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Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

Corpsey

pollen dabber
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Trust me...I really want to be wrong. As I went down every path/rabbit hole that was "organic" that I could find. The longest time I thought I was "cool" was about 2 months--then bam, about 10% of my veg containers had RAs running laps around the container lips, then within weeks--all containers had RAs.

Shit you were right. After 1 month just spotted a crawler and a few winged RA
 

KONY

Well-known member
Veteran
Kony,

If u look at the little worm like things in the soil they are most likely FG larvae since u know u have adult fliers. If u use a scope u can see they are somewhat translucent with a black head. Now for the other little crawlers im stuck with u in the sense that im not a 100% if they are soil mites, RA's or what?


I believe because of the sheer numbers of the larva, they have to be something that lives in the soil all the time... if it was fg larva there would be a huge infestation of flyers.

Did the potato test last night, found some springtails or something elongated, and also something smaller that appears to be a soil mite or RA, I need a better scope to tell and it will be here tomorrow if its not delayed from the blizzard. These things are tiny, about the same size as spider mites.

Have been using a 8x20 Monoculure backwards. It works pretty well but its only probably 10-20x.
 

StankyBeamer

Professional A$$hole
The larvae are fungus gnat larvae, when you look at the soil, there seems to be way more larvae than flyers in the room, but really it's just because the larvae your looking at are confined I the soil and seem to be at higher populations than the flyers that are more evenly distribute throughout the whole structure your growing in. When I had a few fliers, I checked my rootzone it was crawling with larvae. Stick with the bti and peroxide, you've just gotta stay on em
 
Listen and Learn

Listen and Learn

This whole thread is the reason that smoking cannabis is more dangerous today than it was back in early 2000's.. before the RA and the spider mite, it was rare for an average grower to even need to treat for pests.. today the reality is they are everywhere, and because of the resistance to treatments, its become a dangerous game, one i'm no longer willing to take when it comes to smoking others cannabis. its a damn shame you can't win the war against RA without using chemicals that are known to cause cancer.. after watching my mother suffer from bone live and lung cancer in the last month of her existence, i know that i'm pre disposed to go through the same pain she went through.. and ingesting chemicals like the ones mentioned on this thread, make cannabis that much less appealing..


just my 2 cents.

I share your concern! I wouldn't smoke what they made us grow back in Colorado!
Had my own.
It's going to be an issue going forward.
 

KONY

Well-known member
Veteran
Does anyone have the link to the college or county extension paper on identifying soil greenhouse pests? It tells step by step what chemicals to use to add to the slide to preserve the specimens and make them stick all their legs out.

Someone posted it in this thread or another, or was in their signature, I bookmarked it after reading a bit of the paper about how to prepare slides for observation and ID. Now it's nowhere to be found in my bookmarks.
 

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
Regardless of what you use, you will need follow up treatments. I think Eclipse recommends 2 anyway. For organic remedies you will need repeted treatments. I've given a bunch of OGBioWar treatments in the last Year+. I may or may not be rid of them, I think I am, but I'm taking no chances for about another year. I'm now doing OGBW about monthly. Good luck. -granger
 

Granger2

Active member
Veteran
An assortment of the usual strains found in other inoculants plus the fungi in Met 52 and Botanigard, BTi, strains that produce Spinosad, etc. Necessary to use both the foliar and root OGBW as a drench. Good luck. -granger
 

KONY

Well-known member
Veteran
I know these pictures are not ideal, but I just got the scope and we made this "slide" yesterday, so the bugs extremities are no longer extended all the way. Doing new potato test now and gonna dial in the USB scope to get some better pics. These pictures are taken at about 45x, these things are very small, almost non visible with naked eye. Only when you are within 6" or so and really focusing you can see them.

74o0KHb.jpg


4cd9NP4.jpg


Also; Anyone that needs to make a "Slide" to view/photo small bugs; my wife came up with great idea;

Do the Potato Test and check hour or 2 later, then use clear packaging tape to lightly grab the bug and hold him still, then use white paper to attach it too gently... they don't die if done correctly or even get squished at all, but will be stuck in place.
 
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Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Acid and baking soda produce copious amounts of CO2, which most insects are sensitive to. I recently used a closed chamber to kill an insect for better picturing and ID, with very good result. An airtight container will pressurize. This is somewhat of a safety concern, but a small bit of pressure is good. The acid/soda will bubble profusely.


If you do find that article, post it up. Myself and I am sure many others, would be interested.
 

KONY

Well-known member
Veteran
Acid and baking soda produce copious amounts of CO2, which most insects are sensitive to. I recently used a closed chamber to kill an insect for better picturing and ID, with very good result. An airtight container will pressurize. This is somewhat of a safety concern, but a small bit of pressure is good. The acid/soda will bubble profusely.


If you do find that article, post it up. Myself and I am sure many others, would be interested.

Funny I found it this am, was saved to my desktop as the pdf instead of bookmarked.

http://www.corpoica.org.co/SitioWeb/WebBac/Documentos/Mitesofgreenhouses.pdf

I found it trying to find out how to correctly identify Beneficial mites versus RA.

Got some slightly better pics with the edge of a penny for scale, starting to look more likes some species of Hypoaspis instead of RA, but not like the Miles pictures i'm seeing:

Taking pictures with this USB scope is a bit of a challenge/learning curve. Gotta find different random objects to propup the slide at the perfect distance away. Then the software it came with sucks, I had one perfect picture and accidentally deleted it.


A9X6JDW.jpg


gJb134v.jpg


sJ6VZTq.jpg


AYxVEz4.jpg
 
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Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Yeah, the feelers are longer typically. There are a few snaps from biocontrol producers, re: Syngenta, that look more like this. Could be a closely related species, though I've noticed a tendency to name any non-pest root dwelling mite as H. miles around this forum. Which is why I push bugguide.net so often :p
 

KONY

Well-known member
Veteran
Man that almost looks like a tick, probably to small though.

Makes sense, Mites and Ticks are in the same family.

Now i'm back to square one trying to figure out what is causing these minor deficiencies and premature yellowing in flower.
Sure looks like Mg deficiency, but I've treated (watered in and foliard) with epsom salts and ej microblast, also made sure wasnt feeding too much K or Ca to lock out Mg.
In the last 6 months have switched to RO water (using cal mg or microblast to make up for micros), thinking maybe our well got contaminated or something.

I guess technically square two, since it's not RA.
 

TheOutlawTree

Active member
Im 28 days into flower.... Just within the last week ive noticed magnesium like deficiency's and slight yellowing of upper leaves. Looked around for about an hour before i spotted a dreaded RA crawling under one of my pots a couple days ago.

Cant believe how resistant these guys are. Met-52 did nothing to stop them, nor did my tripple threat of preventative maintenance.....botaniguard 1x week, SNS-203 1x a week, and Go-gnats 1x a week. Not to mention Bayer doses on day 1 of flower and Cedar as an area spray.

I got a flyer on my sticky traps and took a close look. It has a reddish head, and black/tan striped abdomen. Its the same flyers i had found when i moved into this house. There were 100's of these dead flys all over the house in the corners of the windows etc. We thought they were dead fruit fly's. We bombed the structure either way... Didnt stop them obviously.

After seeing this i uprooted an onion bulb i had planted outside on the porch 2 months ago. This onion plant didnt get any pesticides / treatments. It didnt look bad but wanted to check it out. Keep in mind its winter here in California. Temps at night were anywhere from upper 30's to low 50's at night and 55-70 during the day. I did find that it was covered in slow moving RA' or maybe Bulb Mites about 3 inches under the top of the soil on the top of the bulb where roots where coming out. They looked exactly the same as the ones ive got in my indoor room... Clear tiny tiny slow moving.

I would believe ive got bulb mites but that wouldnt explain the flyers ive seen.

Im going to start using 3-5ml per gal, of 33% hydrogen peroxide with every watering, and up the dose on sns-203. Add Gnatrol since i havent tried it, and maybe some others. What an expensive battle this has been. Thankfully the plants dont look that bad. I think the numbers are low but there still affecting vigor a bit. I still have faith in a harvest this round.

Edit- The flyer I caught must have been a fruit fly- pictures online looks identical, not sure why fruit flys are in my garden though.
 
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TheOutlawTree

Active member
Sesh thank you for the tips, that is helpful. It sounds like it would work great depending on your species of Root Aphid. I happen to have an insanely resistant kind that is very small. You wont see them unless they are on something black. They move really slow. Im likely going to have to start using other chemicals.

Ive already tried Imidacloprid in both small and mega doses with no effect. I also spent a lot of money on the OG biowar roots and foliar and it was not effective (applied once a week), and that was after I applied a heavy dose of imidacloprid while the rooted cuts were IN my EZ cloner.

A couple things I haven't tried.. are Konto's or Bifenthrin.

I would use orthene but every time ive tried it.. it burns the hell out of the plants.
 
Good advice sesh.

Outlawtree, are you using bayer tree and shrub? I think its important to be using a more concentrated product to really dose them up good. I also had the clear guys, they accompanied my brown micro RAs.

Kontos hasnt provided the desired effect so I'm gonna use imidapro 20% @ 5 ml per gal, and also use the riptide pbo at 5ml per gal as a follow up. These fuckers are so bad I've considered leaving CA hoping for an RA free life. good luck guys.
 
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