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Toxic aphid treatment

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I looked it up. Captain Jack's is just spinosad. I use spinosad but i get conserve sc. It's WAY more concentrated and cost effective.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to bother aphids much. Murders thrips, caterpillars, and a bunch of other stuff. Doesn't even touch aphids.
 

FletchF.Fletch

Well-known member
You are absolutely right. Aphids are about the only bug not listed anywhere on the package or the instructions. Funny how a spray can destroy one thing and be like mouthwash for something else. Thanks for correcting me.

Used to use a rotenone and pyrethrin combo as a heavier punch if insecticidal soap didn't do the job. Sounds like you've tried most stuff though. Best of luck!!
 

Stinkhorn123

Active member
Indoors I was able to wipe them out with Bonides All seasons dormancy oil. I had to dip clones to completely eradicate them. I did get some photo toxicity from being a little heavy handed. Outdoors the oils and soaps work well, as does just blasting them off with water but still they always returned.
 

tilopa

Member
I know there are more than one subspecies of Leaf Aphids, but I had the white ones, that liked to hang out on the stems more than the leaves, and they were the easiest pest I've ever had to get rid of. And they did not do much damage to the plant anyway. They did multiply at an insane rate though.

What totally knocked them out was Pyrethrins, which is in monterey gardens take down. But it sounds like you've already tried that.
 

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
The Mammoth brand thyme oil has been tested. It wiped out the spider mites but it didn't control the aphids. Slowed them down quite a bit but they're resistant. It's strange to me that aphids are such a problem, 20 years ago they were the weakest of pests and spider mites were the primary menace. Times have changed..

I'll run through a few chemical and biocontrols I haven't tried. Nicotine is suppose to work excellent against aphids. Imidacloprid, a synthetic nicotine, works well against quite a few types but won't control Aphis Fabae. Two synthetic insect growth hormones work against aphids, Buprofezin and kinoprene. Deltamethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, kills aphids, especially when sprayed in small drops instead of large drops. Small drops may enhance toxicity for most pesticides.

But it seems pesticides work poorly against aphids. Biocontrols, especially fungal, seem to work better. Parasitoid wasps, lacewings, two spotted ladybugs, a midge fly called Aphidoletes aphidimyza, there's a lot of aphid predators that work well.

I'd choose fungal myself, especially indoors. Botanigard Maxx seems to be the way to go. It contains the fungus beauveria bassiana which I mentioned in a previous post, lethal to insects, and pyrethrin for a double whammy. BackOff contains a soil fungus that infects the aphids through their spiracles, their breathing apparatus, and also through their skin. Infected insects stop feeding and die in 4-10 days. It then emerges from the dead hosts to infect other aphids.

These aphids are so nasty it seems like a mix of methods is the recommended way to go. Use a fungus for instance then a toxic poison to wipe them out at the end. It seems like the war against the enemies of cannabis is an endless arms race..
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
You are the man Rev! That's some good info.

I have always thought of aphids as pussies! Just a mild nuisance that came around now and then. Never struggled to get rid of them. These new aphids are just gangsters! I am just so surprised.

So deltamethrin is the synthetic pyrethrin you would choose? I wanted to try a synthetic pyrethrin so i got permethrin. Do you think the delta is better? U have any idea what the application rate should be?

So backoff is applied to the soil? Do u know a bit about it? Does it grow and keep living? Any downside?
 

TanzanianMagic

Well-known member
Veteran
These aphids just seem like they aren't going anywhere. You can spray for them and i don't see them for a little while but they are never gone. I don't want to keep spraying forever. Pyrethrin definitely ain't doing it. I have some permethrin i was about to try but i can't really figure out application rate. Is there anything toxic that works? Like forbid or avid. Like a systemic insecticide. I have to get them off my mom's.
I never really had a problem with aphids before. They were always easy to get rid of.
Try this multiple effect:

1. Mix a quart of tapwater with 10 drops of pyrethrum (or the recommended dose), add half a teaspoon vegetable oil, and enough drops of liquid dishwashing soap to dissolve the vegetable oil.

2. Spray with a fine mist first to get all the leaves, then with a stronger hose to flush them off the plants as well.

3. Make sure your sprayer is extremely clean. Take it apart, put it in bleach, and rinse thoroughly. Or better, take a new sprayer that has never been used. There is nothing worse than killing a plant with mouldy water (which I've done once) after months of growing.

Aphids are soft bodied insects, and they dry out because of the liquid soap. They're not difficult to get rid of.

4. Spray with hotsauce and liquid soap a week later as an anti-feedant.

5. If you want to go to the expense, get some predatory mites at put them out a few days after the hotsauce treatment.
 

xerb

Member
Hey Mr Yuba,

Walk along the Yuba River until you see lady bugs in the air, follow them until you find thick masses of them on
the ground in the grass and foliage. Fill a big garbage bag with leaves and bugs.
When you get them back to your grow, Mix a Coke or other sugary soda 50/50 with water and spray them down,
As the sugar dries it will make their wings stick together and keep the ladybugs from flying away for a few days.

Apply them directly to your plants, anything you can do to contain them will help - a tent perhaps?

Watch for ants, these are often the real culprits, they move aphids onto your plants, setting up aphid farms
where they feed off the sugars the aphids exude.

A ring of fine dry ash around the bases of your plants will keep ants away, the ash sticks to them and
smothers them.

XERB

You might want to knock as many off as possible with a water/peroxide spray the previous evening
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I still haven't used the kontos. Its kind of scary stuff. Wondering if i should use it as a drench or foliar. Having that shit in my soil seems nasty. But most applications i have seen is as a drench.
it seemed like 1 treatment of avid a couple months ago killed them. But warm weather it's around the corner. I did see some damage spots down low just recently that are hard to tell if they are old or new.I'm wondering if i should follow up with the kontos before mixing the aphid plants with my others. Or just one more round of avid. I know pretty well how long avid stays in a plant. I have used it a good bit in veg and haven't failed a test yet!
Kontos could be in it forever.
With how hard i been seeing people fight these things, i want to be sure.

I have been trying to read about kontos. It's been around for a long time and it seems odd that I'm just hearing about it. I haven't heard the most promising success stories.

Anyone point me towards some more kontos information?
 

xerb

Member
Bayer pharma controls what Google allows you to find out about their product.

Sounds pretty bad to me. Tested on Africans first.

Not approved for Cannabis. Toxic to the environment.

https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/000264-01065-20110506.pdf

There are better natural solutions.

Avid? Really? Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

California's testing is getting more comprehensive and stricter all the time, why take the chance? XERB
 

MrMMJ

Member
Howdy Crushin' ! I think the last time I commented in one of your threads we were waiting to see if the dam was gonna erode away. Seems like everyone I know here has been battling aphids since last season. Here's my go to IPM spray, works on just about everything. Azasol ( water soluble azadactrin ) Take down (Canola oil and pyrethrin, their fruit and nut tree version has neem instead of canola, which is too thick and clogging for me) Garden insect ( spinosad ), and Dawn original soap. In a one gallon Hudson fogging sprayer: 1tsp azasol, 2capfulls takedown, 1 ounce garden insect, 1squirt of dawn (probably about 1 tbls). Every 4 days up to buds starting to form = no bugs, no mildew. I also circle the outside of the GH with Ortho home defense to keep the ants from coming in, as they are the ones trying to bring in the Aphids to herd and tend to on your plants.
Good luck, stay cool, it's going to be 109° Thursday :hotbounce
 

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f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
I used to run a uv insecticutor. I would leave it on an extra 10 minutes after lights out, making it the only light source. Some glue boards beside it had a good catch.

If they just keep coming, then it's a control method. Perhaps you could also filter the inlet air to.

Bayer do 'provado' which was baccy based. It's reformulated with a slight name change now. It offers 4 weeks of protection, but is for hard skinned fruits.
 

Dankwolf

Active member
I had a crazy afid infestation two years ago . I used captain jacks first day then dawn soap and neem second day then just water . Repeated for 9 days and fuckers were no where to be seen . Seem to like my skunky plants the most .

At least I am pretty sure that's how I did it . My Memory is a little cloudy as I get older lol . I am sure exact treatment is in my journal from December 2019 .
 

TanzanianMagic

Well-known member
Veteran
These aphids just seem like they aren't going anywhere. You can spray for them and i don't see them for a little while but they are never gone. I don't want to keep spraying forever. Pyrethrin definitely ain't doing it. I have some permethrin i was about to try but i can't really figure out application rate. Is there anything toxic that works? Like forbid or avid. Like a systemic insecticide. I have to get them off my mom's.
I never really had a problem with aphids before. They were always easy to get rid of.

Aphids are vulnerable to soap, because they're softbodied insects that can easily dessicate.

What I know works against many pests:

1quart of water
a teaspoon of vegetable oil
enough drops of liquid dish cleaner to dissolve the vegetable oil in water
10 drops of pyrethryn.

This combined attack - flushing by water, suffocation by oil, dessication by soap, and paralysis by pyrethrin, is enough to knock back most pests.

Alternatively...

Make what I call 'kombucha' (no scoby) from sprouted seeds or growing tops.

1 emptby bottle of Jack Daniels (for instance)
1/5 of sprouted seeds - hemp seeds can be bought in fishing stores by the bag
1/5 of cane or other raw sugar
fill with water until the neck to submerge all the sprouted seeds

Screw the top on airtight and put it in a warm dark place. Twice a week slightly loosen the top to let extra CO2 out, so the bottle doesn't explode. :) Or get a fermentation stop like they use in the beer industry.

Use a top to a gallon of water.

Sprayed on leaves, it is effective against many pests. I can only guess why - the sugar feeding bacteria in the pests, the strong scent of fermentation (it smells/tastes like lemonade/wine/vinegar, so it doesn't affect the taste of the weed in a negative way).

It works on most media, however it is best in combination with supersoil or compost, and while using paramagnetic rocks, sand and loam.
 
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