hydroponics book and
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  i think it's going to be really good i've got some really good ideas how
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  to make them super useful and really an easy reference for
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  growers so super excited to to hopefully be
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  bringing that out fairly soon not super soon because
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  i want to make a really good job of it but if you're interested we'll
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  probably have a pre-sign up and an offer for anyone who's a customer for gold
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  leaf in the us or liquid gold in the uk if you're already a customer of ours
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  then we'll look after you make sure you get a really good deal on that on that
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  book okay so thank you very much for listening today until tomorrow goodbye.