Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

[ozzieAI]

neem oil/azamax will get rid of them after a couple of applications of medium drenches....

if using pure neem oil ensure you use a wetting agent, azamax is fine...

here is a link to a thread i started years ago on the topic...https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=258456

good luck

 

[maryjanesdad]

Update: infestation was worse than I thought. Lost 2 plants in flower and 2 in veg soon to be 4. Sigh. I soaked the root ball for 30 mins in soapy water mixed with rosemary oil. I also covered the top of pot with a round plastic circle to prevent them from going back onto the medium and laying eggs. I also applied some tanglefoot to the stem so any that come down from plants get stuck (some climb the plants to avoid drowning and come back down stem).


Used to be so much easier....flip plants, feed em maxi gro, check ph once in awhile, and looked at em 4x a week and thats it.

 

[MattKKZ]

Phylloxera

Here's this evil littler fucker personified:
View Image

The only thing you can do really as of now, is to go back to clones and kill all of your moms. In addition, my moms got nematodes and Diamateceous Earth as they were being cut upon (for clones,) before their funerals'. All clones are being rooted in straight perlite which should hopefully serve as a deterrant for any egg-laying in the 'new life' of the room. Oh yeah, and there are eight blue and yellow sticky traps situated around the room....haven't caught one, these fuckers are smart too. Remember, the flyers are only the adults, the larvae/babies are little white crawlies that reside in the top inch or two of soil and all long the rootball/sides of pots, even down to the very bottom next to drainage holes.

Don't fuck around, go back to clones/seed, you will not win otherwise.

yeah man those things are hella nasty clean up begin again

 

[ScrogMonster]

I'm pretty sure I'm having a real nice RA party in my potted pot plants.

if you scare easy cover your eye's

Both my big plants in 15 plus gallons of soil/mix have been showing great signs of unhappiness for a while. Do these leaves say to you "help! my roots are being raped by Root Aphids!!"?

Some one please confirm.

Lemon Meringue 4 wks flower very sad

Tangelo... supposed to flower today when this pic was taken... maybe i throw in garbage instead, expressing the pain of RA differently... also very sad... please confirm leaf language.

 

[moses wellfleet]

The bugs in the first 2 pics are not root aphids. You may have RA but the bugs pictured are soil mites.

 

[calisun]

yes I think Moses is right. They look like hypoaspis miles to me. I got some bagged soil from eb stone once and it was loaded with them. I don't buy their soil as it seems like they are dealing with some problems in their soil. Hypoaspis miles are good guys

 

[unregistered190]

Like mw suggested, I also see a type of soil mite, which feed off decaying material and/or algae.

Plants do have that look though....could it be something else you have overlooked? pH issues can certainly cause the plant to look bad like RA damage.

Good vibes to you and hope you get on top of it soon.




@unregistered_one90 on Instagram

 

[Boyd Crowder]

damn if i aint got these beasties too
it seems like this pest is just like every other
in the canna world
it splts people into two camps
the nuke eveyrthing and start over
and the rest of us
im not tossing out my 6 cultivars
im going to start tho with a good boil of the root masses at 125F
then ima hit them with imid
then ima hit em with gch
then ima boil em again
them ima hit em with some skeeter dunx
and keep hitting them for about 3 weeks
i have only a 2x4 veg and some houseplants on the other side of the house
just gonna cleqn up
toss this coco and sterilize my pots, rooms and such
im not a commercial grower, i dont supply meds
so fuck the whole start over shit until i absolutely HAVE to

 

[ScrogMonster]

Is this related to RA? Egg nest? Or is this a mold or fungi or something?

Also, this a gnat or RA flyer?!

Thanks Moses and Calison, I googled Hypoaspis Miles and that’s definitely the bug in the pic. I bought lots of Gnatrol and Botanigard already and so I’ll be treating my soils for RA’s and Gnats rant way I know I have some of one of those at least.

 

[buzzmobile]

Those are both gnats. I do not know what the other stuff is. Could be slime mold.

 

[Pudgeman]

I work in IPM for a grow. We have confirmed root aphids. Been fighting them off for months now. Very restrictive laws so I am barred on what I can use. Have tried all the trifectas of the world, cant spray them on the root ball the oil chokes the plant out. PureCrop1 has worked well for us and provided a knockdown. We also use Beauveria Bassiana on a schedule soon to have enough for drenches. Our biggest defense has been using exclusionary fabric to keep them trapped in and stop them from flying up into the canopy. Never was an option to kill our plats and start over. Anyone out there have any more recommendations?

 

[Pudgeman]

As a follow up to my last post we also have used all sorts of beneficials such as atheta, chrysopa, assassin bugs, lady bug larva. We also use hypoaspis and swirskii as preventative for other pests. Finally we use a combo of nematodes.

 

[buzzmobile]

As a follow up to my last post we also have used all sorts of beneficials such as atheta, chrysopa, assassin bugs, lady bug larva. We also use hypoaspis and swirskii as preventative for other pests. Finally we use a combo of nematodes.

Were any of the beneficial organisms/insects effective at control, Pudgeman? I read that the nematodes assist in the dispersal of the Botanigard after a soil drench. Timing might be critical.

Is there a trade name for the exclusionary fabric? That's an interesting approach to control.

I wish I had something more to suggest.

 

[Pudgeman]

Were any of the beneficial organisms/insects effective at control, Pudgeman? I read that the nematodes assist in the dispersal of the Botanigard after a soil drench. Timing might be critical.

Is there a trade name for the exclusionary fabric? That's an interesting approach to control.

I wish I had something more to suggest.

We would find the green lace wing larva out thrashing crawlers and fliers that they came upon. Once they would become adults they would fly around the facility but not feed as much. The lady bug larva would eat as well but never made it to the adult stage or if they did they just flew up into the lights. The assassin bugs didn't seem to do much and are not pleasant to look at. We haven't spread atheta (rover beetles) in months but still see them hanging around. Again not too sure if they did much.

The nematodes at this point is anyone's guess. There is a lot of data suggesting that they actively kill RA but also data that shows they don't. We know for sure that they thrive in our plants environment though and hopefully they are helping spread the Beauvaria.

The exclusionary fabric is a one gallon paint strainer bag with an elastic top that we cinch down to the stalk. Most plants end up getting a second bag at some point because the roots will grow out the bottom of the bag.

All in all the RA are an issue but they really haven't caused many problems with our crop. Their biggest issue was adult fliers getting trapped in the buds that is why we are using the bags.

 

[cannascholar]

Great info Pudgeman. I have found great success with Biosafe's BioCeres which is a strain of Beauveria that is slightly different than Botanigard's yet half the price. I also used pfr97 which may or may not have been the silver bullet(more testing needed). Biosafe's Azagaurd(azadarachtin) was applied at 2ml per gallon(4ml when not tank mixed with fungus) in order to slow them down further.

 

[moses wellfleet]

We would find the green lace wing larva out thrashing crawlers and fliers that they came upon. Once they would become adults they would fly around the facility but not feed as much. The lady bug larva would eat as well but never made it to the adult stage or if they did they just flew up into the lights. The assassin bugs didn't seem to do much and are not pleasant to look at. We haven't spread atheta (rover beetles) in months but still see them hanging around. Again not too sure if they did much.

The nematodes at this point is anyone's guess. There is a lot of data suggesting that they actively kill RA but also data that shows they don't. We know for sure that they thrive in our plants environment though and hopefully they are helping spread the Beauvaria.

The exclusionary fabric is a one gallon paint strainer bag with an elastic top that we cinch down to the stalk. Most plants end up getting a second bag at some point because the roots will grow out the bottom of the bag.

All in all the RA are an issue but they really haven't caused many problems with our crop. Their biggest issue was adult fliers getting trapped in the buds that is why we are using the bags.

The nematodes I tried, steinerama feltiae, did absolutely nothing to the RAs, believe me I treated over a whole season at great expense.

If you have fliers turning up in your buds to the extent they are causing a problem, that is quite heavy pest pressure. There must surely be damage? Or are they only affecting certain containers and leaving others healthy? They are notorious for doing that, selective infestation?

 

[Pudgeman]

The nematodes I tried, steinerama feltiae, did absolutely nothing to the RAs, believe me I treated over a whole season at great expense.

If you have fliers turning up in your buds to the extent they are causing a problem, that is quite heavy pest pressure. There must surely be damage? Or are they only affecting certain containers and leaving others healthy? They are notorious for doing that, selective infestation?

We had very heavy pressure at one point. Literally spread across our whole grow. The only area that we have kept fully clean is our clone room. But they are not causing any wilting or plant damage other than them being stuck in our flower. They chew on the roots but it isn't causing us to lose any TAC or weight in our plants. At this point though save for random flare ups the bags are what is doing the most to help us. Helps target the pest for our sprays as they are trapped.

To your point with the nematodes we have been using them since November with no real conclusive data. At one point our beneficial tab was larger than I would like to admit.

 

[moses wellfleet]

Steinerama feltiae are extremely effective against fungus gnats, from personal experience. So it is possible the idea that sf work for root aphids came about when growers were confusing the two different pest species.

 

[smogo420]

I've read conflicting reports on whether or not winged RA's avoid you or not. Some people say Fungus Gnats are oblivious to you and are easy to remove; yet I am also reading peoples' experiences of RA's fitting this profile and infact Fungus Gnats are the quicker fliers.

 

[ozzieAI]

...or you could root drench with emulsified neem oil...