Oh the persistent memories...
Maybe not chop right away but sacrifice to observation, even experimentation perhaps. E. G. with zero promises at least until fair investigation under a microscope has occured, literally... Though, quite frankly, i'm afraid in practical terms it's simply too late when "The Borg" has become visible to the naked eye!
When it happened to me i tried to maintain a lower temperature environment around infested plants which never recovered what was lost, but i think this slowed them down a tiny bit.
Now is about the right time to plan a strategy for the next session, too bad that's going to be my "bad news" part: it only takes one egg. On top of that the spider mites are capable of "diapause"; some kind of hibernation as i recall. In clear it usually means they win the time-based competition unless prepared, but in the end i keep wondering where's all the insect poop going... Because it's intended for human inhalation, right?
I did happen to have a theory when home gardening still seemed like an option. It offered no immediate remedy but once i had them, including in the fridge (...), i imagined it wouldn't matter as much if the plants were males intended to produce pollen, which ain't consumed anyway. The hobby alone would be welcome except i wanted the fun without any agravation, so the project was to experiment with "electrical water": colloïdal silver as an eggs killer rather than an ethylene-moderating "sex-changing" switch for autofems. From my past perspective the mere pleasure of enjoying the presence of cannabis plants would have been sufficient and i was ready to welcome such experimentation because somehow it seemed like a win-win senario. After all, i felt confident at 1 ~ 3 ppm a series of CS sprays might avoid hermaphroditism while still penetrating spider mite eggs; optionally with a time restriction in order to optimize a trade-off between its pesticide and seed-producing applications. Then the lessons learned could have helped finding a related strategy for females, thinking that your critter invadors have been there much longer than it appeared... In other words i was gambling on the premise that CS sprays followed an instant later by a proper water rinse would have attacked their reproductive cycle and hopefully even detered them away in time for the flowering cycle to begin in favourable cicumstances.
In the end i cancelled the show although i had patiently prepared a pair of plants for a comparative session, using a home-built CS generator which i considered low-profile (relatively safe).
In a worse-case scenario i might have turned blue from smoking bananas, literally.
At this point i'd point out spider mites are real easy to cultivate, multiply and observe... Have a good microscope and this may become some new enjoyable hobby!
Meanwhile it all boils down to determining if it's destined to personal use... Not to mention repuration is everything.
Good day, have fun!!
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