Broad Mites polyhagotarsonemus latus (Banks)
Broad Mites have been a recent unknown developing problem in the indoor community because of the Monoculture system I suspect (No Male plants to develop new immunities); they are small enough to be mistaken for deficiencies, or a virus in the plant. By confusing the grower with these symptoms they try to repair the plants in other ways which gives the broad mite plenty of time to win there war by population.
Discussions started to surface online in 2009 with the mmj community about a possible virus thought to be killing plants. A study was done in 2011 by Progressive Options due to the fact of the numerous "posts" from the community regarding these various issues with their plants; the suspect was TMV (Tomato-tobacco mosaic Virus). By requesting the gardeners who reported their issues online send in samples of infected plants. Research had found instead of a virus, Broad Mites were the issue. This isn't much better since both are rare to the Cannabis family plant experts think.
These are a few signs to look for by simple observation.
-Yellowing tops
-Slow/stunted growth
-Curling of new leaf growth (possibly no notice until notice large leaf curl)
-Pale Stem Hue
-Blotches/Destroyed Pistils
(You may notice that these are signs of common everyday things you can see in a grow)
Discussions seem to originate from the N. Cal area and quickly spread to due to cloning practices by the MMJ community. Most likely it was brought in a room as a cutting from an outdoor grower. Since N. Cal has the perfect environment for this plant to thrive, it's easy to imagine the broad mite population beginning to break genetic keys in the cannabis plant. Since plants are rooted they can only be moved by others. Once the Grower brought a cutting into an indoor environment it allowed the Broad-mite to spread having nothing to populate on other than cannabis plants which gave them the opportunity to break the genes even more in the plant to provide themselves many more host plants. ( my own theory)
Broad mites eat plant tissue, as they eat the tissues of the plant they release a toxin into the plant, this is what cause's the leaf's to curl. When you think mites you are usually able to spot them and a simple spray or predator mite, lady bugs to control the issue.
Well think again, these mites are so small you may be able to spot an egg patch with a 60X scope, I suggest a Duel 100x if not more. More than a dozen can move plant to plant by hitching rides on a single "APHID" aphid size is (1 to 100 mill--o.o4to 0.39 "). The other source of transportation is by wind, being at most 0.3 mm in size; it's easy to imagine what a breeze by fans can toss in the air for easy transportation.
With their Guerrilla War style tactics they can easily take control of their environment. Males are the first to move carrying new pupae to young new plant tissue, which immediately began to feed on the plant. Females emerge as males pass by to immediately mate, if a female doesn't mate she will produce nothing but male larva. This is how they assure their population, females also are known to semi-hibernate until a male host or breeze comes by.
Eggs are laid in single rows. This is the easiest way to spot the broad mite (most cellphone cameras can catch the eggs with their flash). One female can lay 40-50 eggs in her lifetime of a week. Eggs hatch around every 2 days, egg sacks are on average 30-70 eggs on a leaf surface. They are found in single rows around 0.08mm in length. Their egg lying period "Quiescent" is said to be around 8-13 days, which females live on average 8-13 days. Males live on average 5-9 days. Some might say that's a perfect cycle for reproduction.
