Cleaning up after root aphids

[Mendojoe]

So I've never had a serious pest problem with my little indoor runs I've done until this run.
I must have bought a clone that was infested or soil maybe? Too late to worry about it. Well this time I got root aphids in a White Widow,then they spread to the other 2 plants. They are about ready to harvest in a few days & the buds look great but they raped the fan leaves,every one almost turned rusty/yellow & fell off during flowering & the leaves that are left are very yellow except for the small leaves on the buds. Every time I water the little fuckers wash out into the saucer. I tried neem & pyrethrin soil flushes early in flower with little sucess except slowing them down. I have since given up & just treated the plants normally,although the fan leaves suffered huge & the yield on the Widow & Blueberry was def. affected from these little bastards.

So anyways,I am thankful to have been able to salvage this harvest organically with some good looking buds,but I don't ever want these suckers in my room again! I am lucky the didn't kill the plants & with a few more weeks untreated they probably would have.The Widow def. seems prematurely ripe,it is at about 7-8 weeks but well done & resiny,a little leafy,seems the other 2 strains have better bud,but I am wondering if the aphids are responsible for the early ripening,cause I thought Widow could go 10 weeks & at just under 8 it is pretty much done,95% of the pistils have turned,calyxes are swollen & leaves are rapidly declining.

My ? is what do I do now to my little closet space? It is carpet,with mylar on the wall & plastic tarp on the floor. I was going to replace mylar & plastic,wash down walls/fan with cleaner & vacuum carpet well,then throw away all the pots I used on this run & get fresh ones. Do I need to do anything more extreme to keep them from coming back? Should I bomb or do anything else? Or are the eggs/bugs all in the plants & soil I am going to trash as soon as I harvest? Thanks

 

[BigSwifty]

I've heard that you need to clean up pretty well after these bastards... just like you do for spider mites. I would get one of those pressure misters.. the ones you pump up and then it shoots a consistent mist... I've seen them for as low as $10 at Walmart. I would spray the entire room down with bleach solution. Since these fuckers really piss me off, I would probably go so far as ripping up the carpet if I was able to. Carpet is a good spot for eggs to hide. However, vacuuming might work, I'm not sure.

Here is what I definitely would recommend though. I saw this product the other day at the hydro store. It was an Orthene (Acephate) fogger. I read that this is one of the most effective chemicals against them. In the one study I saw it had a 100% mortality rate. This is a pretty nasty chemical if I'm not mistaken, so I'd do some research. For example, if it's a closet in your bedroom I may think twice (although if you can air it out before you return it may be OK).

Lastly, I would inoculate your soil with Beauveria Bassiana fungus (Botanigard) to prevent them from developing high populations in case they do come back. You could also use nematodes. I'm not sure which works better, but I'm going to try them both. If chemicals are your think you could treat them with the systemic Imid early on in veg. Good luck!

Hey, I'm in the same situation as you... right now I'm at 4.5 weeks and just trying to get through harvest. When did you start to notice your symptoms and when did you realize you had them? What product/dosage did you use for your pyrethrin soaks? Please let me know as this is what I'm using and I'd heard it worked pretty well... sounds like it didn't for you.

EDIT: Here's a link to the Orthene TR fogger. I think I'll definitely use this in my room between grows, but my room is in the far corner of my basment and enclosed:

http://www.horticulturesource.com/product_info.php?products_id=1185

 

[Mendojoe]

Thanks Swifty. The good news here is I'm not going to grow indoors again until next fall,so I hope the eggs can't stay dormant that long.
I cut yesterday & then trashed the stumps/soil,the pots,the mylar,the plastic floor tarp the plants were on & sprayed/wiped everything down with organic cleaner & then vacuumed up real well.

I realized I had these little fuckers just before I flipped to 12/12,I vegged for 5 weeks & the plants looked very green & bushy,overall healthy,but the ocassional bottom leaf was turning rusty & then falling off,looked like a lockout deficiancy,but I have never had such problems & the pH was fine. I assumed gnats or overwatering cause I was vegging with flouros. Then I noticed when watering heavily one day a bunch of little purplish balck aphids were in my saucers. Oh shit,now what,well I just flipped to 12/12 so I gave them a few neem/pyrethrin organic soil drenches over the course of a few weeks. It definately slowed them down & they let up,but then they came right back full force.

Once the buds started to really develop around week 5 I didn't want to continue drenches, organic or not,so I flushed the plants a little & then resumed a care free,normal treatment. OMFG did the fan leaves tip curl & then dye by the day,I got pissed caused I have a green thumb & this shit was out of my control,but I just kept an eye on the flowers & although they suffered a little you will not notice in the final dried product,but they started killing the plants around week 7-8 when the buds were finishing up,they just looked beat up,I kind of ended up trimming most my leaves by the end,some made it through but they killed 80% of the big/medium & even the small fan leaves. The buds look good & hella frosty with nice healthy small leaves,but I know the yield & overall look of the plants would have been much better without these fat fucks munching down my roots.

I examined the roots of the white widow,the worst infected & the source of the problem I believe before I trashed it & it was nasty,there were little tunnels they ate,brown roots they killed & a bunch of the little shits in the soil,trash,trash,trash. Onto outdoor season & hopefully next winter they won't bother me. I'm going to stay away from chems,I always do organics,but I may try the botanigaurd next time,but it's pricey. Good luck,I'm sure you will make it to harvest,but it's just kind of like winning a race while someone is peeing on you the whole time you're running or something,these things suck & I will be on the lookout from now on. Hopefully the eggs won't live for months,does anyone know? I threw out the tarp anyways,the eggs would mostly be in the soil or on the tarp not in the carpet underneath.

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

even the strongest insecticides have been knowc to be resistant to root aphids, they are hell on indoor garden earth. some immediate contact killers for pupae, larvae, flying aphids is a mixture of water & natural tobacco. you simply buy a pack of american spirits or go to a cigar shop, buy the cheaoest seaman's tobacco & soak that in water. once the solution looks like a boston lager in color, its ready. if it is guiness colored, thats going to be toooo strong & you need to water it down. I always apply the nicotinic acid mixture with 1 gallon of water yo each plant, then after 15 mins or so, i flush with another gallon of my normal nute mix/water. i don;t like leaving the tobacco juice in their for flavor reasons. this works well on contact!

for preventative or long term, nothings better than diatomaceous earth or DE. sposedly food grade is best, but the one time i tried it a yr ago, i dont know whether it was industrial or not, it truly did work best. it is fossilized sea bed creatures crushed up into fine particles. this sandy like mixture punctures the exeskeltons of any insect. so, it prevents the pupae from crawling up, & the adults from going down. so, you mix into your medium a little bit & then layer the top portion .5-1" of str8 DE. This is the common instruction of DE usage. most say a layer of perlite does the same, as well. I am currently testing a thin layer of perlite with .5" of desert sand on top of my medium. i hope the desert sand mix is sharp enough to kill those fricken devils.

 

[BigSwifty]

Good luck,I'm sure you will make it to harvest,but it's just kind of like winning a race while someone is peeing on you the whole time you're running or something,these things suck & I will be on the lookout from now on.

LMAO!!

Yeah, I think if you are aware of these things and use preventative measures then they won't cause as many problems... at least I'm hoping!! I had no idea about them and discovered them 3-4 weeks into flowering.

I just had to kill my worst infected plant today... and 2 more out of the remaining 10 appear to be yellowing up rather quickly. I will say that my pyrethrum and nicotine drenches appear to do the trick though. I tore apart the soil of my most affected plant and inspected it very thoroughly and couldn't find a single aphid!!! So something worked.