Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

[Shmavis]

So I saw what at first I thought was a fungus gnat. No big deal I haven’t had trouble controlling them for years. But then I noticed just how many there were. They seemed smaller and faster than what I know as fungus gnats, but couldn’t identify it, which led me to this thread. It has me thinking they’re aphids, not gnats. Does that identification seem correct?

Gnat or Aphid?

If aphids, this is my first encounter.

 

[Headsmcgee1]

Aphid or gnat

Aphid or gnat

Aphid or fungus gnat?

 

[moses wellfleet]

So I saw what at first I thought was a fungus gnat. No big deal I haven’t had trouble controlling them for years. But then I noticed just how many there were. They seemed smaller and faster than what I know as fungus gnats, but couldn’t identify it, which led me to this thread. It has me thinking they’re aphids, not gnats. Does that identification seem correct?

Gnat or Aphid?

View Image

If aphids, this is my first encounter.

No.

The root aphids that I know are rice root aphids, rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale. The flyers are extremely slow and lazy, you can easily squash them with your finger if you find them sitting on the side of containers.

Fungus gnats on the other hand are extremely nervous and erratic, their flight path is zig zag. So if you describe a creature faster than gnats then I doubt it can be a root aphid!

 

[Shmavis]

No.

The root aphids that I know are rice root aphids, rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale. The flyers are extremely slow and lazy, you can easily squash them with your finger if you find them sitting on the side of containers.

Fungus gnats on the other hand are extremely nervous and erratic, their flight path is zig zag. So if you describe a creature faster than gnats then I doubt it can be a root aphid!

Thank you, sir!

I honestly couldn’t say how long ago it was I fought and saw (what I thought were) fungus gnats on a regular basis. But even then if I counted a dozen, that would be a lot. My memory could be off, but they were definitely larger, lazier fliers, and could be picked from the air to be squashed with fingers. They stayed near the soil and I don’t recall seeing them hanging out on fan leaves. So maybe what I thought then were fungus gnats were actually aphids.

These multiplied quickly, seemed to fly with purpose, and were found on fan leaves as well as the sides of pots and the floor of the tent. Smaller and much faster than what I recall seeing. Flight pattern didn’t so much seem nervous and erratic, but when observing movement on fan leaves, yeah. So maybe fungus gnats. (?) But I am pretty good about letting my soil dry out and not overwatering.

I realized just how many there were when I took the plants out to take cuts. Hung a pest strip and when I saw it collecting quickly, decided the seed plants were done for once the cuts rooted. Got some beneficial nematodes, mixed up a fresh batch of soil and took some other precautions... so far things are looking good for the other seed plants that were started later and I haven’t seen a flier in a couple weeks. Got my fingers crossed!

Thanks again!

 

[Ktaadn]

No.

The root aphids that I know are rice root aphids, rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale. The flyers are extremely slow and lazy, you can easily squash them with your finger if you find them sitting on the side of containers.

Fungus gnats on the other hand are extremely nervous and erratic, their flight path is zig zag. So if you describe a creature faster than gnats then I doubt it can be a root aphid!

You must have a different type than what I have, because my root aphids are much more lively and cunning than any fungus gnat. Fungus gnats tend to be slow and lazy fliers.

*Looked em up and the rice root aphid is far different from my pest, and what many others seem to be dealing with. The ones I have are much more slender, quick, and seemingly even intelligent (scary little bastards they are).

 

[Buttercup726]

I’m on page 334. Reading about Weeezard and the dryer sheets and I’m still clueless on how to battle these things. Well maybe on clueless but it seems like nothing works.

I think I might go the og biowar foliar pack? Reviews on this product

 

[Granger2]

You should use Foliar Pak and Root Pak; 1 heaping Tbls of each repeated every week to 10 days for 2 months if you want eradication. Good luck. -granger

 

[SaToRi_GrOwS]

I had these fuckers from a clone I brought in from someone I trusted but they fucked me with their dirty plants took a couple months to just take control of my whole grow I had to cut down all the mom's I had and I carefully took clones from them put them in brand new domes and moved them to a different house. then we bleached everything!!!! I mean we bleached every little tiny thing that we had in the room or we through it away like the AC I got a new one. New fans. We re sealed the room re painted and re bleached THEN we put more plants in and it's been smooth sailing since. But before that we tried EVERYTHING other than using nasty chemicals to combat the problem and still NOTHING. You have to reset everything once you have them. No other way to truly get rid of them. I was afraid I was going to have to lose my cuts but I didn't. And that's what really matters.

 

[Ktaadn]

These things have been present here in the environment for years now and never fail to appear once plants are started indoors. I'm trying to get my first actual indoor grow going (I'm an OD guy) and by the time I hit veg stage I had a full blown infestation.

Crawlers could be seen on roots of a couple of mother plants that I removed from their pots for inspection and root damage was obvious. Pyganic drenches seemed to kill them, but fried the root zone in the process and plants were getting reinfested again almost as quickly as new healthy roots emerged.

I introduced both Dalotia coriaria and Stratiolaelaps scimitus 2 weeks ago. This seemed to trigger a swarm of fliers escaping the pots and getting caught in my sticky traps. I assume the threat to their population caused a mass transformation to winged form.

This week I received Biowar Foliar and Root packs. I started with a watering of the root pack at 1 TBS per gallon as I started the Biowar tea brewing. After a 24 hour brew I watered all pots with it at full strength, as well as a foliar application at full strength.

A couple of days later and I'm seeing a noticeable reduction in fliers. Too soon to say just how effective it has been though. I plan to keep up with the Biowar application as well as introducing nematodes in the near future.

I'm also dealing with persistent pm at the same time. I think the reduction in vigor due to the root aphids is making them more susceptible.

Indoor growing is so much fun!

 

[woolybear]

BTI from ebay is the only thing that has cured my gnat / root aphid problem.



Was not expensive; a small plastic bag has lasted for over a year, with lots more left.


Follow directions, add to distilled water.

 

[oldbootz]

[YOUTUBEIF]AUUmulLBbdI[/YOUTUBEIF]

Not sure if this has been posted already or not. Probably the best info out there.

 

[moses wellfleet]

You must have a different type than what I have, because my root aphids are much more lively and cunning than any fungus gnat. Fungus gnats tend to be slow and lazy fliers.

*Looked em up and the rice root aphid is far different from my pest, and what many others seem to be dealing with. The ones I have are much more slender, quick, and seemingly even intelligent (scary little bastards they are).

Are you possibly mistaking fungus gnats for root aphids? It happens a lot, sorry if I am way off!

 

[Mart]

Hi People my first post also,I have had success against FG's using powdered cinnamon,a nutural product.
A good covering of this applied on to the surface of the medium and a tablespoon full in warm water added to the drip tray and left for an hour will soak in and get the larvae in the bottom of the pot.
Sticky traps and a pc fan at pot level get the rest.
Since I have improved my watering regime I am no longer bothered with them,wet/dry is the key.
Thanks.
An honour to be here.

 

[moses wellfleet]

I am dealing with rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale, rice root aphid!

I read a study about a citrus farm in Florida that had great success against rice root aphids using lecanicillium muscarium (formerly verticillium lecanii). It is an entomopathogenic fungi.

I have been using a combination of L. muscarium, B. bassiana and metarhizium. I water it into my organic soil every four days with 2ml per liter of molasses to provide a food source for the fungi.

The monitoring method I am using is to look for flyers and crawlers on the rim of the containers. If I spot any I then put fresh fan leaves out on the surface of the soil on top of the mulch layer. For some reason the crawlers gather in large numbers on the fan leaves over night.

I have been using these measures for 3 months now and have seen a drastic decrease in both flyers and crawlers. Going for total eradication. Will update in future!

 

[Ktaadn]

Are you possibly mistaking fungus gnats for root aphids? It happens a lot, sorry if I am way off!

No these definitely aren't fungus gnats, I've never found those to be problematic. They're root aphids but I haven't been able to identify the exact species. They don't seem to be the rice root aphid.

Update on the Biowar effectiveness - I think it acts as an aprodisiac. Just joking of course but I am seeing an explosion of fliers at the moment. Upon inspection of culled male rootballs I'm not finding any crawlers though and not seeing evidence of root damage so maybe the combo of the biowar and predators is having some positive effect.

Nematodes and beneficial fungi up next I guess.

 

[moses wellfleet]

Unfortunately L. Muscarium is not available in the USA it seems.

The rice root aphid is a huge problem in Asian rice paddies. Asian researchers came across L. Muscarium as a bio control for the rice root aphid!

 

[ion]

green lacewings anybody?

 

[moses wellfleet]

green lacewings anybody?

I am interested in green lace wing larvae as a generalist predator that would munch any pests that wandered into my grow space!

In the case of root aphids I think they would prey on anything that came to the surface but they would not be able to control the hypogeal (subterranean) population?

 

[Ktaadn]

It's the lacewing larvae that feed on soil pests, but I'm not sure if they disperse through the substrate or tend to hang out in the top layer. That's the problem I'm having with my predator mites, they reproduce like crazy but like to stay in the top inch or two of soil.

One thing that kept me from wanting to try the lacewings is the fact that they form cocoons. I keep picturing having to pick cocoons out of flowers and that doesn't sound fun. Not sure if it would actually be an issue or not.

 

[Buttercup726]

It's the lacewing larvae that feed on soil pests, but I'm not sure if they disperse through the substrate or tend to hang out in the top layer. That's the problem I'm having with my predator mites, they reproduce like crazy but like to stay in the top inch or two of soil.

One thing that kept me from wanting to try the lacewings is the fact that they form cocoons. I keep picturing having to pick cocoons out of flowers and that doesn't sound fun. Not sure if it would actually be an issue or not.

How did the ogbio war work for you? I just purchased it and wanna make sure that it works before I make it part of my IPM