Ants In my roots!

[PiffGuru]

Ok, so I noticed recently ants have been getting into my grow rooms and have been perusing around my stems.. I noticed it getting more significant in my mother/clone room.. There numbers never got to high I would kill 5-10 a day and that would b it... But my mother plant has started degrading significantly recently... The mother is in a dwc bucket .. I noticed today when changing water that ants were sneaking in the bucket and walkin around on the roots that were exposed above the water...

I also see some white almost slug looking creatures walking around in there and I took the whole root ball out and put it under a facet and noticed even more all in the roots.. They remind me of mealybugs but smaller, Yet they must have arrived with or from the ants..

Any suggestions on how to prevent this in the future and is there anyway to treat the roots to get rid of em? I had neem oil but Im too much of a puss to spray that on tha roots..

 

[PiffGuru]

How long has this problem been going on?2 weeks
Are you growing in a PVC grow tent? (example: Hydrohut or any other non brand tents)Home made out of black/white poly
What system are you running? (DWC? Ebb flow? Aero? Water Farm? Flood Tables? and so on...)DWC
What STRAIN are you growing?Blue Widow
What was the establishing technique? (Were the seed or clone?)Clone
What is the age of your plants?3 1/2 months
How long have they been in there mixture they are in now?(coco,soiless etc..)1 week
How tall are the plants?27''
What PHASE are the plants in? (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in?Veg
What Technique are you using?topping
What substrate/medium are you using?(Hydroton, RockWool etc.)Hydroton/Rockwool
What is the Water temperature?75°
What color are your roots? White? Brown? Are your roots slimy?Whitish, tainted from bigbloom
What Nutrient's are you using?(If growing soiless)Fox Farm
How much of each nutrient are you using with how much water? *Knowing the brand is very helpful*Going by the hydro schedule for FF and using ~10% less than what they say
How often are you feeding? (If using soiless)1-2 weeks
What order are you mixing your nutrients? (example: veg nutes 1st, bloom 2nd ect)Each nute goes in independently
What is the TDS/EC/PPM you are using?~900ppm
What is the pH of the "Tank"?unknown right now
Are you sure your calibration is correct on your equiptment?For the most part
When was your last watering?Today
What is your water temps?~75°
When was your last feeding change? (ie. grow-bloom-micro-additional)Today
How often do you clean your system: example: Flush out water replace with clean water and nutrients?1-2 weeks
What size bulb are you using?4 27w warm cfl's and 1 45w cool cfl (recently took out the 45w to reduce stress on plant)
What is the distance to the canopy?15''
What is your RH Factor(Relative Humidity)?30%
What is the canopy temperature?79°
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include flucutaion range)10°
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.)Passive intake, 1 120cfm 130mm computer fan, 2 80mm fans for circulating
Is your water HARD or SOFT?Hard water, but I filter down to about 30ppm
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned off of or pinchedNo
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so, What and When?No
Are plant's infected with pest'sYes

 

[Cruzin]

I F'ing hate ants!

Two solutions

1) http://www.google.com/products?q=te...a=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4

This stuff works like mad. They swarm it for a few days like nothing else and ive had some flippin ant issues my friend, take it back to the queen and then she gets the poison!

2) Go to your nearest Oriental shop and ask for the ant chalk. Regular store stuff doesnt work. They might jerk you around like they dont know what you're talking about but they have it..trust me they all do.

Its crazy stuff if they walk through it you can pretty much watch them die. Or chalk a circle around them and watch the massacre. But really, just chalk the outside of your room and they wont come near it.

 

[Weedninja]

Ants are a pain in the ass. I've never seen them attack mj plants, but they can bring in other pests. It sounds like you may have root aphids AKA root lice. I've never had them, but I hear they're a bitch. I think that there's a sticky about them.

As far as the ants go, I think Cruzin has ya covered.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I F'ing hate ants!
This stuff works like mad. They swarm it for a few days like nothing else and ive had some flippin ant issues my friend, take it back to the queen and then she gets the poison!

Because the ants seem interested in water as opposed to food (or they'd be in your pantry) I'd try the liquid type.

I build corrals for the little bastards. Use low tack tape (painters tape, drafting tape) to draw a circle around the entry, draw a bead of petroleum grease on the tape (vaseline, axle grease) place trap in the corral. Works great on walls and ceilings. After they're gone, pull up the tape.

WARNING! The first 3 days you'll think all you've done is piss them off. Their numbers will be staggering. That's why you want a corral. With no entry blocked and an easy food source, they're less likely to search out a new entrance.

 

[lysol]

Ive had good results with that ant gel as well, it really is a big setup, they really think its thanksgiving lol

 

[Aleksis Stoned]

This is like an urban myth but seems to work on some ants atleast:

Build barricades with grinded coffee beans (any coffee, ants aren't that educated so you don't need those beans to be from blue mountains...) around your rooms. Some ants do not cross that line. Don't know why...give it a try. Hell you can place some plastic soldiers inside that wall and tell everyone that you are at war with the ant army!

 

[PiffGuru]

Thx for the responses everyone.. Im going to have to get some type of poison to stop these beasts.. and you guys gave me a good place to start.

Im glad Im not the only one with ant problems, If I could I would kill them all everywhere.. F the repercussions lol

Never heard of root lice but that would be the best name for what Im seeing.. I let this mother plant die so I can start fresh but still is a sad day..

 

[sticky367]

I have one plant in a 10 gallon outside flowering, I peaked under the pot to see if roots were coming out, I was surprised to see a bunch of ants have been entering the pot from the bottom.

growing in a organic soil mix that I kinda eye balled with materials I had around: worm castings, peat, red lava, rice hulls, organic chicken manure compost, decomposed wood fines, top soil, gypsum, oyster shell flour, dolomite lime.

Few weeks into flowering and some of the large fans leaves are turning yellow, everything else looks healthy and green, I thought I could be having a nitrogen deficiency, which is still very possible, but maybe these ants are attacking my roots or farming root acids, does anybody have some experience with this? or advice.. appreciate the read--Sticky