Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

[EclipseFour20]

Of all the chems and alternatives, it appears from all criteria that Orthene is the "least worst" chem. Pyrethrin by itself has a very short effective life...but when PBO is added, the synergy extends the effective life and increases the potency--which simply means, with PBO less pyrethrin is required since it is more potent and will last longer.

When I attempted the organic route, I tried dunking with various of oils (neem, Azamax, petroleum, etc) and after each oil dunk--it seemed the plant would lockup and "trip out at never-never land" for about a week. When I discovered Riptide oil-free and about half the cost of "oil based" pyrethrin + PBO pesticides...and had very little restrictions on usage, I said SOLD!

Maybe that is why there is no 7 day "lockup" when using Riptide...no oil.

Dunking 5 gallon containers in 18 gallon party bucket was the easiest. The party buckets were $5 and change at Home Depot...and can be used to make a triple batch of compost tea--easier to clean one jumbo bucket than 3 five gallon buckets!

 

[EclipseFour20]

Sorry, double post. Damn computer--certainly was not my fingers!...lol

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

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.

What do you think the nematodes are eating while they wait around for insects to invade? How is a population of predatory nematodes supposed to live without food?

Think about this claim you are making from an ecological perspective. Its like saying "lets keep a bunch of cats in the house to prevent mouse infestations, but not give them anything to eat while we are waiting for the mice to arrive".

 

[Neo 420]

What do you think the nematodes are eating while they wait around for insects to invade? How is a population of predatory nematodes supposed to live without food?

Think about this claim you are making from an ecological perspective. Its like saying "lets keep a bunch of cats in the house to prevent mouse infestations, but not give them anything to eat while we are waiting for the mice to arrive".

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/ipm/homegrnd/htms/39nemat.htm

Parasitic nematodes are beneficial for six reasons. First, they have such a wide host range that they can be used successfully on numerous insect pests. The nematodes' nonspecific development, which does not rely on specific host nutrients, allows them to infect a large number of insect species.
Second, nematodes kill their insect hosts within 48 hours. As mentioned earlier, this is due to enzymes produced by the Xenorhabdus bacteria.
Third, nematodes can be grown on artificial media. This allows for commercial production which makes them a more available product.
Fourth, the infective stage is durable. The nematodes can stay viable for months when stored at the proper temperature. Usually three months at a room temperature of 60o to 80o F and six months when refrigerated at 37o to 50o F. They can also tolerate being mixed with various insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Check nematode product label for compatibility. Also, the infective juveniles can live for some time without nourishment as they search for a host.


Look at nature go.....

 

[nofriend]

Hypoaspis Miles

Hypoaspis Miles

Okay I am having a trip right now.

About a month ago I mixed some soil together using Sunshine Mix #4 Advanced, worm castings, vegetable compost, tomato fertilizer granules, neem meal, crab meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and azomite. About a week ago I thought I was being re-infested with root aphids seeing crawlers in the soil. But tonight I was working with the organic soil mix and couldn't believe how many "root aphids" I was seeing just hanging out in the fresh soil with no plants. I grabbed some gorilla tape and caught a few of these crawlers. With a 60X zoom I am seeing what is more likely hypoaspis miles (predatory mites). I do not see the tailpipes and their mouths are much longer than an aphid. Hypoaspis miles can eat decaying organic matter so it makes sense that they are loving my fresh soil mix. These two insects are easy to confuse.



Hypoaspis miles in the first photo and our friend the root aphid in the second photo.

 

[Granger2]

Orthene is systemic. So, if I smoke 1/2 pack of camels a day, It's no worse to smoke 4 packs. We're getting close to 2100 posts on this thread. I've been along for the whole ride. The general tone of the thread is not a organic vs. chemical debate. So why are you trying to start something?

I have, so far, used only organic methods to fight RA's, but I'm not telling you how to do it. We're brainstorming here, looking for solutions. Everybody will draw their own line for themselves, so don't accost others for drawing it at a different place than you. Smoke what you want, and I'll do the same. -granger

 

[hydrodreams]

[...]Dunking 5 gallon containers in 18 gallon party bucket was the easiest. The party buckets were $5 and change at Home Depot...and can be used to make a triple batch of compost tea--easier to clean one jumbo bucket than 3 five gallon buckets!

If you have 100 five gallon containers that need to be dunked for 30mins each, it's about a 16h job when using a 18 gallon container (enough space for three 5 gallon containers).... Quite a bit of work....

 

[EclipseFour20]

If you have 100 five gallon containers that need to be dunked for 30mins each, it's about a 16h job when using a 18 gallon container (enough space for three 5 gallon containers).... Quite a bit of work....

We had 5 dunking stations...20 plants each--1 day job (plus case of ale...make him buy the good stuff)!


Granger--if you know an ORGANIC method to KNOCK DOWN Root Aphids, please share.

 

[hydrodreams]

We had 5 dunking stations...20 plants each--1 day job (plus case of ale...make him buy the good stuff)![...]

5 dunking stations makes it look different.... So you are priviliged to have a lot of space in your room....

 

[medicalmj]

Okay I am having a trip right now.

About a month ago I mixed some soil together using Sunshine Mix #4 Advanced, worm castings, vegetable compost, tomato fertilizer granules, neem meal, crab meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and azomite. About a week ago I thought I was being re-infested with root aphids seeing crawlers in the soil. But tonight I was working with the organic soil mix and couldn't believe how many "root aphids" I was seeing just hanging out in the fresh soil with no plants. I grabbed some gorilla tape and caught a few of these crawlers. With a 60X zoom I am seeing what is more likely hypoaspis miles (predatory mites). I do not see the tailpipes and their mouths are much longer than an aphid. Hypoaspis miles can eat decaying organic matter so it makes sense that they are loving my fresh soil mix. These two insects are easy to confuse.



Hypoaspis miles in the first photo and our friend the root aphid in the second photo.

You may be very lucky and have a few hypoaspis but when dealing with organic soil you should have thousands to millions of soil mites including oribatid mites. There are about 1200 species of oribatid mites alone in N america and healthy soil will contain 200 hundred+ species per m^3. Oribatids are the most abundant mite on earth, and perhaps the most needed as they are soil decomposers. Unfortunately, hypoaspis mile are not very common and hard to create large self sustaining populations. Also, they're are other soil mites like Astigmatid that are beneficial and are closely related to the oribatid mite.

 

[Neo 420]

H Miles....

http://store.evergreengrowers.com/prostores/servlet/Detail?no=1

$28 for 28,000..

 

[Neo 420]

But tonight I was working with the organic soil mix and couldn't believe how many "root aphids" I was seeing just hanging out in the fresh soil with no plants. I grabbed some gorilla tape and caught a few of these crawlers. With a 60X zoom I am seeing what is more likely hypoaspis miles (predatory mites). These two insects are easy to confuse.



Hypoaspis miles in the first photo and our friend the root aphid in the second photo.

My friend.. I am willing to bet my GSC crop that a majority of growers are confusing the two and yelling out RA when in fact they have the miles mite. Upon my first inspection of the miles in my garden I even thought RA.
These miles mites are not as eluding as one would think and will propagate naturally given the correct environment and entry.

 

[hydrodreams]

My friend.. I am willing to bet my GSC crop that a majority of growers are confusing the two and yelling out RA when in fact they have the miles mite. Upon my first inspection of the miles in my garden I even thought RA.
These miles mites are not as eluding as one would think and will propagate naturally given the correct environment and entry.

Maybe some people have both.

 

[Neo 420]

Maybe some people have both.

The miles would eats its larvae.

 

[Granger2]

Eclipse,
I was not directing my comments to you. So far I have no organic method for a "once and for all" solution. I have been successfully controlling them to a point where I have great quality and yield. My methods are outlined in detail earlier in this thread so I won't type it all out again. I just don't want to see this thread turn into a organic vs. chemical flame war, that's all. -granger

 

[EclipseFour20]

Eclipse,
I was not directing my comments to you. So far I have no organic method for a "once and for all" solution. I have been successfully controlling them to a point where I have great quality and yield. My methods are outlined in detail earlier in this thread so I won't type it all out again. I just don't want to see this thread turn into a organic vs. chemical flame war, that's all. -granger

No worries....just thought there might be an organic alternative to knock down RAs. I agree, lots of organic strategies to "control" the lil bastards--just WISH THERE WAS AN ORGANIC KNOCKDOWN!

Yeah...the old "organic" vs "non-organic" flame war is for kindergarteners who play in sandboxes!

Cheers!

 

[hydrodreams]

The miles would eats its larvae.

H Miles....

http://store.evergreengrowers.com/pr...et/Detail?no=1

$28 for 28,000..

Well if its true that miles would the larvae of the root aphids, than they would be the ultimate biological weapon, isn't it?

As you can read in the last 15 posts, there is a lot of people who are really looking for a really working organic solution...

 

[Granger2]

Eating RA larvae would be a plus, but most of their replication is done by pregnant females giving live birth of pregnant females. -granger

 

[sneaky_g]

well i just brewed up 4 TBSP root, foliar, and nute from capulator's bennies in a 5 gallon ACT brewer.. added 5 TBSP of hi brix molasses and a few handfuls of vermiblend in a sock.

Gonna water the girls today with this mix and i'll let ya know if it knocks back the RA.

 

[hydrodreams]

Yesterday I caught another of my white micros. Since in a few of the last posts in this thread people startet to recall that root aphids often are confused with Hypoaspis miles, i got more insecure what mines are.
So today I was able to find somebody with a microscope, rather a cheap one, but still I was able to make some pictures of the micro I caught yesterday (attached).

When I google root aphids or Hypoaspis miles, none of them look really like mine. The design of the bodies are very different to my micros on the pictures...

Please help me to find out, what those are.

Thaks Hydrodreams

Edit: The legs just look so crippled after they die. And they die within 10 minutes after they cannot hide inside a piece of soil anymore. And don't get confused with the color, it changed after they died. Before they died the whole one looked like the legs on the second picture.