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Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

Has anyone ever tried the product Rid-Bugs. It's made by OAP, the same folks putting out one of my favorites, Ppd. It contains 25B Oils 9.0%, Fish Oil 91%, and works by " RiD Bugs works by attaching to and dissolving cell wall proteins that are characteristic of a broad range of pests. RiD Bugs basically breaks down the glue that holds insects and some fungi together resulting in broad-spectrum pest control without risk of insect resistance developing."

Currenty I am using lots of nematodes and ogbiowar with decent sucess after an early Kontos and imid. It's very diffuclult fighting these guys outside because they have many places to hide .I have quite using chems and am considering ordering the rid bugs for when its time to go nuclear. Apparently you can reuse the run off from it as well.

Tried using a more basic product, Essentria but am now afraid of it after frying a few plants.
 
I checked a thread in another forum where a guy that had them used OG Biowar Foliar pack as soil drench. He showed pics before and after the treatment. Results were impressive :tiphat:
 

Corpsey

pollen dabber
ICMag Donor
Veteran
So far for me, it SEEMS that crab meal top dressed as shown the fastest results with having no crawlers or winged RA.
I used like 10 million nematodes(2 species), then one application mycotrol. Then the crab meal, so maybe it was multiple things. But I have had zero bugs for 6 days so far after the crab meal. Never saw that after applying the nematodes + mycotrol.I examined roots as well from a few plants.
 

kushgrower420

New member
well i got through about 80 pages and didn't see a definitive answer. i think it is a hypoaspis miles, but due to my previous round having r.a. i don't want to take a chance. a little background on my battle with r.a...
i previously had the small black r.a. last round along with the slightly reddish smaller version. in short i cleared my room out with bleach and multiple pyrethrin tr bombs before tossing anything back in. i did a preemptive strike with spectricide and bayer citrus in high dosage in veg. The same days i used the pyrethrin bombs on the garden as the drench. i am 16 days into the flip and have been using both biowar packs with good success. along with beneficial nematodes and monterey take down at 2% around the pots and surrounding area. just yesterday i did an sns 203 drench for an hr each table and came back in to a garden with these guys still alive and kicking. anyone with experience with these please chime in. i will also be using botanigard es tomorrow at 1 quart to 40 gallons. the images were taken at roughly 400x with a veto microscope.
 

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medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
well i got through about 80 pages and didn't see a definitive answer. i think it is a hypoaspis miles, but due to my previous round having r.a. i don't want to take a chance. a little background on my battle with r.a...
i previously had the small black r.a. last round along with the slightly reddish smaller version. in short i cleared my room out with bleach and multiple pyrethrin tr bombs before tossing anything back in. i did a preemptive strike with spectricide and bayer citrus in high dosage in veg. The same days i used the pyrethrin bombs on the garden as the drench. i am 16 days into the flip and have been using both biowar packs with good success. along with beneficial nematodes and monterey take down at 2% around the pots and surrounding area. just yesterday i did an sns 203 drench for an hr each table and came back in to a garden with these guys still alive and kicking. anyone with experience with these please chime in. i will also be using botanigard es tomorrow at 1 quart to 40 gallons. the images were taken at roughly 400x with a veto microscope.

Yes I have much experience. Those are some type of soil mite, most likely an Orabatid, and perhaps but slightly less common Astigmatid. The problem is there are thousand of species of those two so a positive ID is just not going to happen. Anyway here's my experience.

So I was having some root issues a while back in a RDWC system and happend to be looking at root samples under my 40x stereoscope (really wide field) and seen some little guys crawling around that look almost exactly like yours and I freaked out!

Ah ha! I thought I found what was fucking up my roots system and went caddy shack on those bastards. But I soon found that:
a) You can't kill them
b) They are mostly harmless

As far as point as a goes they are attracted to their food source. If you have an explosion of them i might concerned. For me I had root rot caused by the RDWC system that got infected. They eat stuff like decaying matter, fungus and mold.

And as far as them being harmless, that is correct, they don't eat your roots. And them being a vector for spreading disease is also not 100% accurate. They get around, to new pots, plants, gardens, etc., by a process called phorecy. That is the act of hitching a ride on a host. They (soil mites) often hitch rides on fungus gnats that are the real vectors for disease and the soil mites may assist however.
 

kushgrower420

New member
I wouldn't say there's and infestation. But they are definitely noticeable. These things are incredibly hard to kill. Sprayed them directly with take down spray at 1.5% and they laughed at me. I see anywhere from 2-15 per pot if I dig around the surface. I haven't noticed the root mass taking a hit with them in there. I am almost certain I have winged root aphids though so I will be finishing out the cycle with botanigard and biowar. With pyrethrin sprays for getting the flyers and around the pots.
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
I wouldn't say there's and infestation. But they are definitely noticeable. These things are incredibly hard to kill. Sprayed them directly with take down spray at 1.5% and they laughed at me. I see anywhere from 2-15 per pot if I dig around the surface. I haven't noticed the root mass taking a hit with them in there. I am almost certain I have winged root aphids though so I will be finishing out the cycle with botanigard and biowar. With pyrethrin sprays for getting the flyers and around the pots.
Those bugs in the pic are not aphids or an insect for that matter. Soil mites are incredible abundant and thankfully so. They're the single most important creature on earth, well unless you want a drastically different planet...
 

bigdog123

Member
I am here to diagnose some fuckery. I have had what I thought was fungus gnats buzzing around for a couple grows. They don't seem to do much harm so aside from setting sticky traps, I haven't paid them much attention.

I have some babies in week 2 of veg that are drooping a little more than I would like. This is my first time working with this strain so I'm not sure if it's to be expected. In any case, I begin looking into potential pests and freak out when I discover I may have root aphids.

I sliced some potatoes and placed them on my soil last night. The following photos are what I found today.

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Springtail?

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Larvae?
 

bigdog123

Member
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The Light/Clear spot, not the dark spot
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What do you guys think? Are those flyers fungus gnats or winged root aphids? How about the creepy crawlers? I'm still in veg and can hit the room with imid, if need be.
 

bigdog123

Member
Thanks for the quick response. What do you see that identifies these as fungus gnats and soil mites?

I have not done much research on soil mites. Are they harmful? What method would you use to eradicate them.

What method would you use on the fungus gnats?
 

bigdog123

Member
By the way, what you're referring to as soil mites were relatively fast. Also, they varied in colors. The smaller ones were clear and they became light brown. Some seemed to have a little red tint to them. I figured I would provide as much information as I could to help make sure we're making a proper diagnosis. Cheers.
 

moses wellfleet

Well-known member
Moderator
Veteran
By the way, what you're referring to as soil mites were relatively fast. Also, they varied in colors. The smaller ones were clear and they became light brown. Some seemed to have a little red tint to them. I figured I would provide as much information as I could to help make sure we're making a proper diagnosis. Cheers.
That mite looks like the beneficial predatory soil mite hypoaspis miles!... certainly nothing to worry about!
 

medicalmj

Active member
Veteran
One's clearly a flying insect and the other an arachnid. The arachnid (the small white one), which I have already explained, is a "soil" mite.

There are two main types I suggest you research on your own if you are trying to put a name to them, or at least some possible names. It's unlikely you will be able to know for certain the exact name of the white one but you might have some ideas. The two names you should consider first are Oribatid and Astigmatid (btw there are thousands within each). Of additional interest might also be Histiostomatid, which is a subgroup of Astigmatid.

Google this(you tube vid): Mites of the Histiostomatidae; Astigmatid mite in Baltic amber; Soil mites feasting; adult oribatid mite Collohmannia sp.; Histiostomatidae-Mites Mouthparts and Feeding

About these mites: Phoretic associations between these mites and insects allows for rapid dispersal and colonization of such patchy resources.

As to the insect, I don't know for sure but it probably is an FG. Show a pic of one on a sticky card so that we can see its legs and wings in relation to its body. And if it is an FG well you want to get rid of them because they are a problem. The soil mites are being carried around by the FGs. The FG larvae are eating roots and causing decay for which the soil mites clean up and turn back into nutrients.
 

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Mites have 8 legs, insects have 6. RA's have what looks like 2 tailpipes on their rear. That goes for flyers and wingless adults in soil. Their rear is rounded, stubby, with tailpipes. FG's rear is pointed. Good luck. -granger
 

bigdog123

Member
Mites have 8 legs, insects have 6. RA's have what looks like 2 tailpipes on their rear. That goes for flyers and wingless adults in soil. Their rear is rounded, stubby, with tailpipes. FG's rear is pointed. Good luck. -granger

I'm not convinced these pests have 8 legs. The two, long, front legs may be feelers, not legs. If they are feelers, that would mean they have 6 legs. They still don't have the tailpipes, which is promising. I have video of these bastards walking around. Link

If for some reason that link didn't work, here it is again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMLq78wGJS4&feature=youtu.be
 
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