Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

[darwinsbulldog]

Phylloxera

Here's this evil littler fucker personified:

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.

lol! nice thread by the way!

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

i had the winged root aphids, the greenlight, with imdbidymol (sp?) worked like a champ, went away, havent had them since.

followed the full directions.

 

[spleebale]

Continuing the discussion on disease:
I am increasingly convinced that RG was right about fungal pathogens being the source of the diseases that have ruined me over the last 6 months.

I think the weather turning around has played a role (being less wet and cold, plants drink more and humidity is lower) but that a few things I have done that have contributed to completely turning things around: A)Preventatively controlling the aphids from the beginning B) Using plant immunity-boosters C) Using Fungastop, Serenade and Aqua Shield as foliar applications (only one is necessary) to combat leaf pathogens D)Removing old, unhealthy, insect-damaged and diseased leaves routinely.

I still have a sad system that has been around since I started this thread (the one I was trying to save all along) and I am JUST NOW putting it into bloom and I do not have high hopes for it :-( - mostly because of how bad the mite problem has become while I was combating aphids, regenerating roots and laying off the sprays). While fighting that battle I have raised another round up in another area, only to have the WORST and FASTEST onset of leaf necrosis I have had anywhere. I have also set up again in the closet that did well last time even before I knew of any chems to use on the aphids - the ones in there now are doing well also (leaf issues started to set in, as I reported earlier - I panicked but applied immune boosters [half sprayed w/ B.F.-X, half with the yellow-bottle immune booster] and then anti-fungals [half with Fungastop, half w/ strong H2O2] and have been pulling off any necrotic leaves as they go - which have become minimal; essentially what you would expect in a healthy grow - just lower, older leaves needing to be removed).

I have seen a strong correlation between foliar sprays and leaf-necrosis, which has dropped off entirely since I started spraying with anti-fungals. (Notice I say anti-fungals instead of fungicides - although they do actually kill fungi, I am discriminating between the two as most fungicides are nasty/harmful chemicals). There was also a correlation between leaf issues and root aphids - where I was thinking before that plants had received a virus or other internal infection, causing the plant to give up its own leaves - this may be true, but I now believe the symptoms of necrosis were mostly acute at the leaf- level (a fungi spreading on the leaves themselves) and that the root aphids promoted it by massively debilitating the plant's ability to defend itself, thus making it susceptible.

This is all good new because it means (as I have confirmed experimentally) that a sick-plant is not a dead plant (in my case anyhow, there does not seem to be lingering internal issues - after the RAs are gone, roots are recovered and leaves are re-enforced/protected, the plant seems to be good-as-new... Recovering roots, however is the most difficult issue - so in my case I can only say I have brought plants back from leaf disease, not bad RA root damage).


I also have another decent piece of corroborating evidence: As I was taking off unhealthy leaves, I was using the garbage disposal to get rid of them. I happened to have two mother plants sitting on the counter RIGHT in front of the garbage disposal. At one point I shoved in so many leaves that it was sloshing and frothing up out of the disposal, churning all around in the sink. I thought: "I may be exposing these mother plants to spores from all these sick leaves - perhaps I should move them" - but feeling lofty that I have this leaf sickness under control and always looking to experiment, I left them there. These two mothers had never had RAs (that I know of) and had healthy leaves all-around for weeks. Then, a few days after the "experiment" - one of them starts getting a nasty, acute necrosis on a few leaves. -NO cuttings have been taken from these mothers yet, so unless a virus was spread to them by taking off leaves (perhaps from my fingernails etc) they should be in perfect shape. So that is a pretty good piece of evidence to me (along with the foliar-spray/necrosis correlation that went away as I used anti-fungals).

There seem to be SEVERAL types of necroses, however, (both within my own garden and across other user's gardens, based on shared pics) - as the pictures of various leaf diseases suggests. Most seem to be acute and spread out within a particular leaf and then to nearby leaves. One type seems to be particularly virulent and I think is the direct cause of the leaf symptoms I was seeing explode with the aphid population (as one particular set of leaf symptoms I referred to as "the signs" was always associated with the plague-of-doom, while others seemed to claim some leaves here and there at different points but not really be a big deal). This particular anthracnose/leaf blight I speak of starts in a few different ways, but typically with intervenal chlorosis on just a few leaves, often of the largest plants or those getting the most light. Chlorosis progresses as the leaf turns a more sickly colored green and then starts to shrivel/go necrotic at the tips, edges (margins) or often in the most chlorotic regions between the veins (this seems to happen after sprays and seems like a rapid-onset of the disease based on sudden ultra-favorable conditions for the pathogen, presence of new spores or both). There is never any yellowing that looks like nitrogen deficiency - just progressive intervenal chlorosis, a sickly-green color, papery texture and then anthracnose (leaf blight symptoms - necrosis etc).

The affected plants continue to grow and new tissue looks mostly healthy for a while as other leaves go necrotic; then the sickly-green color and papery texture spreads - the symptoms also seem to start popping up in all plants within the same system. All of the leaves take on a papery or leathery texture (having no gloss or shine to them) and many more leaves become necrotic. At this point intervenal chlorosis does not often even set in on other leaves before they start to become necrotic. In even the most advanced stages of this problem (when plants were still vegging) I have removed all necrotic leaves (down to relatively-nice looking newer growth) and re-potted plants and had them all bounce-back when thrown back under florescents (they seemed to hate the HPS). -Though I did a very heavy dunking on the roots before re-planting until they were mostly bare with just Clearex - this was before I knew of the RAs.

The above description was my experience when root aphids were present. I had symptoms of seemingly the same thing progress just as badly, however, in a different system more recently that has not had any aphids (I very thoroughly prevented them). In this system the symptoms were almost certainly brought on and exacerbated by repeated foliar sprays with the lights off and little air movement - my belief being that the spores are all over my house and that I allowed many of them to take-hold when I sprayed them and left them in the dark w/out circulation to dry. As the problems set in and the new leaf colonies began to create their own spores, more folliar sprays (I did them every few days) spread the new spores around and gave them perfect conditions to take hold. I had omitted SM90 and Neem Oil as I was concerned those were part of the problem; if anything they were probably the only thing helping to suppress it. I know much of this is conjectural, but I hope it helps.

-WB

 

[bobbyblaze]

I have the micro Root Aphids in my grow now. Does anyone know for 100% if these creatures lay eggs or give live birth. I hear that they are born pregnant threw out this tread then I hear of people worrying that they might have eggs from their previous grow.. Im just confused here.

 

[spleebale]

Bobby: unfortunately it is not completely clear, as we have not been able to compile a lot of info about the different types of RAs (there are clearly quite a few and we have been generally treating them all as one entity). We have mostly been assuming that they all have a similar life cycle - we are basing it largely off the life cycle of Phylloxera, which I am pretty sure that none of us have (that have posted pictures).

It seems that root aphids in general have multiple different "options" in their life cycle for dealing with various conditions. I believe (but really do not know) that most types are able to either lay eggs (which are able to "overwinter" where they "wait" for optimal conditions to hatch) or are also able to (alternatively) give live birth without having to mate. I am pretty sure that it is mutually exclusive (that they reach a point in their life cycle where they either become a breeding sexual adult or a live-birth bearing female) and that the "decision" is based on environmental conditions (temperature, moisture, food source, population size, presence of chemicals). I am also pretty sure that the winged version is a pregnant, live-bearing female and that the "crawler" version can be either live-bearing asexuals or egg-laying and sex-distinct. -They seem to be pretty tricky that way (but again, I do not have certainty about any of this, especially as it correlates to any particular root aphid type).

Hope that helps, but sorry I cannot offer any certainty.

Thank you for joining our discussion, however, and we hope to help you and that you can help us further understand these little-known beasts ;-)

-Willie Broheim

 

[Fat J]

It appears that standard phylloxera as well as this (subspecies) cana specific do both. I'm pretty sure splee has it right, the crawlers can lay eggs and the fliers give live birth - its based on the stage of their life cycle. Tricky bastards!

Also- great info splee, ur really doing ur homework on these pathogens. I'm doing preventative sprays every round along with the imid treatment while in veg, gonna use what I used last time - the "orchard spray" with a small amt of pyrethrin and 10% sulphur as i hate oil sprays, always feel like im choking my girls, and this last spray it dried faster, caused no burn, no rot spots where moisture did sit overnight. I think the sulphur helped me a lot - its a great anti-fungal, and it lasts as long as its on the plant, but makes the room smell like sulphur.

I sprayed down all the panda walls too with it, prolly helped prevent spores from sitting on the walls. I have seen a couple come back on my girls I just chopped - right as I went to chop em I saw a few fly outta my fatty ripe plants, laughed and told em "too late shitheads!" ^.^ then I moved my exhaust to run thru my veg room with all my imid treated plants, told em they can have all they can eat in that room hehe.

But yeah, they're tough, they still will come back but then again i caught em late maybe next round they will be gone totally (though i doubt it)

Hey, about 3oz per 2gal girl, I would say my treatments were successful, hope I can keep it up.

Good luck all, and thanx again splee for the hard work ^.^

 

[bicycle racer]

Continuing the discussion on disease:
I am increasingly convinced that RG was right about fungal pathogens being the source of the diseases that have ruined me over the last 6 months.

I think the weather turning around has played a role (being less wet and cold, plants drink more and humidity is lower) but that a few things I have done that have contributed to completely turning things around: A)Preventatively controlling the aphids from the beginning B) Using plant immunity-boosters C) Using Fungastop, Serenade and Aqua Shield as foliar applications (only one is necessary) to combat leaf pathogens D)Removing old, unhealthy, insect-damaged and diseased leaves routinely.

I still have a sad system that has been around since I started this thread (the one I was trying to save all along) and I am JUST NOW putting it into bloom and I do not have high hopes for it :-( - mostly because of how bad the mite problem has become while I was combating aphids, regenerating roots and laying off the sprays). While fighting that battle I have raised another round up in another area, only to have the WORST and FASTEST onset of leaf necrosis I have had anywhere. I have also set up again in the closet that did well last time even before I knew of any chems to use on the aphids - the ones in there now are doing well also (leaf issues started to set in, as I reported earlier - I panicked but applied immune boosters [half sprayed w/ B.F.-X, half with the yellow-bottle immune booster] and then anti-fungals [half with Fungastop, half w/ strong H2O2] and have been pulling off any necrotic leaves as they go - which have become minimal; essentially what you would expect in a healthy grow - just lower, older leaves needing to be removed).

I have seen a strong correlation between foliar sprays and leaf-necrosis, which has dropped off entirely since I started spraying with anti-fungals. (Notice I say anti-fungals instead of fungicides - although they do actually kill fungi, I am discriminating between the two as most fungicides are nasty/harmful chemicals). There was also a correlation between leaf issues and root aphids - where I was thinking before that plants had received a virus or other internal infection, causing the plant to give up its own leaves - this may be true, but I now believe the symptoms of necrosis were mostly acute at the leaf- level (a fungi spreading on the leaves themselves) and that the root aphids promoted it by massively debilitating the plant's ability to defend itself, thus making it susceptible.

This is all good new because it means (as I have confirmed experimentally) that a sick-plant is not a dead plant (in my case anyhow, there does not seem to be lingering internal issues - after the RAs are gone, roots are recovered and leaves are re-enforced/protected, the plant seems to be good-as-new... Recovering roots, however is the most difficult issue - so in my case I can only say I have brought plants back from leaf disease, not bad RA root damage).


I also have another decent piece of corroborating evidence: As I was taking off unhealthy leaves, I was using the garbage disposal to get rid of them. I happened to have two mother plants sitting on the counter RIGHT in front of the garbage disposal. At one point I shoved in so many leaves that it was sloshing and frothing up out of the disposal, churning all around in the sink. I thought: "I may be exposing these mother plants to spores from all these sick leaves - perhaps I should move them" - but feeling lofty that I have this leaf sickness under control and always looking to experiment, I left them there. These two mothers had never had RAs (that I know of) and had healthy leaves all-around for weeks. Then, a few days after the "experiment" - one of them starts getting a nasty, acute necrosis on a few leaves. -NO cuttings have been taken from these mothers yet, so unless a virus was spread to them by taking off leaves (perhaps from my fingernails etc) they should be in perfect shape. So that is a pretty good piece of evidence to me (along with the foliar-spray/necrosis correlation that went away as I used anti-fungals).

There seem to be SEVERAL types of necroses, however, (both within my own garden and across other user's gardens, based on shared pics) - as the pictures of various leaf diseases suggests. Most seem to be acute and spread out within a particular leaf and then to nearby leaves. One type seems to be particularly virulent and I think is the direct cause of the leaf symptoms I was seeing explode with the aphid population (as one particular set of leaf symptoms I referred to as "the signs" was always associated with the plague-of-doom, while others seemed to claim some leaves here and there at different points but not really be a big deal). This particular anthracnose/leaf blight I speak of starts in a few different ways, but typically with intervenal chlorosis on just a few leaves, often of the largest plants or those getting the most light. Chlorosis progresses as the leaf turns a more sickly colored green and then starts to shrivel/go necrotic at the tips, edges (margins) or often in the most chlorotic regions between the veins (this seems to happen after sprays and seems like a rapid-onset of the disease based on sudden ultra-favorable conditions for the pathogen, presence of new spores or both). There is never any yellowing that looks like nitrogen deficiency - just progressive intervenal chlorosis, a sickly-green color, papery texture and then anthracnose (leaf blight symptoms - necrosis etc).

The affected plants continue to grow and new tissue looks mostly healthy for a while as other leaves go necrotic; then the sickly-green color and papery texture spreads - the symptoms also seem to start popping up in all plants within the same system. All of the leaves take on a papery or leathery texture (having no gloss or shine to them) and many more leaves become necrotic. At this point intervenal chlorosis does not often even set in on other leaves before they start to become necrotic. In even the most advanced stages of this problem (when plants were still vegging) I have removed all necrotic leaves (down to relatively-nice looking newer growth) and re-potted plants and had them all bounce-back when thrown back under florescents (they seemed to hate the HPS). -Though I did a very heavy dunking on the roots before re-planting until they were mostly bare with just Clearex - this was before I knew of the RAs.

The above description was my experience when root aphids were present. I had symptoms of seemingly the same thing progress just as badly, however, in a different system more recently that has not had any aphids (I very thoroughly prevented them). In this system the symptoms were almost certainly brought on and exacerbated by repeated foliar sprays with the lights off and little air movement - my belief being that the spores are all over my house and that I allowed many of them to take-hold when I sprayed them and left them in the dark w/out circulation to dry. As the problems set in and the new leaf colonies began to create their own spores, more folliar sprays (I did them every few days) spread the new spores around and gave them perfect conditions to take hold. I had omitted SM90 and Neem Oil as I was concerned those were part of the problem; if anything they were probably the only thing helping to suppress it. I know much of this is conjectural, but I hope it helps.

-WB

more or less my same r.aphids experience before i understood the problem was ra's i thought it was either a ph issue pot size problem nutrient deficiency or over/under watering. same deal discolored mottled leaves which fell off and new growth looked yellow with yellowing between veins also the papery non shiny leaf appearance. anyways glad it is behind me now. to all reading be wary of unknown causes of plant problems if you catch ra's early you can revive your plants once there eradicated if you catch it late its very hard out of 8 or so plants only 4 survived after being cured as subsequent root rot had taken hold. for the root rot i used high dose h202 drenches followed up with hygrozyme treatments this was effective. the plants which survived were recently harvested yield was compromised but quality is good. i hope most can avoid these insects as they really do damage.

 

[bobbyblaze]

Bobby: unfortunately it is not completely clear, as we have not been able to compile a lot of info about the different types of RAs (there are clearly quite a few and we have been generally treating them all as one entity). We have mostly been assuming that they all have a similar life cycle - we are basing it largely off the life cycle of Phylloxera, which I am pretty sure that none of us have (that have posted pictures).

It seems that root aphids in general have multiple different "options" in their life cycle for dealing with various conditions. I believe (but really do not know) that most types are able to either lay eggs (which are able to "overwinter" where they "wait" for optimal conditions to hatch) or are also able to (alternatively) give live birth without having to mate. I am pretty sure that it is mutually exclusive (that they reach a point in their life cycle where they either become a breeding sexual adult or a live-birth bearing female) and that the "decision" is based on environmental conditions (temperature, moisture, food source, population size, presence of chemicals). I am also pretty sure that the winged version is a pregnant, live-bearing female and that the "crawler" version can be either live-bearing asexuals or egg-laying and sex-distinct. -They seem to be pretty tricky that way (but again, I do not have certainty about any of this, especially as it correlates to any particular root aphid type).

Hope that helps, but sorry I cannot offer any certainty.

Thank you for joining our discussion, however, and we hope to help you and that you can help us further understand these little-known beasts ;-)

-Willie Broheim

Thanks for the info..
I was also wondering.. I've had two experiences with these MICROS RA's.. The first time was on some auto flowing ak47, They didnt seem to affect the plant yield or quality at all, I did loose just about every fan leaf. I gave them Bayer Tree and Shrub, It didnt immediately do anything. It took about a month to make it so I couldn't find them, I dont know if they were completely eradicated.

My second time (dealing with them now) I didn't notice them until the 4th week of veg. The infestation wasn't as bad as my first encounter meaning the population wasn't as high. My first battle with them there was a moving sea of bugs on the top of my soil and 100s on the rim and pot itself.

I guess my question is, Its been 2 weeks since my treatment with Bayer T&S.. Im still seeing the real real small white/clear baby looking ones.. The day I treated I thought I saw bigger ones with a little bit of purple/red color by there heads.
So am I seeing new generations that keep spawning up and the Bayer T&S is working or am I just tripping?

 

[Sam the Caveman]

HOLY SHIT, I'VE GOT THESE MOTHER FUCKERS, AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE DECIMATING MY GROW ROOM, FUCK.

 

[Fat J]

Bobby, the bayer wont completely kill the eggs and if you over water after treatment it wont be effective. The imid gets taken into the plant tissues and when they hatch and nibble ur roots, they die, also they cant reproduce after treatment. It is more a product to end the life cycle than to eradicate them all at once. I'd give em more time... how strong did u treat and whith wich conc of imid?

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

HOLY SHIT, I'VE GOT THESE MOTHER FUCKERS, AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE DECIMATING MY GROW ROOM, FUCK.

greenlight imid @ full directions for 12" tall plants and 1/2 or 3/4 dose for 6-12" plants and 1/4 dose for small plants.
(somthing like an oz a gal. is full dose)

i had them in every plant everywhere. wanted to cry.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

Hey digitalhippy, my gf is out getting some right now. The Bayer tree and shrub.

Is one application enough or should I repeat it at certain intervals?

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

Bobby, the bayer wont completely kill the eggs and if you over water after treatment it wont be effective. The imid gets taken into the plant tissues and when they hatch and nibble ur roots, they die, also they cant reproduce after treatment. It is more a product to end the life cycle than to eradicate them all at once. I'd give em more time... how strong did u treat and whith wich conc of imid?

exactly. malathion isnt gona do shit. except kill the microbioligy.

imid @ full strength dose is best IME.

 

[BigSwifty]

Well, I made it through my RA-infested grow.

Came out at about 0.200 - 0.227 g/W. Not so great.

I'm scared to grow again now!!

 

[EatMoGrass]

My gardens fucked also. I'm not sure if its aphids or just a super strong and aggressive strain of gnats, but I'm bombing the crib after this harvest. I'm also destroying anything with roots. I'm even thinking of throwing out all my houseplants, some of which I've had for 8-9 years. I'm almost worried about the peppers I'll be growing on my patio.

And I'm still not even sure I have aphids. But whatever these fuckers are they are tough.

 

[puff adder]

Fuck Me!

I just potted up into 2 gallon pots, and discovered millions of tiny black crawlers, with a winged one here and there. They were all around and under the 4" pots.

I went and got Bayer with Imid (1.47% at 5ml per gallon)) and just rewatered the 2 gallon pots, carefully watering just the center 4" area, just enough to soak that area. Any more and I would have gotten runoff.

I surely hope this does the trick. I plan to give another application before I flip to 12-12.

I'm totally freaked out right now, starting over would really suck.

 

[spleebale]

Bobby: that sounds super-unfortunate. I am sorry for your woes. A few things (to CaveMan, too):

A)One treatment of imid will almost never cut it. Imid does not kill eggs or any bugs that are not eating (fliers, if you have them, don't eat, I don't think - but if I remember correctly no one with MICROS has seen fliers - perhaps this species lacks a winged version?) - One treatment has worked for some people, but I doubt it entirely got rid of the aphids; probably lowered the populations significantly so they could not bounce back before the plant was able to finish-up - it is unlikely that anyone has applied imid once and eradicated every aphid in their house/grow. Also - many people have severe problems from these bugs from only a very SMALL infestation (almost certainly due to other compounding pathogens/factors), so simply reducing the population for a while may not alleviate symptoms either.

B)I like Bayer Complete Insect Killer - it has B-cyfluthrin in it which is also a contact-killer and it has not seemed to harm plants or (presumably) microbiology in either soil, coco or hydro (as I have had healthy results while using it preventative). I use anywhere from about 20-50 mL/gal with it (usually about 40 mL/gal - which equals about 20 mL/gal of the Tree and Shrub 1.47% imid products). I think that DigitalHippys recommendation is good as well, since you should not need as much on really small/young plants.

Note: applying imid products does seem to shock plant to some extent; if they are healthy they get over it right away, where most people report a positive change in appearance (new growth etc) the very next day. If plants are unhealthy, imid treatment can stress them and cause them to stall (sometimes even induces outbreaks of pathogens, like fungal leaf issues). The most important thing is to be careful with imid in recirculating hydro systems; far less imid is necessary when there will be such repeated contact with roots (5-20 mL C.I.K or 2.5-10 mL T&S). It is also important to run the pesticides for only a short period of time (2-4 hrs should be plenty!) and then change out the res and run the system again. I would personally base the length of time and concentration on how "exposed" the roots will be to the pesticide; DWC/hydrofarm systems probably only need ~30 min exposure with very low doses (since roots will be continually soaked in the solution). NFT and aero type systems could probably use slightly higher doses and exposure time, and top-feed or ebb/flow probably a bit more/longer still (perhaps 2-4 waterings for such container-hydro or rockwool slab/Hugo cube systems). Using higher levels of pesticides than the system calls for or letting pesticides stay around too long can be a recipe for disaster, as plants do not like to be continually exposed to the imid products (even at low levels) for very long.

C)We have talked about "secondary control" measures and solutions - these have somehow fallen to the wayside where I think that they should be brought back to the forefront of discussion (especially given re-occurrence of infestations in multiple user's gardens). We all came to the conclusion that imid should not be used in flowering except for absolute emergency situations - In my book there is only one emergency situation which qualifies: the crop looks great and is still healthy but has a sudden infestation, signs of the plague etc. and is no less than 35-40 days from harvest.

Otherwise using imid in bloom (catching an infestation late/when plants are already unhealthy) will not likely save your yield and will likely still be around in unacceptably high concentrations, particularly in top (highest) buds. A secondary control should be used throughout bloom (every 2 weeks or so). The three top secondary-control products we addressed are:Spectracide Triazicide, Bti (liquid or lots of powder - "mosquito dunks" don't cut it) and Predatory Nematodes. Unfortunately Bti is very expensive in the concentrations required and some question its efficacy. Gamma-cyhalothrin (in Triazicide) seems to be quit effective but comes dissolved in basically gasoline - which is almost certainly damaging to some of the microbiology and possibly roots. Lambda-cyhalothrin products also work but take twice the concentration, as they are 1/2 as potent). Predatory nematodes are GREAT but are also expensive and take a little while to get-going (do not kill on contact). Botanigard is another natural, biological control agent, but also comes in petroleum. Mycontrol and Naturalis-O and Naturalis-L also contain the same biological agent (Beauveria bassiana) - I have not researched these. No one has reported as to the efficacy of Beauveria bassiana controlling root aphids yet, though I have mentioned to be cautious using Botanigard as it has ptroleum in it and also may harm microorganisms and or roots).

I think the BEST continual through-bloom control method would be to culture nematodes from a pack of predatory nematodes (so you don't have to keep buying them). (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora or Steinernema are probably the best choices - google them to buy them). I have not researched culturing nematodes and I would REALLY APPRECIATE it if ANYONE ELSE would look into it and share how we can do this easily and reliably at home, as I think it would save countless grows and provide a toxin-free alternative to our chemical methods.

Swifty: My condolences. I got .117 on my last yield - would have made me want to cry if I was not already expecting it. RAs were a problem but I mostly got screwed by the other pathogens associated with them. Do not despair! I know exactly how you feel - I was there for months! Knowing you have aphids from the start, however, can allow you to effectively control them as long as you stay diligent - it is not a battle when you apply imid in early VEG and then late VEG and then use secondary control through bloom - it starts to feel unnecessary (what is it I am controlling? I don't see any problems...) but if you KEEP doing it you won't ever see any... and if you stop, suddenly they are on top of you and you can't go backward in time to apply a control substance. HELP ME figure out how to culture nematodes! If you do I will give you MAJOR props and I can almost guarantee that two applications of imid (early VEG/late VEG) and then regular applications of nematodes will KEEP THEM GONE. Do not despair! Growing from fresh, knowing you have a problem is a different world than falling into it and trying to recover.

Eatmo: I am sorry about your issues too, especially that you cant figure out what you have, let alone kick them. I would try Bti and also Bayer C.I.K. - one of them should do it. You can also apply these to the houseplants - I would recommend doing it all at once to do a "full-sweep." Bti should kill ANY gnats. The C.I.K. should kill RAs and seems to prevent whatever the fast-moving, beetle-looking things are (assuming that the ones I caught are the same as the inscet I labeled Root Aphid and the same as you have, but these are just assumptions).

Puff: Runoff is fine (except that it gets more imid everywhere, if you are worried about that). It is just important that the NEXT waterings you do (when not using imid) do not runoff, as it will take the imid with it. For that kind of infestation I would recommend higher initial dosage AND using C.I.K instead, to do a thorough wipeout - otherwise you should probably do another application in a week or so. Good luck.

First person to post extensively about how we can culture nematodes gets Uber-props.

 

[puff adder]

I've read the thread and I read that Imid should be used alone. I JUST potted up, and I watered the plants in with nutrient solution, but then later watered just the centers with Imid.
What are the drawbacks of adding Imid to my nutrients?
I'm going to let things dry out a bit now until the plants throw more roots.

I will give another heavier application in a week or so, after a feeding or 2 and after the plants have settled in. THANKS very much for this thread and all the info.

 

[bobbyblaze]

I used about 25Ml to a gallon of Bayer T&S. Im in the 2nd week of flower with 7 weeks left to go.. Should I treat again? No I havnt seen any fliers maybe 1 but it could have been a gnat.

 

[jimbo99]

It sucks that so many of you are having problems getting rid of these things. i had the tiny white ones last month. Spectracide from home depot killed them all with one watering. I haven't seen one since the day i watered with spectracide. Instant death and the plants are doing much better.