Hey all, sorry for the crappy pictures but it's tougher than hell trying to take pics from a phone into a 100x scope, lol. A few days ago, I found these crawling around in my coco. If undisturbed, you won't find anything, but if you agitate the pots they come out. My ladies, which are in veg still, seem to be fine but there are so many of them, about the size of a small pinhead. I've tried my luck at ID'ing them but I still can't figure out if they have 6 or 8 legs. I'm almost certain it's 8, but I just figured I'd get some photos up and maybe someone may recognize these little buggers. I am going to be inoculating my feed w/ sm-90, something I've been meaning to do for sometime now. Anyway, thanks in advance for the help. LMK if there's any other information that may help w/ this.
Soil Mites?
- Thread starter Cokezzz
- Start date
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If you don't mind going the systemic route, since you're in veg, you could just apply some merit75 @ 5ml/10gal of ph corrected water. Whatever they are, which is hard to say from pictures, rest assure they will be dead.
DEATH BY SNUSNU
Member
Are they fast or slow?
" eating the plants leaf or roots
" or fighting each other
any fliers or wings?
" eating the plants leaf or roots
" or fighting each other
any fliers or wings?
Thanks for the replies guys!
Any idea where to buy Merit75? Don't think Lowe's or HD carries it, should my local hydro store carry it? I was thinking Bayer Tree & Shrub if anything else.
Thanks again guys!
They are very slow. If left alone, you wouldn't even know they were there. But once I agitate the pot, they come out crawling around even on the pots. After a lot of sifting through the boards, I believe that they are mites and might even be bene's as I don't see any harm done to my ladies. They don't seem to eat the leaves or the roots, just kinda crawl around, lol. They don't fight each other and I haven't had any fliers.
I don't mind the systemic route at all. My issues with it though is that Merit75 seems to only work for RAs mostly? If it were mites, they seem to laugh at the stuff. But, since I can't even ID these things, maybe Merit75 now, let her dry up some then flip. As I mentioned, I'll be adding SM-90 to every feed as recommended by DHF and many other here as a sort of preventative and combatative. That and it seems to be just straight up good for the ladies. So w/ that, I should be able to contain these things if not eradicate them.
Any idea where to buy Merit75? Don't think Lowe's or HD carries it, should my local hydro store carry it? I was thinking Bayer Tree & Shrub if anything else.
Thanks again guys!
Actually, one more question as I was planning on flipping tonight, but after thinking about going w/ Imid, think I'll wait a bit. How long should I wait to flip? I'm a little worried that they may get rootbound and was hoping to go 12/12 nowish. But I also don't want to risk my whole crop going to the worm bin after a pest takeover.
Hey man I think those are just H. Miles... a predator/beneficial mite. Here's a pretty clear pic of the H. Miles I've identified. It's hard to say for 100% certainty because it looks like your specimen is kind of curled up. But the color and shape looks to be the case. If you could get a pic of one more spread out I could say for sure, otherwise, compare to this pic or google "H. Miles soil mite"
If your ladies look fine, I would skip an Imid drench. Most likely completely unnecessary. Folks have tried to get rid of these guys thinking they could be problematic and apparently are very hard to get rid of - and harmless.
If it were me, I'd just flip.
If your ladies look fine, I would skip an Imid drench. Most likely completely unnecessary. Folks have tried to get rid of these guys thinking they could be problematic and apparently are very hard to get rid of - and harmless.
If it were me, I'd just flip.
If you are still looking to get some merit75 you can get it on amazon.
I actually had an experienced grower friend check it out, and he come to the same conclusion as you. Nuking em without ID'ing em would likely just stress out the girls and I may still may end up at square one. I also read somewhere on the boards that if they don't have the "tail pipes" in the back, they're not aphids, end of story. I'm going to take it for what it's worth and just rule out RA. I'm also going to take you up on your advice and just flip. I was having some issues on what i though were either cal/mag or PH issues but after some testing, my PPM run offs were through the roof! I gave the ladies a good flushing w/ some drip clean and they have since perked up. I didn't notice these little buggers til after the drench but I think they were there helping to clean up whatever I had going on because after the flush, I went back into my nute regiment w/ a little over half strength and they started to get back their color. Thanks for the input!
ST's are definitely ruled out. They just don't have it in em to jump, they slow as hell, lol. The ST's also have a sort of larvae body to them where mine have a kind of beetle body.
I was hoping for something locally as I was trying to get er done ASAP. I think I'm going to order some anyway just to have on hand should the need ever arise. I don't ever want to feel completely helpless to RAs ever again :/ Thanks for the suggestion rambone!
With that said, I'm going forward w/ the flip adding SM-90 to the regiment as that was the original plan anyway. Thanks for all the help guys, I'll keep you updated!
I actually forgot to ask you Holdin, what kind of setup are you using to take these pics? It looks to be more than a 100x scope. I know my pic was the complete suck and I'm hoping to address the issue so if I ever need to take some zoomed pics, I could bring up something w/ some quality. The closest I've found was a cellphone case holder w/ your basic 100x scope attached to it. Heck, I couldn't even find one for my S4, I've only seen them for the S3. Thanks bro.
PS. Yea man, I always had to slightly crush it either behind my fingernail or in between my white cardboard paper backdrop. How in the hell did you get it to cooperate for some candids? LOL
No problem friend I'm always glad to help. I was pulling my hair out over these bastards when I was very uneducated on root critters in general - did a ton of research... positively ID'd as H. Miles, and rest assured, I've had literallly thousands of these critters will thriving, vigorous plants all the way through harvest. One thing I will say though, is they can be an indicator of a problem, being predators, they could be hunting fungus gnat larvae, or even eating decaying organic matter (roots). But no matter what way you look at it, they are beneficial from everything I've read.
You are very right in your previous post; drenching could harm your ladies more than anything.
If you want to correct your high EC before flipping to be 100% you don't have an underlying problem, feel free of course... but I'm sure you will take care of that!
That pic was indeed actually taken with a 100x scope, with a decent Sony point-n-shoot digital camera zoomed in.
Now I use a 150x USB scope, much easier! Pick one up on Amazon for $50 sometime - comes in handy and is well worth the $$$.
Good luck and good vibes to you sir
No problem friend I'm always glad to help. I was pulling my hair out over these bastards when I was very uneducated on root critters in general - did a ton of research... positively ID'd as H. Miles, and rest assured, I've had literallly thousands of these critters will thriving, vigorous plants all the way through harvest. One thing I will say though, is they can be an indicator of a problem, being predators, they could be hunting fungus gnat larvae, or even eating decaying organic matter (roots). But no matter what way you look at it, they are beneficial from everything I've read.
You are very right in your previous post; drenching could harm your ladies more than anything.
If you want to correct your high EC before flipping to be 100% you don't have an underlying problem, feel free of course... but I'm sure you will take care of that!
That pic was indeed actually taken with a 100x scope, with a decent Sony point-n-shoot digital camera zoomed in.
Now I use a 150x USB scope, much easier! Pick one up on Amazon for $50 sometime - comes in handy and is well worth the $$$.
Good luck and good vibes to you sir
Thanks man! Yea, I'm almost certain they're some sort of beneficial mite as the ladies are recovering quite well from the flush. A few still need a bit of calmag so I'm going to hit them w/ a foliar after this reply.
I found a bunch of USB scopes on amazon and almost pulled the trigger but! I found something really nice that I wanted to share w/ ya: http://www.microphonelens.com
It's only a 15x scope but it scales with the quality of your phone. I needed something that was more pick up and go so I ordered one to give it a try. I'll let you know how it pans out... and if it doesn't then I'll take you up on that 150x USB! Thanks again man!
they look like aphids to me. do you have any of the following:
ants,
fliers,
waxy cocoons on top of the medium,
anything that looks like an o2 deficiency / overwatering (old growth leaf loss, stunted yellow top growth, etc)?
and can you post pics of the plant in question?
the fact that you have these things in abundance and haven't introduced them leads me to suspect that even if they were predators, there is something in there that they're eating to keep populations up.
ants,
fliers,
waxy cocoons on top of the medium,
anything that looks like an o2 deficiency / overwatering (old growth leaf loss, stunted yellow top growth, etc)?
and can you post pics of the plant in question?
the fact that you have these things in abundance and haven't introduced them leads me to suspect that even if they were predators, there is something in there that they're eating to keep populations up.
