reallyReallyBasic
New Member
Hello all. I'm a first time grower trying to teach myself. Been getting a lot of advice from these boards to thank you.
3 or 4 days ago I found these crawling around the pots of my plants. They are super small and only look like a white dot to the human eye but you can see them crawl pretty quickly. Under a microscope I see them moving fast for their size. I have never found any on my leaves. They have all been found on the pot and in the soil.
The guy at the grow store thought they were Root Aphids but was only going off of pictures he saw online. I've pulled a couple plants out of their containers and don't see any noticeable damage to the visible roots on the outside of the root ball and my plants look healthy in generalI.
I sent these pictures to a buddy of mine that works for a commercial grower in Denver and his head grower said they are not Root Aphids but they are some type of aphid and suggested using predatory aphids (Midges) to deal with them. This sounds like a great solution but my concern there is that, from what I read about midges, they place their larvae on the plants leaves where they find a colony of aphids and the larvae eat the unwanted aphids. All of the bugs I have found have been on the pot or in the soil so a larvae on a leaf won't do me much good unless I'm just not seeing them there.
Do any of you know what I'm dealing with here? The guy at the grow store suggested getting rid of everything and starting from scratch after a bug bomb. I haven't done anything yet and they are due for watering. I'm trying to be patient and truly identify the bug before I either a) unnecessarily start from scratch, or b) treat the plants for the wrong bug.
I'm growing in Happy Frog soil. Half of my crop is a week away from going into flower and the other half are teens. I've also posted a picture of my roots and of the yellow fly traps I have up.
3 or 4 days ago I found these crawling around the pots of my plants. They are super small and only look like a white dot to the human eye but you can see them crawl pretty quickly. Under a microscope I see them moving fast for their size. I have never found any on my leaves. They have all been found on the pot and in the soil.
The guy at the grow store thought they were Root Aphids but was only going off of pictures he saw online. I've pulled a couple plants out of their containers and don't see any noticeable damage to the visible roots on the outside of the root ball and my plants look healthy in generalI.
I sent these pictures to a buddy of mine that works for a commercial grower in Denver and his head grower said they are not Root Aphids but they are some type of aphid and suggested using predatory aphids (Midges) to deal with them. This sounds like a great solution but my concern there is that, from what I read about midges, they place their larvae on the plants leaves where they find a colony of aphids and the larvae eat the unwanted aphids. All of the bugs I have found have been on the pot or in the soil so a larvae on a leaf won't do me much good unless I'm just not seeing them there.
Do any of you know what I'm dealing with here? The guy at the grow store suggested getting rid of everything and starting from scratch after a bug bomb. I haven't done anything yet and they are due for watering. I'm trying to be patient and truly identify the bug before I either a) unnecessarily start from scratch, or b) treat the plants for the wrong bug.
I'm growing in Happy Frog soil. Half of my crop is a week away from going into flower and the other half are teens. I've also posted a picture of my roots and of the yellow fly traps I have up.
