root aphids

cap master

cap master

Well-Known Member
i found i have root aphids i believe but i only see one or 2 once in a while. iv been using neem oil every few days since i seen sighns. i caught them early, and trying to cool down my grow room. once in a while i see one climbing on my soil or flying around but when i took a good look at my roots out of the pot i didnt see anything at all? my plants arent dieing but occasionally i have a leaf turn yellow or brown? this could be from other things as well. what can i do to ensure no future infestation.
 
cap master

cap master

Well-Known Member
im an experienced mycologyst and have seen similar looking bugs in a cap collony and they multiply like crazy, i just havent seen the same detrimental sighns as i have with fungus i know theyre not white flies, i just havent seen many results and im wondering what i can do to prevent them i also hung tape in the grow cab to catch them flying
 
BluJayz

BluJayz

Well-Known Member
cap master said:
i found i have root aphids i believe but i only see one or 2 once in a while. iv been using neem oil every few days since i seen sighns. i caught them early, and trying to cool down my grow room. once in a while i see one climbing on my soil or flying around but when i took a good look at my roots out of the pot i didnt see anything at all? my plants arent dieing but occasionally i have a leaf turn yellow or brown? this could be from other things as well. what can i do to ensure no future infestation.
Click to expand...
There are mixed reviews on root aphids.

If you have ROOT aphids and not leaf aphids that means your soil is very organic. They are not necessarily a awful thing, however you can be rid of them by 2 or 3 doses of AZA-Max. Its organic, but don't eat any of your leaves until you washed the soil at-least once with just water and wait a week. Then their should be no trace chems.

AZA Will also kill most other bugs, it absorbs into the "blood stream" of the plant and anything that bites the plan/roots get poisoned.

This is what root aphids look like with and without wings.
View attachment 2729559

They can be allot darker too.
 
maarouf.bekdash

maarouf.bekdash

Active Member
If you have fungus gnats though you can pour a small surface of construction sand. That would shred apart while trying to go out of the soil!!
 
maarouf.bekdash

maarouf.bekdash

Active Member
Well it has happened to me in my last grow and worked just fine without affecting the PH! and in 1 day didint see of the fungus gnats flying around anymore!
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
Thought I would bump this thread rather than create a new one. I just discovered one single mature but not flying root aphid in my flower tent. You can see the telltale "dual exhaust" on it's behind if you look close at the pic.
Root Aphid.jpg

I have not seen any flyers on my sticky traps yet. Also, saw 2 so far in my veg room. I don't want them to get out of hand, I have been doing a lot of reading and it sounds like they are worse than mites once their population grows.

Looking for advice from someone with experience. What is the best way to eradicate these little bastards?

H. Bacteriophora Nematodes? or can I take care of it with Axamax/Neem drench and light/careful spraying of Spinosad? ...or something else?

I am 4 weeks into flower with about 5 to go.

There seems to be mixed opinion and I am wanting to make the right decision up front. I would have to stop the current drench treatments if I introduce the nematodes which could bring back the fungus gnats I had and might give the mites I "had" a new foothold.

Is it worth it to order the Nematodes is my main question.

Thanks,
Cascadian


 
D

DemontauruS

Active Member
Would AZA-Max be to go-to for tiny white larva swimming around in my root solution? They cant be a good thing....
 
1itsme

1itsme

Well-Known Member
Cascadian said:
Thought I would bump this thread rather than create a new one. I just discovered one single mature but not flying root aphid in my flower tent. You can see the telltale "dual exhaust" on it's behind if you look close at the pic.
View attachment 2919508

I have not seen any flyers on my sticky traps yet. Also, saw 2 so far in my veg room. I don't want them to get out of hand, I have been doing a lot of reading and it sounds like they are worse than mites once their population grows.

Looking for advice from someone with experience. What is the best way to eradicate these little bastards?

H. Bacteriophora Nematodes? or can I take care of it with Axamax/Neem drench and light/careful spraying of Spinosad? ...or something else?

I am 4 weeks into flower with about 5 to go.

There seems to be mixed opinion and I am wanting to make the right decision up front. I would have to stop the current drench treatments if I introduce the nematodes which could bring back the fungus gnats I had and might give the mites I "had" a new foothold.

Is it worth it to order the Nematodes is my main question.

Thanks,
Cascadian
Click to expand...
when I got root aphids I used evergreen as a root dunk + sprayed everything. repeated @ once a week for a while. did not see any living after the first application. other pyrethrum concentrates may work as well, but some of them are not safe for the roots afaik.
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advice. Evergreen is some pricey stuff, would be nice if they made it in a 4oz. I am thinking about getting Bonide 857 Pyrethrin spray, a couple reviews on amazon indicated it worked on gnats and aphids and was safe to use during flowering (they were clearly growing MJ). At $14 vs $55 I will give it a shot and test it first on a couple plants to make sure it doesn't disturb the roots too much. Much appreciated!
 
haulinbass

haulinbass

Well-Known Member
I just went after these fuckers with scotts eco-sence and about a 10:1 mixture of 35% peroxide. Ithen shut vent fan down and fogged the room with some raid. Plants seem fine 8 hours later and there doesnt seem to be anything living in the coco anymore, And nothing flying in the room. Hopefully they are not back in a week.
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
haulinbass, wish I could do something similar but I am 5 weeks into flower so options are more limited. Good luck eradicating them!

My aphid problem is getting much worse. All the plants look healthy except 2 which are showing the "false" magnesium deficiency symptom of root aphids. I put down 2 strips of duct tape on the tent floor to see how many there were, in 2 days there were 200-300 aphids on the tape. I still havn't received my pyrethrin in the mail, hoping it arrives today.

I know some people just tear down everything get rid of all plants and bomb the shit out of their room, bleach, then bomb again, then start from seed. I will be doing something close to this when this grow is over.

My question is if I do a dunk with a solution of pyrethrin/soap/rosemary oil (heard it works on aphids) will this likely be sufficient to get me through the end of flower?
I would also add a root accelerator of some kind after the dunk. Should I also add H2o2 to the dunk?

Anybody that has delt with RAs during flower and has some advice on how to "control" them for 3-4 weeks I would really appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks,
Cascadian
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
I got all the products I needed yesterday and decided to do the dunk with rosemary oil, soap, and Bonide 857 (pyrethrin). Bonide was used at 2 Tbs/gallon roughly, and the rosemary oil at 1 Tbs/gallon, soap at 1 tsp/gallon. I did not soak them for 8-10 minutes as some have advised using evergreen, I am just trying to deal with the RAs and still allow the plant/roots to hopefully recover with minimal stress.

For the dunk I soaked the bottom 1/2 to 2/3 of the root mass for about 2 minutes then let some solution over the top of the pot to soak the top layer but not quite as thoroughly. This was done to all plants in my house, even freshly rooted clones. Also, bleached/spinosad the tent and veg room floor.

To make the rosemary oil find a rosemary bush and cut off roughly 2-3 oz of it (enough to 1/3 fill a slowcooker) then cover it with oil and slow cook it for a few hours on low setting, crushing it up periodically.

If this works I will report back so others might benefit from using a similar treatment.
 
Sunbiz1

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
Cascadian said:
haulinbass, wish I could do something similar but I am 5 weeks into flower so options are more limited. Good luck eradicating them!

My aphid problem is getting much worse. All the plants look healthy except 2 which are showing the "false" magnesium deficiency symptom of root aphids. I put down 2 strips of duct tape on the tent floor to see how many there were, in 2 days there were 200-300 aphids on the tape. I still havn't received my pyrethrin in the mail, hoping it arrives today.

I know some people just tear down everything get rid of all plants and bomb the shit out of their room, bleach, then bomb again, then start from seed. I will be doing something close to this when this grow is over.

My question is if I do a dunk with a solution of pyrethrin/soap/rosemary oil (heard it works on aphids) will this likely be sufficient to get me through the end of flower?
I would also add a root accelerator of some kind after the dunk. Should I also add H2o2 to the dunk?

Anybody that has delt with RAs during flower and has some advice on how to "control" them for 3-4 weeks I would really appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks,
Cascadian
Click to expand...
Use the pyrethrin as a soil drench, it is all you need to kill basically everything(including mites). I battled gnats and aphids for almost a year using Bti and every other organic product I could find.

I controlled but never eliminated the insects, until I bought the pyrethrin...instant death to the little bastards.
 
Sunbiz1

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
Cascadian said:
I got all the products I needed yesterday and decided to do the dunk with rosemary oil, soap, and Bonide 857 (pyrethrin). Bonide was used at 2 Tbs/gallon roughly, and the rosemary oil at 1 Tbs/gallon, soap at 1 tsp/gallon. I did not soak them for 8-10 minutes as some have advised using evergreen, I am just trying to deal with the RAs and still allow the plant/roots to hopefully recover with minimal stress.

For the dunk I soaked the bottom 1/2 to 2/3 of the root mass for about 2 minutes then let some solution over the top of the pot to soak the top layer but not quite as thoroughly. This was done to all plants in my house, even freshly rooted clones. Also, bleached/spinosad the tent and veg room floor.

To make the rosemary oil find a rosemary bush and cut off roughly 2-3 oz of it (enough to 1/3 fill a slowcooker) then cover it with oil and slow cook it for a few hours on low setting, crushing it up periodically.

If this works I will report back so others might benefit from using a similar treatment.
Click to expand...
Oh shit, did the rosemary oil kill your plant?.

I can tell you for a fact peppermint oil will do in a cannabis plant in 30 minutes when used as a soil drench...I once tried this.

I found out the hard way that just b/c a product is OK to spray does NOT mean it can be watered in.
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the advice and vote of confidence on using pyrethrin. Very glad to hear it could keep mites under control! I had them during this grow but haven't seen them in weeks.

This is day 2 after the treatment and the plants look relatively unaffected (so far) other than being a little water logged. One of the clones I treated looks to be suffering but I have another clone of that strain as well so will be ok if I lose it.

Sounds like I am lucky I didn't add too much rosemary oil to the drench. Thanks!
 
Cascadian

Cascadian

Well-Known Member
Just thought I would update the thread. It's been almost 2 months since the treatment. I put down some duct tape today to see if I have RAs in my veg room. 24 hours later I spotted about 8 or so RAs on the tape. The pyrethrin did a great job holding them off through harvest but did not kill them all. I am debating getting rid of all my plants and starting from seed or maybe just keeping 2-4 clones and treating those intensely. Good Luck to anyone who gets them!
 
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