Pest ID

Hey guys- I have these small flying insects im trying to ID. They’re not regular fungus gnats, these have smaller bodies, bigger wings and are not very fast at all. i can easily just squish these and they never fly away in time. I am running in two earthboxes with the mulch covers on. Any help with ID would be appreciated!

Winged aphid?

bam0813 said:

Winged aphid?

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Bang on. Was just about to say looks like a “black fly” on the U.K. which is basically a winged aphid.

Good call @bam0813

Thank you guys. I’ll be all over them until the finish line removing what I can. Appreciate the assist.

better make sure they arent winged root aphids.

waterproof808 said:

better make sure they arent winged root aphids.

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That was my first guess.

If they are indeed Winged RA's, they should be crawling all over your earthboxes and are easy to identify by two little "tail pipes" sticking out of their rear end. One of the absolute worst pests to have IMO, so you should definitely make sure you dont have them.

waterproof808 said:

If they are indeed Winged RA's, they should be crawling all over your earthboxes and are easy to identify by two little "tail pipes" sticking out of their rear end. One of the absolute worst pests to have IMO, so you should definitely make sure you dont have them.

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Don’t all aphids have those tail pipes? Does anyone know if root aphids hatch their larvae on the bottom of leaves like in my photo? I’ll check the EB tonight. Ive been struggling to get a positive ID in which type of aphid it is. I guess for now I will just remove as many as I can while I research.

Jcue81 said:

Don’t all aphids have those tail pipes? Does anyone know if root aphids hatch their larvae on the bottom of leaves like in my photo? I’ll check the EB tonight. Ive been struggling to get a positive ID in which type of aphid it is. I guess for now I will just remove as many as I can while I research.

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Root Aphids are darker and usually have some green to them. They don't really congregate on the undersides of leaves like regular aphids do. Regular aphids are usually lighter colored and like to cluster around the stems of new growth and the undersides of leaves.

Not trying to make you panic, but the fact that your pic only has winged adults and no juveniles on the leaves isn't a good sign.

Usually regular aphids are easily diagnosed because they feed primarily on leaves and you would see all stages of their lifecycle present on your leaves, while RA's are very sneaky and by the time they become flyers you already have a full blown infestation on your roots.

When they develop wings....it's bad. Look in the underneath. They'll be loaded all over the stems and leaves in shady cool areas they shit Sap and it grows mold. Sorry. That sucks

I’ve been working overtime to clean out as many as I can find. I did find a few branches that were infested and I cut 2-3 branches off. Added a couple red kale plants to draw them to that. I am in week 7 of flower and the plants look ok. I understand these things are born pregnant and fuck like rabbits but I’m thinking I will be able to finish this out. Going to have to look into bud washing because I def do not want to be smoking these creepy little bastards or their shit.

I was very relieved that I could not find a single bug in my mom tent and I scoped hard. i plan on taking fresh cuts, dunking in Tweetmint or ISO and ditching my current moms just to be extra safe. Mom tent is getting relocated 2 floots away from the infestation. Only going to visit moms after a shower change of clothes. After this grow I guess I’ll toss the infested tent and spend a week deep cleaning the room. Need to figure out proper intake filtration. I’ll take the summer off and let the room sit empty until fall and hope for the best.

if anyone has any other ideas I’m all ears. i am so lucky my moms (appear to be) OK.