Predator mites? Found my gnats on their own? What are these things?

So, about a month ago, I noticed a gnat on one of my veg plants. This was after accepting 8 seed plants from a friend. The accepted plants instantly went into the trash. I've never had a bug, not one, in my growing career so far.

I let my plants dry thoroughly to hopefully prevent them, but they ended up in one of my mothers, and I saw a few more gnats over the next few weeks and scurrying when I watered the mother. I bought some DE, and did a couple treatments to keep them at bay since it's a veg room and it's not really an infestation, yet.

Then last night when I went to water, I look in the bottom of my drip trays, and I see a lot of like, dead stuff?, but I also see some little, tiny ass black bugs. I got a scope out to try to picture one, but they are small. Like real small. Bigger than a spider mite, smaller than an adult gnat.

With my 10x I can clearly see two antennae, and six legs, and they are NOT spider mites.

They are round, small, I think like a little reddish? Maybe black? There seems to be varying sizes of them, depending on maturity I assume.

I swear I watched one walk up to something and fucking eat it, and I think it was a dead, or dying gnat or larvae or something.

They're NOWHERE on my plant. NOWHERE. I looked on stems, leaves, every part of them, but they're ALL OVER the bottom of the drain trays. The gnats don't swarm out the top when I water my plants anymore, either.

There ARE a few gnats sitting on the underside of leaves to stay cool I assume, but like I said, no mites, no spots on leaves, no damage at all.

I will get a picture, but does this sound like predator mites found their way into my grow and are eating up the gnats? If so, sick. If not, well, I better kill the shit out of them.

Last night I washed all the drain trays with soap and water and the bottom of the tent, vacuumed it out, sprayed H202 4:1 onto the pots, bottoms, tops, ran a peppermint treatment through each plant, along with some cinnamon to kill any fungus they're feeding on. I will add some DE to the drain trays tonight or tomorrow, along with the top of each plant to hopefully eradicate everything.

Advice?

Put a hot shot no pest strip in there and leave it for a dew says. Overnight make sure the fans are off and it will take care of bugs, larva and eggs. Thripes, mites, what ever will be done.

I had a slight gnat problem with a couple of my potted outdoor plants. I got some granulated DE and spread it on top of the soil and under the pots, below the drain holes. All the gnats were gone a day or two and never came back. Of course I also let the soil dry out more than usual.

You can suffocate them naturally.
Pour a layer of playground sand or powdered glass on top of soil. Smooth out to the edges and wet it and it will be almost rock hard.
Set pots on a tray full of sand. At least 2 inches.
Seal any side holes in the pot.
The sand / glass will tear them up as they try to reach the surface. If their wings are tore up they can't fly..if they can't fly they can't reproduce.
Having sand on the saucer will do this also and still allow drainage.
2 weeks should do it.
And the sand does nothing to the soil and will wash out.

Also spray outside of pots and surrounding area with a mixture of hot sauce and water ( do not spray plants ) and then just leave a gallon jug in the middle of the grow mixed with hot sauce ( I use Tabasco ) Bugs hate the smell.

Works for me.

It will also mask the smell of weed ( if that is a concern )

Study up bugs under the idea of KNOW your enemy, add 1x teaspoon of Neem oil to a pint hand sprayer fill with warm water, shake and nuke those bugs, plus its organic, but not so close to harvest as neem is an a quired taste ..hot shot strips have serious chems in them that may damage you?

I've done some research on the subject. And these post sums it up well so we dont need to re hash everything.

https://www.rollitup.org/bugs/567603-hot-shot-pest-strips-comments.html

http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/640084-caution-when-useing-hot-shot-no-pest-strips.html

TLDR? Short version: its poison. Dont hang out with them for 4 hours, dont let your pets do it either. Read all the cautionary labels. Use as directed.

The active ingredient has a short life. once exposed to oxygen its unstable and volatile. It works by building up ppm in the air as the strip evaporates. Stuff caught in this cloud dies.

Samples of the active ingredient have not shown up in lab samples of tested products where nps is used.

Also, I am not saying this is the only method. But it is a method. If you want to go thermo nuclear on them things without the nasty radiation bit. Then there you go.

And even cockroaches wont survive.

To avoid the whole "plant contamination" with nps. After each cycle, clean your garden area and throw in a nps for a dew days. Pull it out. Wipe everything down. And you know your environment is criter free.

Prevention is worth a pound of cure.

But on that note, if you are growing in soil rhen you could start using beneficial nematodes to eat any bad bug larva or eggs in there before they become a problem.

I don't think anybody actually READ my post. I don't give a fuck about the gnats. I can buy gnatrol or MD's to fix them. Easy enough.

I need to know what THESE are. They are NOT on my plants. Notice the white baby bugs, and then the mite looking thing. What are both:

36OhBuds said:

I don't think anybody actually READ my post. I don't give a fuck about the gnats. I can buy gnatrol or MD's to fix them. Easy enough.

I need to know what THESE are. They are NOT on my plants. Notice the white baby bugs, and then the mite looking thing. What are both:

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excellent pictures. If you want natural try rosemary oil, supposed to work great for mites I don't see why it wouldn't work for those, everything hates that stuff.

The little white ones are Mealybugs. They can and will be a huge problem for you if you leave them untreated. The reproduce at astounding rates my friend and it would be in your best interest to address this infestation asap, because they will destroy your whole crop.. The other one looks like a fungus gnat which is also a problem to address at the same time.