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Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

EclipseFour20

aka "Doc"
Veteran
Beta...I grow from seeds--and clone from my own. Zero "new clones" were admitted to my environment. I wish I could blame foreign clones...but, as you can see in my situation--there were zero. BTW, I sterilize the pumice but nothing else.

Can not think of another explanation to my simple side by side test? Untreated soil had RAs & treated soil have ZERO RAs...any other ideas? I would love to help solve this riddle!
 
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RetroGrow

Active member
Veteran
Springtails[/URL] are a common jumping bug and are an indication of soil fertility; They are entirely harmless.

There are over 200 types of springtails, and while mostly harmless, some will attack plants if there normal food supply, mold and fungus, is depleted. They are beneficial for the most part as they eat micro organisms in the soil, including spores. Some types can be harmful, however, for the most part they are harmless to our plants as long as their is sufficient humidity. If conditions get dry, they can cause problems.
 

stuntedgrowth

New member
Thank you everyone for you time and effort in posting all this information. I went the fungus gnat route until I found a white moldy substance, etc, etc...
So, I was at a good time to pull my garden out and did exactly that.

I was using a strategy that was suppressing them. I run a recirculating bubbler bucket setup, basicly DWC. I treated the 'mold' with h2o2 6ml/gallon with my nutes and hygrozyme then I would block my drain tubes and turn off all the air stones except the one in the bucket and let it fill up until it was percolating through the hydroton. Then I fried all the little fuckers that came to the top with my vape torch and then sprayed the crap out of the top with azamax. Day by day less and less flyers were coming out the top during flooding. There were lots of dead aphids all over the place, but I just couldn't get them out of the roots and the roots would have taken weeks to recover if I did get them out. So, they got pulled, room stripped and cleaned. Starting over next week.

So, I have some questions about these?
1)Are these things common in the denver area?
 
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stuntedgrowth

New member
and since I put all the old roots and stuff in my yard to dry out, is my yard now infected. Will they die outside here in CO? I just don't want these lil fuckers back. Did I get them from clones? Or the hydroton? Where did they come from?
 

drymouth

Member
I was wondering if someone can help me make a decesion on which method i should go with?

1) my plants are in a very rich organic mix (supersoil SC recipe)

2) my plants are looking fantastic!

3) There starting there 3rd week today!

4) The root zones have been inoculated with Xtream mico's and are really taken care of.

Ok now for the bad news.

1) I have Id'ed them as RA it's a prety modoret infestation.... some black ones some red belly ones....

2) There are flyers but they seem to be dieing off!:dunno: they are'nt that active in flying, they could be found on the floor struggling for life! Not that many on the cards to, maybe 1 or 2 on each yellow trap.

3) This is there second attempt to infeast me, I seen them early on in veg but did'nt know really what they were? By the time i notice them in veg, there were just a bunch of dead flyer on the ground and on the leaf no crawlers and still plants look fantastic! and So i pay no attention.

4) A month or so later.... i see these dead flyers:dunno: again! yesterday I notice the crawlers but still no phantom mag def, no nothing they look awsome!


My question now, do i go to the extreem and go with the tree and shrub out the gate? or do I just flood them with neemotodes and try to keep them at bay till harvest, and watering less and letting them dry out before rewatering?
 

drymouth

Member
I'm trying to do this as organic as possible but i will make an exception for one bayer applacation. I dont really have much funds so Botanicare and all the other pricey methods are out of the question.

I was thinking of just flooding them with NT and making a tanglfood barier around the brims and bases to contain them while the NT fuck them up! what do yall think? Please someone help as this is my third attempt on asking!
 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I have them as well. If you dont put anything on the plant you can use anything. I have a heavy infestation from a bad bag of soil. I bought some raid and sprayed the entire room. Floor,walls,pots and the top of the soil. This killed everything. I dont know if this will kill the eggs as well.

I dont put any of this on the plant. These buggers live in the soil. I found very few on the plants and thats with hundreds of the crawling everywhere.

I dont think these eat the plant. I believe they eat dead roots and fungus. My plants dont seem to be affected by them but I know that they are stressed and the yield will suffer.

I grow Organic as well and dont want anything on my plants. I will try this a few times seems to be working. If not I will get some 3 in 1 safer soap it is OMRI certified for Organics. This will kill them I have used it before. Its not as strong as the raid in my case I needed a heavy hitter since I had a bad infestation.
 

drymouth

Member
I'm really leaning towards my first method which is

goop up all the brims and bases of pots (tangelfoot)

next, 1 application bayer tree&shrubs 5ml per gallon (after the pots have really dried up almost to the point of willt!)

Note: I'm just starting my 3rd week! If i use neematodes and they fail.... I will not have no time to go the bayer way!

what do yall think? I'm thinking its better to be safe then sorry! but if someone can pursued me to do other wise. based off experiance then i will consider the NT organic way. fuck i'm hella indecisive!


My bad on my spelling and grammer....
 

RetroGrow

Active member
Veteran
You should use Bayer Advanced now, before it get's worse. That has Imid which is the only thing that is guaranteed to kill them. Tree & Shrub is for trees and shrubs. Bayer Advanced or Bayer Citrus are for flowering plants and food crops. You are in veg, correct?
By the way, they DO eat and destroy the roots.
The things that eat fungus/mold/spores are springtails, which are beneficials for the most part.
Don't procrastinate using the Bayer, because eventually the roots will be damaged to the point where the plants won't drink.
 
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Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
just depends how far into flower they are. I f mine had a week to go I would have done nothing. Since I'm early into flower I have options. I want them gone so I wont need to use anything late in flower. There easy to kill they just have allot of numbers. The eggs and the ones in the soil need to come out to kill them. Unless you water with 3 in one safer soap. Drench the soil wit this and its says it will kill all of them eggs as well.
 

drymouth

Member
Hammerhead, thank you for responding I know safers soap works but from what I read they come back in a few weeks, right? if they do come back in late flower do you think they still have the strength in numbers to fuck my shit up like spider mites will? if so then maybe I'll ride it out with NT.
 

drymouth

Member
Retro, may bad I didn't see your post so you would go wit the citrus? I got that on deck and the tree and shrub to, the only reason I said T&S is cause the the first post say's you can use the T&S as long as your 21 to 41 days out from harvest, I'm 54 days from harvest, that puts me in the right window frame right?

Or you think the citrus will knock them back?
 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
They have some that you water your plants with it. I just bought a bunch of it . If there kept under control the worst will be a yield loss. I had a major infestation and my plants dont look bad at all.
 

echo_chamber

Active member
My opinion is DONT use Bayer Tree & Shrub in flowering, that is for veg only. Its a higher % of Imidacloprid. Since you are only 3 weeks in, use Bayer Fruit & Vegetable which is a lower % of Imidacloprid..Bayer is 30-45 day systemic insecticide, so as long as you don't harvest in that time you'll be good. If you can apply at least 2 times you'll be good. Bayer Fruit & Vegetable completely killed my root aphid problem and i had it bad in both veg & flower rooms, adults, babies, flyers, you name it.. Imidacloprid got rid of them all and i've never seen them in over a year.

I was wondering if someone can help me make a decesion on which method i should go with?

From here on out, just use this stuff in veg and you'll be golden by flower time :)

1) my plants are in a very rich organic mix (supersoil SC recipe)

2) my plants are looking fantastic!

3) There starting there 3rd week today!

4) The root zones have been inoculated with Xtream mico's and are really taken care of.

Ok now for the bad news.

1) I have Id'ed them as RA it's a prety modoret infestation.... some black ones some red belly ones....

2) There are flyers but they seem to be dieing off!:dunno: they are'nt that active in flying, they could be found on the floor struggling for life! Not that many on the cards to, maybe 1 or 2 on each yellow trap.

3) This is there second attempt to infeast me, I seen them early on in veg but did'nt know really what they were? By the time i notice them in veg, there were just a bunch of dead flyer on the ground and on the leaf no crawlers and still plants look fantastic! and So i pay no attention.

4) A month or so later.... i see these dead flyers:dunno: again! yesterday I notice the crawlers but still no phantom mag def, no nothing they look awsome!


My question now, do i go to the extreem and go with the tree and shrub out the gate? or do I just flood them with neemotodes and try to keep them at bay till harvest, and watering less and letting them dry out before rewatering?
 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I just got back from local hydro shop. They had some stuff forgot name it was 70$ it was a powder you mix and water your plants I did not buy it I just got some safer 3 in 1 soap Untill my concentrate shows up.
 

drymouth

Member
Thank you, echo_chamber for that responds today I'm going to flood the pots (the dry ones) with the citrus&fruit what rate did u use?
 

RetroGrow

Active member
Veteran
Retro, may bad I didn't see your post so you would go wit the citrus? I got that on deck and the tree and shrub to, the only reason I said T&S is cause the the first post say's you can use the T&S as long as your 21 to 41 days out from harvest, I'm 54 days from harvest, that puts me in the right window frame right?

Or you think the citrus will knock them back?



Use Bayer Advanced Or Bayer Citrus. I cannot understand why people continue to spread disinformation about this subject. Imid is the only thing that will kill them permanently with a single application. You do not want to use Tree & Shrub because it is for trees and shrubs, and will linger longer in your medium, especially soil. There is a reason why they made Advanced and citrus. It is for flowering, fruiting plants. Can be safely used on food crops, anywhere from 7-21 days before consumption, depending on the fruit. Read the label. You are safe to use it now. Only one application is needed. Takes a while for all of them to die, as it's systemic, and they die after ingesting it. Do not use Raid, or other products, as they will not eradicate them completely. I prefer the Bayer Advanced, as it also contains a contact killer which will kill fungus gnats and other pests. All of this has been explained earlier in the thread, but the thread has become so big that often people don't read from the beginning, and there has been a lot of disinformation lately.
If your plants are drinking, it will be no problem to kill them with a single application.

 
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