Help me kill it!!!

[nomoreschwag]

I need help asap or my lovely NL girl will be toast. I've got a NL#5 clone in a 5 gallon bucket outside. She's been flowering along nice and healthy and since the weather has been cooperating I haven't had to hike out to the patch to do any watering for the past 10-14 days. Today I had the day off and it was raining so I decided to take the hike and check on my plants. The NL has some kind of bugs eating my roots. They look like big termites, white grubby termites. I don't know how long the infestation has been going on, but it was enough that the plant couldn't support itself along with the weight from the rain. I'm afraid if I don't get this delt with in the next day or so I'll lose her. So if anyone knows what the hell these little bastards are, or better yet, how to kill them without killing my plant please please fill me in.

 

[Guest]

Try some Diamatacious Earth. It is sharp volcanic sand that cuts the insects body. They dehydrate very quickly. Another organic method is Bacillis Thuringeinsis var. Israelensis. It is a live bacteria thay feeds on grubs and it acts immediatly. You'll be looking for a larvaecide called Gnatrol.

Hope this helps,
Seed

 

[nomoreschwag]

There aren't any garden centers around here. Can I get this stuff at something like a Walmart, Lowes, Hope Depot, etc?

 

[Guest]

Here is a testimonial from a reputed gardening site. I have never personally tried this method but I will. Does anyone have any feedback on this?

Seed


I have been growing lots of plants from a seed, and using various store-bought soils
like Miracle-Gro etc. In the past I have had problems with storebought soil and their guaranteed fungus gnats. So this time I looked up how to prevent them and went with the microwaving the soil method (50% power for 15 min) Nevertheless, it's so easy for even one to find its way in if someone gives you cut flowers or you open a window. So of course I got infested. It was crazy -- in no time I had tons of visible clear skinny fungus gnat maggots in the soil, not to mention tons of flying adults. Drying out the soil doesn't work b/c they can suspend their development to wait for moisture to return. Plus my plants were using a lot of water.
I tried everything else: dishsoap solution, BTI, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, cayenne, etc. Nothing made a difference.

THEN I read about hot water. Yes, simple hot water! You might think it will damage/burn your plants but no, they tolerate it very well. What doesn't tolerate it at all are the fungus gnat maggots! If you don't believe me, you can test it yourself -- pluck a few out of the soil when they come to the surface at night. Put them in a dish and put some hot water on them. They die instantly.

How hot? Hand hot. In my apt, it's as hot as the water is allowed to get. But the temp is one that doesn't burn you but it's too hot to keep your hand under the faucet for more than 15-30 at a time.

To apply to plants, you dont need a lot. Just enough to cover the entire surface and take a few seconds to soak down through. With small pots, maybe a 1/2 cup or a cup.

I've tried this on all my plants (marigolds, irises, morning glories, vincas, four oclocks, mint, basil, pansies, petunias, impatiens, snapdragons, etc.

I was so excited about the results, I had to post -- this is my first post! Just a few days ago I had complete infestation in several pots (pulled out 20 maggots each and still had tons more writhing around) and tons of adults flying around. ONE treatment of hot water wiped the maggots out almost entirely -- there are even very few adults left now b/c no babies are taking their place. But I will keep it up in case they are laying any eggs. The plants don't seem to mind the hot water treatment one bit and I've already done it 2-3 times for many.

p.s. Yellow sticky traps work really well too to catch the adults and hurry the process along.

 

[Guest]

No man. Those products I named are pretty exclusive to nursuries. That hot-water info I rounded up from Garden-Web is real interesting tho....

Seed

 

[MTF-Sandman]

You can get either BT or DE at most home improvement stores like Lowes or HD.

BT will be in the mosquito control area...you'll probably have to read the active ingredients list to find it, but Mosquito Dunks are based on BT...as well as a few others.

DE is pretty easy to find as well...it'll be in the general insect control area and is usually sold in 5lb or larger bags.

 

[sproutco]

They look like big termites, white grubby termites.

Could be. They will attack plants. I would get some pest control granules that contain something like dursban or diazinon and sprinkle them on the ground over the roots and surrounding soil. Check out the fireant control granules. Don't get crazy with the rate. Use maybe 1/2 of the label rate. I might follow the directions for use on a fire ant mound. It may be helpful to water the granules in. Neither of these poisons are systemic and won't go into the plant.

 

[bp420]

spreading seed, thanks for that little tid bit on fungas gnats. quite helpful.

i wonder if you were to use hot water as dunking method for DWC. (ie. bucket full of hot water, dunk the roots for a 1 minute or so)
what do people think?...i'd imagine the hot water would still kill the larvae, but i wonder if the hot water would hurt the plant....

 

[nomoreschwag]

Thank you all very much for the quick help. After work I went to Lowes and bought some ant, grub, etc killer that you sprikle on the soil and then water in. Supposed to kill them in 24hrs.
So its a sure thing that I'm not going to poison myself smoking these buds (if it makes it) in the fall?

 

[dagnabit]

sevin dust works well on soil crawlies.
but like malithaion or diazanon alot of people hate on it cuz its NOT a "green" product. insanely effictive and easily aquireable though.

 

[sproutco]

Thank you all very much for the quick help. After work I went to Lowes and bought some ant, grub, etc killer that you sprikle on the soil and then water in. Supposed to kill them in 24hrs.
So its a sure thing that I'm not going to poison myself smoking these buds (if it makes it) in the fall?

99% of the granules are nonsystemic so you have no worry. You didn't get orthene (acephate) did you? That would not be good.

 

[Guest]

de=crushed coral=used for your pool filter...and can be found anyware they sell pool supply products

 

[nomoreschwag]

The active ingrediant in the bag of stuff I put on the plant is "Lambda-Cyhalothrin"

 

[sproutco]

No problem. Sprinkle that on. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/l_cyhalogen.pdf#search="Lambda-Cyhalothrin"

 

[nomoreschwag]

I'm no botanist, but to me it looked like the stuff wouldn't be absorbed by the plant??

Also...how long does it take a typical plant to recover from a root munching? I would think the roots would be one of the worst places to get attacked during flower.