Mites in the soil but not on plant??

[darwinsbulldog]

hey guys i've recently just found a whole heap of white mites in the soil of one of my plants in a stealth grow box i've got inside, they don't seem to be on the plant though... are they going to be an issue or...? and if they are what's the best way to kill all of them? cheers

 

[darwinsbulldog]

think i'm just gonna grab some of this stuff and unleash it on the plant in the next few days

http://www.yates.com.au/products/pest-control/insects-concentrates/natures-way-insect-mite-killer/

 

[Norkali]

Are they tiny little whitish bugs that craw all over the soil and sometimes the pot edge? If so, I've got some bad news for you...root aphids.

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

First thing I thought man...... what do your leaves look like? Do you appear tohave a cal/mag issue? Yellowing?

There are soil mites that eat other bugs but root aphids are going around like the clap now..... we're all trying to cope.

 

[darwinsbulldog]

yeah they're little white guys runninga round in the soil... i'm fairly pissed if it is really bad news because i've bought all my soil sterilized etc, thought i'd taken all the necessary steps but obviously i haven't been careful enough. anything i can do to kill these bastards or am i f to the ucked?

 

[darwinsbulldog]

Are they tiny little whitish bugs that craw all over the soil and sometimes the pot edge? If so, I've got some bad news for you...root aphids.

sorry, yup white, all over the soil and edge of the pot.

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

Can you take some pics?

I have yet to find a sterile soil.....

 

[Hammerhead]

put a layer of Diatomaceous earth in the pot this will kill them or any other crawling insect.

 

[Ted Shred]

Word wtf is up with these things, I ve been deeling with them for a while too. Ive sterilized my soil by baking it, sterilized pots in between plantings, top dressed with misquito dunkers, and they always come back. just started incorporating neem oil into my regiment and it seems to keep the population down but one of my plants just started showing the rust spots and yellowing agian...and that sucks cause once their in one it seems like they're in all of them...

where do they come from?!

 

[jimbo99]

i had them too. Killed them all with spectracide from home depot.

 

[darwinsbulldog]

cheers guys, i've just cloned the plants out completely as i was about to move to hydro from soil anyway and i'm over spending money fixing soil issues. so got half a dozen clones from my power plant and another halfa from my white widow.

 

[Norkali]

cheers guys, i've just cloned the plants out completely as i was about to move to hydro from soil anyway and i'm over spending money fixing soil issues. so got half a dozen clones from my power plant and another halfa from my white widow.

I really recommend you read some of the threads on here about root aphids, there are two big ones in this section right now...you really don't want to see them coming back once you get everything settled in. They are nearly impossible to eradicate using a single remedy such as taking cuts and throwing away the bad plants; their size allows even just one or two to be left behind and within a week you will be back to square one (as they are all born pregnant, and reproduce asexually....) Welcome to hell; get ready to fight or give up. I recommend Azatrol, coupled with Pyganic II ($$$), and Diatomaceous Earth and/or Stickyfoot.

 

[Neo 420]

Have fun with the battle buddy. Below is the RA thread. I recommend to read and take notes.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=159960

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

put a layer of Diatomaceous earth in the pot this will kill them or any other crawling insect.

DE wont do shit, dont waste your time.

 

[Norkali]

DE wont do shit, dont waste your time.

Yes and no; it will not get rid of root aphids by itself, that idea would be absurd indeed. It does help as crawler prevention/isolation though - I would not give up my DE in the battle against RA's.

 

[darwinsbulldog]

cheers guys

 

[BBQ]

When you say white and are running around it sounds like you maybe have springtails. Not nearly as bad as root aphids or root mites. I would check some pics before taking drastic measures.

BBQ

 

[The End Is Near]

In all honesty I think you're worrying for no reason. Just save your money and grow like normal. I've had a similar situation(not problem) with too small to see critters in my medium(coco and perlite with Flora nutes). They affected nothing negatively and I think they're just some harmless whatevers that naturally colonize soils.

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

In all honesty I think you're worrying for no reason. Just save your money and grow like normal. I've had a similar situation(not problem) with too small to see critters in my medium(coco and perlite with Flora nutes). They affected nothing negatively and I think they're just some harmless whatevers that naturally colonize soils.

Definitely dont listen to this guy.

If you do, your entire grow will be ruined when your plants die three weeks from being ripe.

 

[bobbyblaze]

When you say white and are running around it sounds like you maybe have springtails. Not nearly as bad as root aphids or root mites. I would check some pics before taking drastic measures.

BBQ

Nope, Springtails jump high and far as hell, and they have long bodys like Thrips kinda.. Its easy to tell the difference between the two..

Where did you buy sterilized soil (and what brand)? I've never even heard of anyone advertising their soil to be sterile .. I wish they did because I would buy it..

I've had just about every kind of grow bug there is, Root Aphids are the worst bugs I've encountered I'm dealing with them now.. These things just don't die, The best control method I've used is Bayer Tree and Shrub, and heard real good things about Merit 75wp but I haven't used Merit. The Bayer T&S will kill them tho it takes weeks for it to work.