Pests: Can you get rid of them completely?

[Chrellyboy]

I have just harvested early due to a whitefly infestation. My garden now consist of a mother and some clones which are also slightly infested.

I have treated them twice with a neem/pyrethrin mix instead of killing the plants entirely. Although the population was reduced, it seems some larvae are still alive.
Hopefully a few more treatments will take care of them; I assume the live larvae were unhatched at the time of treatment, and hence cannot take in the poisons.

Am I right in assuming that keeping a crop 100% pest free is almost impossible? I mean, you will inevitably drag something with you from the outside unless you change your clothes.
I believe the problem arose from some mistreated clones which seemed very infested at the point of throwing them out. Perhaps whiteflies are my karma for treating those clones badly. ;-)

 

[mr bub]

Whiteflies can be controlled without chemical pesticides. Use a three pronged approach- yellow sticky flypaper, mosquito dunks in your water, and insecticidal soap to spray around the base of the pots and fan leaves. If you can control their numbers, the damage won't be too bad.

 

[Granger2]

You won't control White Flies with dunks. They hang above ground. Rather than spraying, I would dunk them and also do an area spray. Do these apps 3-4 times about 2 days apart. Use Yellow Sticky Traps. Great for monitoring and they do kill quite a few WF's.

Insecticide Soap [buy the genuine article] is a good area spray. Be sure to get the containers including bottoms. Also, walls, floors, doors.

You can dunk the plants for 100% coverage, and it washes eggs off. Cover soil so it doesn't spill. Use Insecticide Soap, Pyrethrum, Essential Oils, Ag Oils. Any number of things work. Alternate.

Before dunking, I like to stand with sprayer ready, rustle the plants, and spray the airborne.

Then release Green Lace Wing Larvae, and Encarsia Formosa Wasps. Tiny, no sting. Before releasing any beneficials, get the population way down. Before long, you'll have forgotten about them.

If you are VERY thorough at meticulously spraying, Mighty Wash works really well. I never would have tried it if I hadn't gotten a free Qt. sample. Good luck. -granger

 

[Nes]

I was just talking to someone about this exact topic. I think keeping a crop 100% pest free is far from impossible, but pretty intensive. with the build out and maintenance costs of growing indoors, why not take full advantage of the opportunity to create a laboratory like environment?
all my air intakes have furnace filters rated for pollen and spores, i replace them when they need it, they're like 10$ a piece.
I do a lot of work outside with plants, and I live in the land of powdery mildew. Every day I change out of all outdoor close and shoes before entering my room. If I know I've been in a more high risk environment I shower too.
Its been 4 years since I've had PM or spider mites indoors. I've gotten Broads and root aphids though, from clones I brought home. I now have a dunk bucket and a quarentine zone for anything coming in. I try to catch and treat any issues there before they go any further.
It's all about identifying and eliminating as many vectors of contamination as you can.
Bio-security measures and practices are an important part of integrated pest management

 

[Chrellyboy]

Thank you for your input The pyrethrin + neem spray I used twice seemed to have killed off the buggers, but I was in a hurry yesterday and didn't get them sprayed as planned. Today I found a few of the pesky buggers on the top fan leaves of the mother. The clones still seem completely free of them. The fact that the bugs appeared only near the light tells me that heat is a big factor for their well-being. I can confirm that Fly-traps work great, and they have gotten quite a few flies in a short period of time.

I sprayed them again today and will do so again every two days for the next week. That and an added intake filter should hopefully take care of the problem. If not, I will have to try biological as Granger mentioned.

 

[one.sixoneeight]

Take a mosquito dunk, crumble it up and let it soak in a few gallons of water for a couple days. Water your plants with this water a couple times and you should be able to stop the life cycle of the flies. You can also crumble up mosquito dunks when mixing up soil and have them work as a preventative pest control.

 

[Treetroit City]

Take a mosquito dunk, crumble it up and let it soak in a few gallons of water for a couple days. Water your plants with this water a couple times and you should be able to stop the life cycle of the flies. You can also crumble up mosquito dunks when mixing up soil and have them work as a preventative pest control.

OP is talking about whiteflies, which lay eggs on the undersides of leaves. How is bti in the soil going to help with that?

If we were talking about fungus gnats, which lay larvae in the soil you're method would be valid.

 

[one.sixoneeight]

OP is talking about whiteflies, which lay eggs on the undersides of leaves. How is bti in the soil going to help with that?

If we were talking about fungus gnats, which lay larvae in the soil you're method would be valid.

You are correct. I should be a bit more awake before i offer advice.

Op, try spinosad, it kills most insects that go thru a larvae stage and it is a bacterial solution instead of a chemical pesticide.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Delphastus catalinae (predatory beetle)

*Encarsia Formosa (parasitic wasp)

Eretmocerus eremicus (parasitic wasp)

Amblydromalus limonicus (predatory mite) (also known as Typhlodromalus limonicus)

Macrolophus pygmaeus (formerly known as Macrolophus caliginosus) (predatory bug)

Verticillium lecanii (entomopathogenic fungus)

*Amblyseius swirskii (predatory mite)

I have used Encarsia Formosa and Amblyseius swirskii and gotten rid of all white flies, 100%, this was on hundreds of really big plants in a greenhouse. I was also using lacewings and lady bugs and yellow sticky traps. It did take time, prevention is easier. If you see one whitefly, you are late with prevention bio-controls. I have used Verticillium lecanii in vegetative state as it requires high humidity to be effective. Not for flowering Cannabis. Amblyseius swirskii is not affected by diapause and can be used during flowering.
-SamS

 

[cannabacca]

Great but where do you get al the bugs & what do you have to pay for a dozen ?

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

I buy them in the netherlands from koppert. You can check the prices.
-SamS

 

[Granger2]

U.S. -Buglogical http://www.buglogical.com/ Nature's Control-http://www.naturescontrol.com/

 

[Mikell]

Great but where do you get al the bugs & what do you have to pay for a dozen ?

There ya go little buddy