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Fungus gnats or WINGED ROOT APHIDS???

d4nk

Member
bugs in coco depends on your area I believe. Here in colorado there are so many gardens and crappy growers I believe they being their bugs to the hydro store. Have heard canna is still bug free though
 

shmalphy

Member
Veteran
Hydro stores are where they come from for most people. Invasive species have come in on supplies forever, and once they get into that perfect indoor garden, it's like the holy land to them.

It was the same way in France with the wine crop, in Ireland with the potato famine. One bad apple ruins the bunch. Thousands of new growers with bad practices breeding resistant diseases have caused outbreaks everywhere.

This is why I won't go to cannabis conventions. I feel like I will have to walk through a car wash to decontaminate or I will end up with a resistant strain of mites. I have a conspiracy theory about the feds dropping bugs places to weaken the strength of the movement dollar wise, like biological warfare. They are obviously capable, and have the motive..
 
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sarek

Member
one thing I noticed is that around here the wings of the adult fungus gnats vs Phyloxera are opposite. The creatures look the same, but one has wings folded back along the body, the other has wings straight up. Dont recall which is which right now, but easy to know cos I always have low level fungus gnats and I dont care. But there may be different specias but thats one way I notice difference which is what this thread is titled.

Imidacloprid works great but most people use it incorrectly or get reinfected so it ends up about hygienne not pesticides.
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
Adults look different by what I can tell. Aphids retain their larger abdomens and small heads with nearly no thorax region thru out their life.

While Fungus Gnats start off as maggots, then pupate into flies.

Fungus Gnat larva,... I missed getting this fuckers head by less than a nanosecond.... but the hairless tube with the darker vein down the middle of it right in the center of the pic is one of the fungus gnat maggots. It's head is solid black and makes me think of an ant or caterpillar, just like the adults.



picture.php


Here's a pupa,... look on the LEFT side of the pic, about halfway up,... it almost looks like a root,... but it's segmented.
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Adult flier, you can clearly see the large round head and elongated thorax,... what can't be seen under the wings is the long cone shaped abdomen.
picture.php
 

BIGGS

**********
Veteran
i'm in week 8 of flowering, is there anything i can use to battle these fuckers? will introducing ladybirds in my garden help at all?

also will they attack my bud while its drying? any info would be great, cheers.
 

mg75

Member
i'm in week 8 of flowering, is there anything i can use to battle these fuckers? will introducing ladybirds in my garden help at all?

also will they attack my bud while its drying? any info would be great, cheers.

unless you have an 15 week sativa, i would not do anything.
harvest and salvage what is good. get rid of all your old infected medium. bomb the room twice and then clean the room twice.

not root aphids nor fungus gnats eat buds. they both attack the roots which looks like nutrient/ph issues.

they are very hard to get rid off unless you treat every aspect of your farm.
 

BIGGS

**********
Veteran
unless you have an 15 week sativa, i would not do anything.
harvest and salvage what is good. get rid of all your old infected medium. bomb the room twice and then clean the room twice.

not root aphids nor fungus gnats eat buds. they both attack the roots which looks like nutrient/ph issues.

they are very hard to get rid off unless you treat every aspect of your farm.

cheers for the info bro. started flushing last night. i've also lowered my temps to see if it will help slow them down abit. going to have to give the room a serious deep clean once everythings chopped down.
 

Critter

Think for yourself, question authority
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I think the cheap coco im getting off amazon might have em cause i cleaned and i saw one this morning :( Only thing intro'd was the coco...How should i steralize coco? Oven?what temp? Steam? how long to kill the dormant larva? Any feedback is much apprieciated. Also how long to wait for seedling to treat with imid and azatrol and exciter and that liquid expensive stuff(forgot name) that now im reading dosnt work...
 

MjBuddah

New member
ok, first off fuck these things!! they are a nightmare. I think I was finally able to kill these f'ers off in my jardin. and i had em bad!!! I had been using azatrol as a preventative, but that only killled off some of the population and they came firing back. So, i tried mosquito dunks aka bacillus thrugenesis isrelisis. nothing. So.... I said F it... no more organic route.First , is started off with a pyrethin bomb. I then used Imid. Complete Insect Killer by Bayer. I dipped and drenched with Imid 1x. I then drenched with Botanigard. and i also foilar sprayed with botaniagard and azatrol. I then read that Imid HAS A 900 DAY HALF-LIFE!!!!!! or some shit.... So...I was able to find ACETAMAPRID by ORtho... its a nicotnic insectiside like Imid but it has a very short half-life, which is why its used on fruits and vegggies, e.g., cherry famers use it. So... I'm doing Imid 1x; Botanigard 3x at 1 week intervals. Azatrol 3x at 1 week intervals. and ORtho 2x at 1 week intervals. and i vaccuum any fliers
 

inreplyavalon

breathe deep
Veteran
So... I'm doing Imid 1x; Botanigard 3x at 1 week intervals. Azatrol 3x at 1 week intervals. and ORtho 2x at 1 week intervals. and i vaccuum any fliers

Are you planning on stopping the imid? It is such a challenge to find the actual working/effective ingredients when using so man different things.
I just had my fist truly successful garden in a while and did it using, Met52, Bayer complete (imid), and one dose of botanigard. I suspect the Met52 is doing most of the work so this next round i will use only that on a few different plants. Its all i am using in veg at the moment and the plants are happy
 

BIGGS

**********
Veteran
anyone heard of 'nematodes? just read about them and their supposed to :

The nematodes will find the root aphids for you and kill them from the inside out. Nematodes are safe for use around plants, pets and people.

heres what i found on them:

Nematodes(eel worms) are one of the most abundant creatures in the living soil. They are an essential part of the soil food web. Some of them feed on plants, some feed on dead organic matter, and others are parasites of other living organisms. Just as there are "bad bacteria" and "good bacteria" from the human perspective, so there are "bad nematodes" and "good nematodes" in the soil The nematodes that feed on living plant material can be considered to be "bad nematodes" - eg the potato eelworm. However nematodes that kill other plant pests are considered "good nematodes" - eg the nematode that kills slugs.

Parasitic nematodes seek out suitable hosts by swimming in the thin film of water on soil particles, locating hosts by detecting carbon dioxide and other waste products. Once they find a host, they enter the body cavity through the mouth, anus or spiracles, and release bacteria (Xenorhabdus). The bacteria kills the host within hours, and the nematodes grow and reproduce within the 'broth', which they produce. The next generation of infective juveniles leaves the dead host, and moves in search of fresh hosts. Infected hosts become brown and flaccid, but once dead can be difficult to find in soil.

Temperature and humidity are important to the success of these biological controls. Nematodes travel by slithering around the soil particles so the soil needs to be kept moist. If it is hot and dry they will either shrivel and die or hide away deep underground. (On the other hand they don't survive very waterlogged ground - they will actually drown within about 2 hours if placed in water). Likewise if the soil is freezing the nematodes will perish. Most beneficial nematodes will not survive a British winter outside and will need to be reapplied each year.

However in answering the question "When do I apply" it is more important to focus on the pest you are trying to kill. For example slugs can be found outside in every season apart from winter, and in glasshouses all year round. However if you are aiming to kill chafer bugs, for example, then you need to hit them when the larvae are young in August and September.
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
Fuck,... I had Nematodes all over my girls while I was cleaning up after what may have been RA's,.... Now I can't find one to save my ass.


The fungus gnat pics I posted were in my peppers,.... they get kinda neglected over the winter :eek::

Did manage to get a macro of a predatory mite that I found living in my soil, and a spring tail too. Both are beneficial, so as long as the population doesn't explode I'm back on the right track.

Got both of em in this pic
picture.php

Spring tail
picture.php

Predator
picture.php
 
Are you sure that is not some type of root aphid or at least what some people are calling root aphids?

The ones that i have(I call them "micros") look pretty much just like that and they cause all the plants to get diseased. Other people have root aphids that are larger and can be seen without a scope. I have heard of people having both types, maybe different life stages.

I dont know anything about entomology so I am considering capturing one of them and taking it to the local university to find out what it really is.
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
I'm pretty certain it's a predatory mite, Not a botanist, nor an entomologist, biologist, or scientist myself. But I know what google is, and have found numerous images of predatory mites that look exactly the same as these guy's. Description of environment, and behavior also line up with what I'm seeing in my garden.

Random Google find tonight,....
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~maminor/mites.html


My plants are happy and healthy, very vibrant at the moment. So the presence of these critters is NOT hurting them.

Here's the plant I pulled that soil from, end of first week of flower.... (sorry for the orange HPS glow, she's actually very pretty green, but I need to adjust her inbound PH, little low for her. )
picture.php
 

pinecone

Sativa Tamer
Veteran
@Canniwhatsis You could put some mulch on your pots and make a better habitat for the good critters.

Pine
 

castout

Active member
Veteran
Anyone ever heard of merit 75? I just got some from a fellow grower, and he says it is great...will be doing a test. Keep y'all posted.................
 

420med

New member
Haven't seen anyone mention "mallet 2f t&o" by nufarm. I thought I had gnats a few months ago so my boy at the grow store gave me a syringe full of this stuff. I only added 1.0 ml per gallon to my 40 gal res and It worked wonders. I didnt see anything else for over month and a half until yesterday (winged flyers). I went to buy a bottle of this stuff due to high recommendation from my friend at the hydro store, its like 80 bucks but worth it supposively. I think I had a good chance of beating the apids the first time If I followed up on a treatment but didnt investigate due to writing off as fungal gnats. I'm going to use this again to see if I can wipe the out for good. I did kill everything in site when I thought I had gnats but obviouslly it was a severe root aphid infestation due to me switchcing to rockwool and overwatering. It says it can be used in veggie crops, cut off harvest varies on the msds sheet but is still under 21 days I believe check it out. http://www.cdms.net/LDat/ld9I1002.pdf Ill update when treatment is applied. FYI my plants did a little pissed off (yellowing) on the first treatment of Mallet 2f but reovered 100% after 10 days.

P.s. I have a few flyers but no real visible damage except a little yellowing in new growth after no treatment for 1.5 months. I have the little black bastards as walkers, temps are perfect 82, RH 40%, co2and a sealed room. Im running rockwool with silica rocks in netpots below. sorry couldnt remember all the info
 

Critter

Think for yourself, question authority
ICMag Donor
Veteran
FYI The above post mentioning rockwool reminded me.

I had a pack of rockwool starters...I broke one open and inspected*There were thousands of black things(bugs) and whole adults(fliers) all through it and in every other one I opened up!

So I trashed it fast as hell ~ I think this is where mine(micros) came from. That or my coco but i cant find any in my dried blocks of coco...
 

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