Gnats & Root Aphids in Coco

[BlindDate]

Hey Reckon......From your description it sounds like the infestation is pretty bad. I would wait a few days and dose again. Maybe up it to 10ml/gallon and get some fresh indicator cards in the room. Just be carefull not to get too aggressive. They are dieing. Also, that "gay" reference may not have been a typo We know little about him. (joking)


The beauty of this product is that so long as the plant stays unaffected and the bugs keep dieing, we can keep reapplying untill they are completely gone. Having a contact killer that works in the root system is priceless.

 

[reckon]

Hey Reckon......From your description it sounds like the infestation is pretty bad. I would wait a few days and dose again. Maybe up it to 10ml/gallon and get some fresh indicator cards in the room. Just be carefull not to get too aggressive. They are dieing. Also, that "gay" reference may not have been a typo We know little about him. (joking)


The beauty of this product is that so long as the plant stays unaffected and the bugs keep dieing, we can keep reapplying untill they are completely gone. Having a contact killer that works in the root system is priceless.

yes, waking up this morning I'm still seeing lots of flyers, and baby adults, so pupae are hatching still,...I'm planning on hitting them again friday, and going up to 10ml/gal.

even if I kill the plants, it's not the end of the world,...I have all these strains at my buddies, growing outside, I can go get some clips to keep the "strain library" alive.

like I said if this ends up NOT working, I'm shutting the whole thing down till the bugs are gone.

I went and had a T-shirt made that sez :"GOT GNATS"?

 

[ShroomDr]

So can someone who has posted in all four threads give a synopsis or at least tell me if ive got it correct.

talking about Bayer Complete Insect Killer with B-Cyfluthrin and Imidacloprid.
It worked @ 5mL/Gal drain to waste.

Dont use it @ 40ml/Gal in DWC AND dont turn your pumps off for 22 hours with DWC crazy

I think i picked up that the 'Bayer Tree & Shrub' is just watered down, and 'Bayer Citrus' might not have B-Cyfluthrin. Im not sure about these two.

Im not sure ive seen anyone run them in a recirculating system, or at least state that explicitly.

Im thinking if 5mL/Gal worked in DTW generally a smaller application rate is better in a recirculating system.

Im not sure if its just a new person thinking, (more = better/faster, this is what i assume) i know i read that he read that application rate was fine (still way above rate listed on the bottle).

Please help me piece together these 4 threads...

 

[BlindDate]

Wow Reckon.....This stuff has a contact insect killer in it and gnats are very easy to kill. Are you sure they are not coming in from another source? Everyone has had success. Give them another soak and make sure you get all the media. I flood the buckets faster than they can drain so as to completely submerge the surface and then let it soak down.

 

[reckon]

yeah I've done all that, and there are still hundreds and hundreds of them,.....I've hit every drain, scrubbed everything clean of dust.

nope, I'm still infested,........and sick of this shit.

Gnats win!

I'm moving the chocolope to my buddies outdoor setup, and then shutting the whole thing down for a month or till they are gone.

this is fucked.

 

[puff adder]

I've Always had gnats. They've never been a crop-ender for me though, even when I had a lot. The root aphids really scared me though.

I use the mosquito dunks in my resevoirs, and this kept them in check I think, but it was obvious the gnats were also coming from elsewhere. I've seen the flying out of my dehumidifier, and out of the floor. I've shut the room down for a while but it didn't do a thing.

I used the Bayer Tree and Shrub in my new room battling root aphids. I followed up a week later with an Azamax soil drench.

This has also gotten rid of nearly all fungus gnats as well. It took a while, but the numbers diminished to near zero. Not sure which, or whether both the Imid and Azamax did the trick, but I'm glad to be rid of the gnats (and aphids).
This is coming from a proffessional fungus gnat farmer.

 

[BlindDate]

I completely changed all my coco, scrubbed the room, bug bombed the room, added Gnatrol, etc. and they would still come back. Look, Reckon, take a spray bottle, mix the 10ml/gallon solution, spray and watch. If they don't die then you have discovered some kind of a super gnat. But my guess is they WILL die, in which case, your gnats are coming from another place. This is not rocket science. How is the health of your plants?

 

[reckon]

The plants look fine, they always have looked fine, I just hate having a thousand insects in a 1 bedroom apartment every single night...........now after all this I only have a few hundred,...but I want them GONE,...I grew for the last 3 years bug free,...and then I got the bogglegum mum from a buddy, and the rest you know, so I want it back the way it was before my biblical level infestation.

I moved some plants to my buddies outdoor setup,.....I kept the 12 bogglegum starts (for my next crop), and the chocolope (I just can't let her go), but I repotted all those, and gave them a bayer soil drench

all this has gotten rid of MOST of the gnats,...but there's still 25-50 getting stuck on sticky cards every night,.......I found an old potato in a plastic bag that had fallen behind a shelf, THAT had a million in it,......now they have moved into the wall mounted A/C split unit,......so I got some natural peppermint/sesame/cinnamon oil based bug spray and doused the thing as best I could (the A/C sits over the BED, and when it's hot it's on all the time), and that seems to have knocked down the numbers too,...except the place now smells like a dentists office!

I still have a few coming out of the plants I have left, so I'm hitting them AGAIN today with another good 10ml/gal drench, since they are all in small pots, I should get a much better kill.

I have NEVER EVER had anything like this,....I had gnats before, but stickies, gnatrol soil drenches, and dr. doom foggers WORKED (maybe my gnatrol has gone bad, and they now have an immunity to pyrethrum?)

the bottom line is this IS working, just not fast enough for me,...I'll keep at it, and I know eventually they will be gone, and I did want to thank you BlindDate for the post, I never would have tried the bayer if it weren't for this thread.


these things ARE like the BORG

 

[BlindDate]

I found an old potato in a plastic bag that had fallen behind a shelf, THAT had a million in it,......now they have moved into the wall mounted A/C split unit,......so I got some natural peppermint/sesame/cinnamon oil based bug spray and doused the thing as best I could (the A/C sits over the BED, and when it's hot it's on all the time),

Well...keep at it and good luck. Just one thing, are you living/sleeping inside your grow room??

 

[reckon]

Well...keep at it and good luck. Just one thing, are you living/sleeping inside your grow room??

grow room is in the corner of the kitchen where the "breakfast nook" would have been: 4X5X8foot

clone closet is the bathroom "linen closet" 15X17X48 inches, with three shelves, mums on the lower, and the upper two for clones and starts

both have doors, but the bathroom door stays open for the cats, who's cat-box is inside (and no, gnats do not like kitty litter boxes, I checked)

so, no, I don't sleep with the girls, but they are just in the next room.

this morning I don't see but 5 or 6 fliers, which I killed,...and for the record, these are fungus gnats, AND a type of fruit fly, both in the chronomid family of insects (a buddy who's an entomologist, ID'd them for me), but I do NOT have root aphids

hopefully if I keep this up for another week or so, that'll do it.

 

[MacGyver420]

my biblical level infestation.

lol!!

hey just a question here; can i use this stuff in the coco on plants that are 30+ flowering? or is that a nono?

 

[kushie]

gotta kill the eggs and adults to stop the life cycle.
gnatrol for the eggs.
a dr doom or prythium bom for the adults.
I use dont bug me by fox farm to manualy spray/kill any remaining adults.

hope you kill em all

 

[lid]

cats can carry hitch hikers into ur room though

 

[reckon]

ok THIS is more like it!
only TWO fliers this morning, none in any of the pots, a couple around the A/C

I think I am getting somewhere

I wanted to post all this so others who "just can't get rid of those things", means you probably have a secondary infestation site (I had 3 others),...so be diligent, use the stickies as an indicator of WHERE they are, and seek out places they like to set up once you pour the nasties in the soil: drains, A/C units, UNDER the drain trays, fruit and veggies left sitting out, damp bathmats, check under beds and things if you have cats that like to haul stuff under those places and play unobserved.

if you have an infestation, remember they aren't JUST in the plants, these things have wings, and fly surprisingly far for a dust speck sized insect, AND a dust speck sized insect only needs a 1/64th" hole to fit through (smaller when they are newly hatched)

thanks again to all of ya that chimed in and helped out, hopefully this is it,..and I can get back to bogglegum,, and chocolope, so here's a couple of things I learned on my journey:

DIY yellow stickies: ok fuck those yellow sticky cards you get at any hydro shop are EXPENSIVE!,...I found you can make your own: you need "BRIGHT LEMON YELLOW" glossy card stock (available at any art/crafts/hobby shop), or anything WATERPROOF, that's lemon yellow, don't get schoolbus yellow, or caterpillar tractor yellow, or any other color yellow besides bright lemon yellow, or they aren't as attracted to it,........then go get some "TREE TANGLEFOOT INSECT BARRIER" http://www.amazon.com/Tanglefoot-300000684-Tree-15-Tub/dp/B000BWY3AA.
Spread the tanglefoot sticky goop on your lemon yellow cardboard as THINLY as you can (or it darkens the color), and there you go! home made sticky trap, any size you like.
I used a frosting spatula I had laying around to spread the goo, but an old credit card would work, so would a bondo spreader.
the tanglefoot goop never dries out and stays sticky forever,..and washes off with dish soap if you get it on you or your clothing.

EcoSmart Flying Insect Killer: this is an all natural peppermint/sesame/cinnamon oil spray, so it's completely safe around pets, food, children, etc., and most of these kinda products SUCK,....BUT, this stuff WORKS ON GNATS, they just hate it, once you wipe the stuff on a surface, they wont even land,.....I wiped the inside surfaces of the clone closet with it, and it drove the adult fliers out in minutes. I sprayed my wall mounted A/C unit with it, and shot a bunch into the drainage system, and the inside of the filtered intake, then ran it on full blast for a couple of hours while myself, the woman, and cats went out for a few hours, and now there's not a single bug anywhere near it.
for the record, we COULD have stayed, but the peppermint oil will make your eyes water like your cutting an onion!, so we just went out for a bit till the smell dissapated a bit
The only problem I have with it, is it makes my apartment smell like a dentists office!



"May the bugs of life never infest your schpookus". --Rabbi Rabinowitz

 

[superbolan]

I have had gnatrol go bad on several occasions, Now i just break up the dunks and add them to the top layer of coco. I still see one or two gnats but there population stays very low

 

[purpleberry]

Anything systemic I wouldnt use after 12/12, that stuff can hang around in the plant for 4+ weeks and isnt good for you to smoke. Azatrol works great for gnats and is more organic. I save the big guns to take care of problems in veg, after that you should be all organic.
Ive heard the soil avids are a bitch, ive seen them butt never had a big problem.

 

[BlindDate]

Did a Google on the EcoSmart Flying Insect Killer. Seems that it only repels, but does not kill.