Grow stores got bugs!!!

Well i always knew you could get bugs from bags of dirt, but never knew you could get spider mites from it. I did..

I bought 4 bags of dirt from a grow store acouple weeks ago, (my dirt storage spot is in my Flower room) well now my Plants in the Flower room have got some spider mites, ( i started seeing white spots on my leaves acouple days ago, now i see spider mites.


My veg room does not have a single bug, I spent ahour in the veg room looking at my plants zero bugs...........

but the flower room has them (it is also where i keep all my soil.) WTF.

How can i kill these bugs that keep fucking my garden up, before they get in the garden??? Hydroponics seems more enticing everyday.

This was a fairly new garden all started from seed, than picked mothers, 100% bug free. now i fucked that up buy putting store bought soil in the flower room.


Should i start oven baking my soil?

I had a problem with ROOT APHID's from ROOTS organic from the SAME store. fixed that problem, now i got spider mites from Ocean forest and/or happy frog.

I know it is from the dirt. veg room has zero bugs, flower room has more everyday????


anyways the store i buy my dirt from allways has tape holding there stuff together??? bags of dirt had a hole, and they had it covered with tape. cococoir had tape sealing it, and so did the perlite.....

I am beging to think they are doing this on PRUPUSS so they get Bussiness selling Bug control stuff????

I questioned them before on the possibillty of bugs in there soil, and THEY GOT ALL DEFENCEIVE, at the time i was cool about it, I was not acussing them, just merly metened it to them....


I am scared to plant any plants in this soil, inless i cook it or something. I dont want to bring the bugs in my veg room.

you should take it back like this lady did bags of soil into window funny.[video=youtube;3QjTIm-vSKg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QjTIm-vSKg&feature=share&list=PLE270FA9459BD69EB[/video]

Bleach your flower room and switch to coco. I've been using coco for almost a year now and haven't seen a single bug of any kind except for a couple of regular old house spiders

I am far from an avid soil grower but when I did grow in Dirt I would always quarantine my soil and hold it untill I felt it was clean and ready for use .. I have never had any pests that were soil related other than Gnats and Thrips .. And the soil I had was most likely infested during storage and transport before my purchase .

Grow stores can be a locus for all kinds of infections, both buggy and moldy. Everyone with those problems spend lots of time (and money) at those stores, and bring all their "friends" along for the ride. It pays to practice quarantine procedures after all visits and purchases to hydro stores and even dispensaries to limit exposure.Removing and washing your clothes is a good start, keeping soil and supplies cool and away from light is helpful, and never put anything into your grow without inspection and quarantine.

I use no pest strips in my rooms until 2 weeks before harvest and never have bugs and when I did have spider mites on my first grow I used the strips and it killed them all dead to never return. I also quarantine my soil in a shed with several no pest strips in there.

potsnoberry said:

Grow stores can be a locus for all kinds of infections, both buggy and moldy. Everyone with those problems spend lots of time (and money) at those stores, and bring all their "friends" along for the ride. It pays to practice quarantine procedures after all visits and purchases to hydro stores and even dispensaries to limit exposure.Removing and washing your clothes is a good start, keeping soil and supplies cool and away from light is helpful, and never put anything into your grow without inspection and quarantine.

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I help manage one and agree , the chances are there and even higher if you frequent a dirty store .. I make sure to bleach and sterilize my store while sweeping and vacuuming on a regular basis .. Only a stupid store owner would alow his place of business to become a nightmare like so . I have visited a few stores that made me walk right back out due to filth ..

I have been at this store for two years and I never have brought anything home with me . But prevention is everything and I practice it in the store and at home .......


The vast majority of Insect , Disease and fungal issues are passed by strain transfers sad to say , most people could care less and they sling sick std infested clones , especially here in Michigan ..Peace

I dont think it is a lack of cleaning on there part, I think it is intentanal. I dont know how stupid that sounds, I am pretty sure they are cuting open product and putting there bugs in the bag than tapeing it up. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me... I will never go back to that shit hole Grow shop. I have a short fuse, and i dont wanna get in any trouble.

Spider mites dont fucking live in the dirt, so someone put them there. and the plants closet to the bags of dirt are the ones i see white spots on.

I can kill the bugs no real issue there. it is just Fucked up that someone would charge you $20some dollars for a bag of dirt, and that not be enough for them they gotta Give you bugs in it so you gotta come back and buy insectisides, miticides, and fugacides. I guess you gotta make your money.

still not a single bug in the veg room. only where the dirt is.

I don't think it was intentional. I have friends who work at a grow shop and people always come in and bring bugs into the store. I remember 1 time I was in the store and a guy walks in with a plastic baggie and he is like check out these ladybug cocoons we check them out and on a fresh tobacco leaf were two lady bug cocoons and thousands of thrip eggs. We were like ahhhh you know those are thrip eggs.... He was like yeah its going to be the food once the ladybugs hatch.... It gave me chills and I had to go home and scrub down and wash my clothes. And they said people do this all the time, they will bring in a leaf and be like what is this bug...

Move u will be better off

so being a new grower myself, what can one do in an attempt to protect their grow from this problem. its currently cold as hell, would a 30* for 7 day quarrantine work in my garage, baked in the oven like mentioned above, or? i dont want to go hydro due to the added expense.

I grow in hydro but keep my mothers in dirt. The only time I ever got any bug infestation from store soil was Dr. Earth in a white bag. Within a couple days I had all kinds of thirps and shit flying around. The hellish scene could only be compared to what I imagine would be Courtney Love's crotch.

DemonTrich said:

so being a new grower myself, what can one do in an attempt to protect their grow from this problem.

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Well first off, take a shower and put on clean clothes before you consort with grow stores and other growers because "What goes around, comes around". And then when you get home, lather and rinse, to protect yourself against people who aren't so civic minded.

The rest is just layers of protection, as many as are needed to compensate for any problems you experience or anticipate. Quarantine materials long enough to lose hitchhikers, clean suspect packaging, store supplies in a cool, clean and dark environment.

Treat your flowering chamber as a "clean room" with cleanable surfaces and dedicated clothing and shoes just for that room. Filter your air intake and meticulously maintain temperature and humidity so as to discourage mold and many insects.

There is so much more, but like i said, it all depends on how much you know and how well dialed-in you are...

Bake soil in oven wtf

m4a2c0e said:

Bake soil in oven wtf

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Sterilelization with heat , its better than formaldehyde aye !

heat and extreme low temp kills bugs/organisms as well as pesticides and other harmfull shit i DONT want in my soil.

I remember sterilizing soil with a oven in high school for science class , the whole school just about vomited due to the vicious odors created .. It was epic !

Wouldn't baking your soil also kill the beneficial microbes that are present in there?

st0wandgrow said:

Wouldn't baking your soil also kill the beneficial microbes that are present in there?

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That's what I've wondered also...

Motorbuds said:

Bleach your flower room and switch to coco. I've been using coco for almost a year now and haven't seen a single bug of any kind except for a couple of regular old house spiders

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This is not true. Bugs like gnats and root aphids are very attracted to coco. In fact it makes a perfect environment for them because it stays so wet. Root aphids in my opinion are the worst you could get. They are the cannabis plague. They literally suck all the thc oils and saps from your plants. Tried coco it brought more bugs then my soil grow because it stays too moist in my opinion. Unless u add 50% perlite it can help dry out faster.