Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

[spook719]

Nematodes and lady bugs will work great if you grow organically. Keep your pot moist and the nematodes will thrive also make sure you spray the plants with fresh water for your ladybugs or else they dehydrate, turn brownish and die... It seems like every time I add ewc to my soil mix I always see to types of bugs a few days later. One has wings and the others don't but my ladybugs and nematode a take care of them every time..... Good luck

 

[spook719]

Stop using all those poisons guys.. It's not good for our "medicine"

 

[EclipseFour20]

Stop using all those poisons guys.. It's not good for our "medicine"

Please offer your poison-less solution for conquering Root Aphids. You have our attention!

 

[Minister]

I cant find the flyers anymore. Before they appeared when i handwatered my 1x1m beds (soil) with my sprinkler. But yesterday I caught one of the white/translucent ones and watched him under the magnifying glass: Very fast moving, 0.5mm long,6 legs, 2 antennas on the head, rather white than translucent.

I just hope its no other pest and I am in the believe its root aphids. But so far, I didn't read anywhere that there is an other pest that can be wrongly diagnosed as root aphids....

Edit: Minister, you got rid of them with met52, right?

I'm treating with imidacloprid, the met52 is not available in Denmark. Though it is being produced by a danish comany.

You really cant start a met52 treatment after planting, as it has to be mixed in the medium from start. So is my understanding so far.

I doubt imid to do much if they allready have had a go at your plants.
The fliers pretty much indicates that they are done feasting, and are ready for the next dish elsewhere.

Often plants will hermie if attemted to be finished up. Giving a terrible harsh taste to the weed, it doesn't have the same pungent smell either.

Not completely out of the woods myself.

 

[hydrodreams]

I'm treating with imidacloprid, the met52 is not available in Denmark. Though it is being produced by a danish comany.

You really cant start a met52 treatment after planting, as it has to be mixed in the medium from start. So is my understanding so far.

I doubt imid to do much if they allready have had a go at your plants.
The fliers pretty much indicates that they are done feasting, and are ready for the next dish elsewhere.

Often plants will hermie if attemted to be finished up. Giving a terrible harsh taste to the weed, it doesn't have the same pungent smell either.

Not completely out of the woods myself.

Yes, it's a danish company. I even contacted themfrom Switzerland by phone and email, until I reached the responsible person. They told me, it's not legal in Switzerland and Germany. But in Austria .

You said: "Not completely out of the woods myself".

This sounds like it's much better after imid? Is it? Are you satisfied with your results regarding yield?

Thanks Hydrodreams

 

[Minister]

Good research Hydrodreams, it is frustrating that different products has different availability, concentrations and names depending on where in the world you are.

By saying not out of the woods I mean that I only just identified the real cause of my problems three months ago, and are now about to flip from veg to flower with a new crop.

Judging from other growers experience, here on icmag, one shouldn't feel too selfassured about having eliminated every last one.

However, after two imid treatments in veg, last one being a drench, root mass looks great, ivory white and full of fussy hairs as they should be.


Would really like to implement met52 as a preventative meassure. So if you or anyone knows of a European source of met52 I would be happy to know about it. Allthough imid is a great treatment, it is allways better to go natural, achieving the same through prevention.


Got a pm as to how I go about the treatment.
This is what I've done so far:
I took clones from the infested plants and cloned them in coco with one of these imid pills in each pot.
They contain nutes aswell as imid and is not the best choise for cannabis, but the idea was that the plants could have a fresh start without any aphids.
For the drench described I used confidor/merit 70, the thing with these imid products having a number is that it refers to the procentage.
Hence confidor/merit contains 70% imidacloprid.
The bottle contains 200 grams and cost me 250$. Really expensive for me, having exhausted my budget allready, because of this plague.

The concentration in this bottle matches the need of a commercial greenhouse gardener. So the problem was to convert the recommended dosage for 1000 young salad plants being sprayed or fogged.
After a lot of calculation I ended up using 0,5 gram per 5 liter of water containing nutes and all (dont want them to go hungry).
ANY INPUT HERE IS WELCOME
The trick here is to mix the amount you need, and use it up, you dont want to pour it down the drain anyways.

Remember gloves and a mask and be clear minded about your task. By that i mean, don't be drunk. Imid also works systemic in mammals and can be absorbed by the skin like LSD. Thats why it is used for killing fleas on dogs and cats by dripping them in the back of their head with a solution.
Sounds harmless, but kills bees if released in nature, and it's best to be careful.
Finally: Use in vegetative stage only.

This solution did the job for 20 plants in 10x10cm square pots.

 

[inreplyavalon]

Mosquito Bits (made by the same people) is easier and cheaper to work than Mosquito Dunks. I buy 30oz container of the Bits on Amazon for $15...get 2 for free shipping.

The percent of BTi in the bits is drastically less than whats in the dunks according to the labels.

 

[EclipseFour20]

The percent of BTi in the bits is drastically less than whats in the dunks according to the labels.

At first glance, the dunks do appear to have more, but by weight--both products have exactly the same amount of active ingredient: 7000 ITU per mg, or 0.091 billion ITU per pound.

The bits use corn cobs as the carrier, while the dunks use calcium carbonate and cork.

Bits dosage is 1 teaspoon per 25 sq feet of standing water vs 1 dunk for 100 sq feet. So...lets do the math:

There are 180 teaspoons in 30 ounce bottle ($15)...which equates to 4500 sq ft (180 x 25), or $0.003 per sq ft.

I see 6 dunk packages on Amazon for around $10...which equates to 600 sq ft (6 x 100), or $0.0167 per sq ft.

Adding Bits is easy, just measure it with a spoon...adding Dunks is a pain, gotta crush em up and almost impossible to measure with a spoon.

Hope this helps!

 

[RockyMountainHi]

Nematodes and lady bugs will work great if you grow organically. Keep your pot moist and the nematodes will thrive also make sure you spray the plants with fresh water for your ladybugs or else they dehydrate, turn brownish and die... It seems like every time I add ewc to my soil mix I always see to types of bugs a few days later. One has wings and the others don't but my ladybugs and nematode a take care of them every time..... Good luck

Stop using all those poisons guys.. It's not good for our "medicine"

Speaking from experience, Nematodes, even when applied in astronomical numbers will not control and eliminate R/A's and lady bugs are useless on soil dwelling pests, so I must conclude you have not overcome R/A's in a garden. And your identification of your "unknown" pests leaves a lot to be desired.
Do you even know what R/A's look like?

Keep patting yourself on the back, what you don't know is likely going to bite you in the ass. (and the roots)

I too would like to see this superior method.

 

[inreplyavalon]

10.31% is the percent of BTI in the dunks. but total package is only 2.75 ounces

2.8% is the percent of BTi in the bits. but the container i looked at is 8 ounces

Thats what i was going by, but it seems you understand all this better than I. Thanks for correcting my bad information. oops

 

[sneaky_g]

So here is my story.

Moved into a rental. Popped 10 kali mist seeds from serious seeds.. I veged them for about 100 days, everything was good and i came back from vaca and i saw what i thoguht were fungus gnats. I through in some of the home depot dunks thinking it would be an easy fix and some yellow stickies... Learned it was the RA.. Now i'm 50 days into flower.. and im infested with the RA pretty bad.. Start of flower I hit them with Azamax , followed by a pyro liquid dunk. it slowed them down and i saw corpses all over my 4x8 grow box.. But now they are back again..

So after reading 100's of pages of folks horror stories. I've registered to ebay and ordered the 3 pack of bennie to add to my ACT tea. I also ordered 2 pounds of met 52 for about 100 bucks. My question is can i use bennies' tea in conjunction with azamax and 4 grams/gallon of met52 ?

 

[Canniwhatsis]

I simply cannot STAND the amount of misidentification that there is going on out there!!!!!



Is it a Root aphid, or a Fungus gnat,.... maybe a Thrip?.... Or perhaps it's a F'n white fly?





I don't pretend to be a consultant, but my job put's me in a position where I get to see things..... I'll offer a nugget when and where it's usable, but mostly just play it off like I don't know shit.


Recently I stopped by a grow, and walked back to talk to the growers (known friends) Only to find them talking with another grower about issues that are happening in the grow,.... Other guy positively ID'd fungus gnat flyers as RA flyers........ And insisted that the only way to ax them was heavy pesticides until late flower!?


I have no doubt that something's wrong with the grow, but RA's? I think not!


Get the bastards on scope cam before you go screaming R.A. R.A. R.A.! I've got Root Aphids!!!!!

 

[Canniwhatsis]

There needs to be a "Know your Bugs" sticky!!!!


Simple, clear pics of every bug, in all stages of life.


Both damaging, and beneficial!!!!

 

[RetroGrow]

There needs to be a "Know your Bugs" sticky!!!!


Simple, clear pics of every bug, in all stages of life.


Both damaging, and beneficial!!!!

There are clear pictures in the beginning of this thread showing the difference between fungus gnats & RA Flyers.

 

[Canniwhatsis]

Yes,... And yet there's a bunch of misidentification going on.



I'm sorry,... my rant doesn't pertain to just this thread, but steams from it.... and others like it.


RA's are bad news, that's for sure!!!!, but all the screaming and arm waving about them has all the sheeple growers all in a huff thinking that EVERYTHING that has wings is a RA!!!!!





Get your bug right before you try to fix it!!!! That's all I'm saying!


How are all the newbies supposed to figure out the bug that they've got?.............




Know your bug sticky!

 

[nachoconqueso]

I know how to prevent root aphids in coco. I haven't gotten a single one since I learned how to do it. The truth is that once you get them your cycle is screwed. My success is also due to the fact that I don't inherit other peoples clones. I only start from seed and build up from there.

YOU CANNOT TREAT YOUR PLANTS WITH IMID. You guys are brushing off the potential harms of imid and convincing people it is harmless to use is wrong. I used to post here and was ridiculed about the use of alternative products and was accused of trying to sell met52 by some asswipe admin. I'm only sharing this because I believe there are a few really nice people here who deserve to know. If anyone wants to know how to prevent root aphids without applying any products then pm me. I'm not taking credit for it and would rather not have it shared with this site. I pulled the answer from an old academic paper just fyi. Note: This only works in coco and is a preventative. You can't fix infected plants without adding harmful substances that make your final product unusable. If I was using soil and had this problem I'd start over from seed and try to build my soil up with met before planting, but from what I understand invasion in soil is much less common. Other non medium systems should just be sanitized and restarted with seedlings instead of bringing in potentially infected clones.

 

[spook719]

Here's a quote from the first page of this thread in case you missed it.

"-Predatory Nematodes: These can be expensive and will be killed by most other chemicals, but they are another completely non-chemical and totally safe (0-day PHI) control method. Nematodes are microscopic creatures that will kill many soil-dwelling creatures, including fungus-gnat larvae. A buddy who I have given plants too and who has not had any infection problems uses a store-brewed tea with nematodes in it - I think perhaps they may have been his control without him knowing it."

Thats the what the guy who started this thread said and i can say It works for me but i wont lie and say it kills them all however it does control very well if you already have an infestation. Plants that i treated this way still had good yields when I caught the bastards in my veg.. Nematodes are a good preventative measure too once they get established they dominate your soil making it very hard for any type of soft bodied insect to live or breed in your soil.. Don't hate on the lady bugs either I've seen them eat adult winged root aphids so don't say theyre useless.

I have a filter on my water supply that takes out most of the chlorine which might help. But the key for this method to work is to not use chemicals that will kill your predator bugs and make sure they get water.

It's definitely a method worth checking out instead of continuing to use chemicals that may cause cancer in yourself or someone you love. Good luck

 

[spook719]

Mosquito dunks don't work for Ra

 

[sneaky_g]

^^ exactly. so if you drop a dunk in your 5 gallon and it doesn't take care of the fungus gnats than its probably RA. just look at ur yellow stickies .. wide body + wings = RA

 

[RetroGrow]

I know how to prevent root aphids in coco. I haven't gotten a single one since I learned how to do it. The truth is that once you get them your cycle is screwed. My success is also due to the fact that I don't inherit other peoples clones. I only start from seed and build up from there.

YOU CANNOT TREAT YOUR PLANTS WITH IMID. You guys are brushing off the potential harms of imid and convincing people it is harmless to use is wrong. I used to post here and was ridiculed about the use of alternative products and was accused of trying to sell met52 by some asswipe admin. I'm only sharing this because I believe there are a few really nice people here who deserve to know. If anyone wants to know how to prevent root aphids without applying any products then pm me. I'm not taking credit for it and would rather not have it shared with this site. I pulled the answer from an old academic paper just fyi. Note: This only works in coco and is a preventative. You can't fix infected plants without adding harmful substances that make your final product unusable. If I was using soil and had this problem I'd start over from seed and try to build my soil up with met before planting, but from what I understand invasion in soil is much less common. Other non medium systems should just be sanitized and restarted with seedlings instead of bringing in potentially infected clones.

Why don't you just post your "secret solution", and enlighten all of us?