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Aphids. Outdoors

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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I think i have root aphids in some of my plants. Haven't had much time to check. I had aphids in my clone trays this spring and treated everything. Never had an issue with them outdoors before. I had a few plants that were not growing as they should. I looked at one of them and it had ants all over it. There Was a whole damn ecosystem on the plant. Praying mantis's. To me that means aphids. I think They could have been in the soil from last year feasting on the old roots because last year that container did horrible.
Im going to spray the plant itself with my usual mite cocktail. Forbid and avid. I haven't been on it like i should this year. But if i have root aphids outdoors, how the hell do i treat that much soil? I have seen a granulated bayer advanced for trees and shrubs. I would like to sprinkle it and water it in. Anyone have any luck with that?
Any suggestions you have, please remember that this is hundreds of yards of dirt. Unfortunately i have 7 gardens right next to each other and get cared for together that could easily be cross contaminated.
Thanks
 
EsterEssence

EsterEssence

Well-known member
Veteran
Ants farm Aphids, I use diatomaceous earth in a ring around the plant with ants. DE comes in many different grades, for ants I get it for pool filters...
 
H

HqFarms

Member
Ants don't farm root aphids, they just farm regular aphids. DE only works when it's dry. Make a barrier of cinnamon, crushed red peppers around your plants. Make a soap spray with peppermint, tobacco sprays work too. Find their mounds and poor boric acid down them
 
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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
have hundreds of lbs of food grade de, a dustin mizer to spray it, and a mask kicking around. I'm not worried about the ants. Easy cheesy. I'm worried about the aphids.
Hqfarms: Ants DONT farm root aphids? Only regular aphids? If that's true, what a relief. So ants aren't a sign of root aphids? Only regular aphids?
 
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HqFarms

Member
With more research I take that back they farm all aphids. I don't know what i was thinking. Even root aphids leave honeydew after they much on the roots. I was always told to think before i speak, and this is a time when some FloValleyOG got in the way of my thought process. Sorry for the wrong info at first
 
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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
One of the unhappy plants has tons of ants under the mulch and its not doing well. I really think it's some sort of root bug. Maybe i should post in the outdoor forum. They could be eating the chicken shit.. But why only that one unhappy plant. I see other bugs in there bit it's hard to tell if they are bad or not and i usually see little kritters in most of the dirt. They are so fast it's hard to tell.
I really need a bulk solution. Like lawn pest control in big bags. Or something.
It's got some sort of root pest that has honeydew. Don't see anything on the plant itself.
 
Crazy Chester

Crazy Chester

Well-known member
Hey, CrushnYuba,

Bayer Advanced "Complete Insect Killer" did the job for me. I had some kind of root pest. That pesticide killed them fast.

Nasty stuff, though.
 
C

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I think it's ok. I don't think i have root aphids. Think the worker just over watered the one plant. Ants were looking for water and maybe the chicken poop.
Removed the mulch and the ants disappeared.

Hqfarms: Pesticides are really just part Of outdoor growing. Things like root aphids and Russet mites can't be controlled naturally. Can't just cut down, ditch the soil and start over. Its a full year till next season and 10s of thousands in dirt. Also a looking time for chemicals to be out of the plants before harvest.
 
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HqFarms

Member
CrushnYuba said:
I think it's ok. I don't think i have root aphids. Think the worker just over watered the one plant. Ants were looking for water and maybe the chicken poop.
Removed the mulch and the ants disappeared.

Hqfarms: Pesticides are really just part Of outdoor growing. Things like root aphids and Russet mites can't be controlled naturally. Can't just cut down, ditch the soil and start over. Its a full year till next season and 10s of thousands in dirt. Also a looking time for chemicals to be out of the plants before harvest.
Click to expand...

That's comical you think chemicals are just apart of outdoor growing, which really shows what motivates you. You are the exact reason why I do my own and only trust a few people. Do some research and you will find out there are other ways. If i was wrong, anyone could enter the emerald cup and not get disqualified from pesticide use
 
C

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I'm not using imid. Turned out i didn't even have root aphids. I was just defending crazy chester.
Unless you have a better solution for pests like russet mites or root aphids, you can't judge him.

At this point Pesticides really are a part of commercial outdoor growing in northern California and that IS why people grow their own. I have friends that have lost whole seasons to russets. I use forbid 4f at the beginning of the year. All of my trim went to one of the New state legal extraction companies, and it was all batch tested. Countless samples and it was all clean. 4-6 months after spraying, that stuff is long gone as far as testing goes
 
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HqFarms

Member
Essential oils, mytrocol, bontigard, big time exterminator, ogbiowar foliar pack, a trash can, gas and a match, predatory insects. All of those ways are way better than chems. Saying chems is the only option is hogwash and a cop out. Do research on your pests and you will find chems is the worst option and also not all that affective
 
H

HqFarms

Member
CrushnYuba said:
If you have a non chemical solution for pests like
Russet mites, you should share them. It would save gardens.
Click to expand...

I did, look above your post.

I have tried to help people many times with russets but no one wants to listen. Everyone wants the quick killer. Heat treatments work wonders. Hot water dips work better than just straight heat. Sulfer sprays work great to slow them down but not really as a killer. The best rotation of sprays I found was mytrocol(bontigard), sulfer, big time exterminator, essential oil. Spraying every two days and don't forget to do a rinse after the essential oils because you will suffocate your plant if you don't. Before that rotation and between every other spray do a heat treatment. The key part to this is after you knock them down real good is to add predatory insects to eat up everything you missed. I say do my rotation for about 3 weeks and then use predatory insects. Keep adding new insects every 2 to three weeks after. If all of that is too much just tear everything down and clean with pool shock
 
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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
How do you do hot water?
My neighbors have tried just about every type of oil and oil based pesticide. Suffocating them just doesn't seem to work. The predator mites and insects didn't do much even as a preventative on healthy plants that didn't have them yet. Don't remember the name of the predator mite but it's the one through vital landscaping and was used with their whole program. The thing about my area is they survive in the trees and soil. If you had them last year, they Will Be back.
The only thing i have seen kill them is forbid 4f. The only thing i have seen knock them back is DE.
Have you personally used the hot water or other stuff mentioned successfully with russets? And do you think it would work outdoors? There is no option of tearing everything down and pool shocking outdoors.
I'm very interested on the hot water treatment.
 
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