I have Soil Pests

[PrivateAero]

I have been having a horrible time getting my seedlings to live up to one week, after that they seem to do fine. Then I was looking at the soil today and noticed that when I blow on it these nearly microscopic white bugs go running all over the place. I can't give a better description until I get a magnifying glass.
I decided to cook all of my extra soil and put sticky strip around the rim of all my seedlings to contain the problem. Also I will now cook all soil before using it. I have been spraying neem oil on the leaves every week or so and now I have been spraying the top of the pots.
Does anyone have any other recomendations? Also, can I water with a neem oil solution?

 

[PrivateAero]

I just went to the hydro store and he said it was lice and that it was from over watering, recommended azamax to kill them. Bought it but not sure if i want to use it

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Azamax is a neem tree seed oil-based product. It's just far more expensive than straight neem tree seed oil.

It's safe to use at the recommend mix ratio on the label.

HTH

CC

 

[PrivateAero]

Thx, that makes me feel a lot better

 

[MrBomDiggitty]

they eat roots

 

[PrivateAero]

Who eat roots? the soil pests? I assumed that that was the case.

 

[attila76]

Possible root Aphids

Possible root Aphids

Without pictures its hard to say for sure, but....

You may have Root Aphids, aka Plant Lice, aka Phylloxera.

If I am right then the prognosis is not good. Azamax may not be effective. These buggers may be resistant to it. I know I tried very high doses of it in a DWC hydro system. I also tried nicotine aka tobacco tea, also at high doses.

I could not kill of them, causing serious ph and water issues.

What I had was HIGHLY super resistant. I read on this site that they reproduce asexually. I could even see the nymphs (babies) incubating in the mothers. Appearantly (this is where is gets scary) those nymphs have nymphs in them!!! Mommas with babies with babies. Kill the mother and you only get more bugs.

These pests will slow down the growth of your plants reducing yield.

My solution, what I did:

After two months of veg, having some decent sized plants, I pulled them and soaked and scrubbed EVERYTHING with bleach.

Why, you may ask, why did I do this?

Why not finish them up?

Answer: Because they were going to infect the younger clones and plants that were coming up the line. Even IF I could have made sure to not let infected water mix between groups, still they eventually grow wings and fly around, thereby infecting the rest.

If this is what you have... You may haver to start from scratch, like me.

I can only hope not.

 

[Core]

think you have springtails...push the link i made and you can identify your pests in that thread

 

[MrBomDiggitty]

tobacco juice kills em, no?

 

[muffynumnum]

HomeDepot.com is selling beneficial nematodes "online only" for $20 w/ free shipping. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 A 1/2 pint of ladybugs is $15. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[yortbogey]

http://gardeningzone.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=121

1500 live ladybugz..........$6.50US.................

 

[darookie2000]

http://gardeningzone.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=121

1500 live ladybugz..........$6.50US.................

I don't know if ladybugs work well on this kind of soil pest. It might be worth a try, but I've heard they only work at certain times of year. I got rid of the little tiny crawlies (which looked like a mite when i finally got one to slow down - it could be lice too) with nematodes. I think they came in my soil - I've since stopped using that particular soil because of fungus gnats, but I just noticed that those showed up again last night, like they had in the previous attempt with that soil. I put some neem on them, but I'm not holding my breath. I also put a no pest strip down by them to see if that makes a difference, but I'm not super concerned with them at this point, as they didn't seem to have much of an effect on my flowering plants.

Edit: I just realized why I decided mine were mites or fungus-gnat larvae and not lice - they are round rather than elongated like lice.

 

[darookie2000]

Use azamax as a soil drench, it works well for a lot of things.

 

[darookie2000]

Reading this thread, I just decided to get out the gnatrol and apply some to see if it helps.

 

[PrivateAero]

Thx Core, that is an awesome link, I'm almost positive that it is the lice, none of the other pictures looked as small as what I'm looking at, nearly microscopic.
Thx too everyone else for their input also.
Since the adults don't have any of them, from what I can see, I am going to treat my current and future seedlings with azamax and any of them that don't live (about 2/3's) I flush and cook the soil and sanitize the container to keep these little buggers under control.
I'm also watering from the bottom since I noticed that they stay at the top inch or so of soil. I'm going to wait until they are all dead before starting any more seedlings.

 

[muffynumnum]

http://gardeningzone.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=121

1500 live ladybugz..........$6.50US.................

Where's the free shipping?

 

[PrivateAero]

To update, I used azamax and have been watering from the bottom. I'm currently culling any seedling that looks weak and still has a lot of lice. I've almost gotten rid of them and only killed a quarter of my seedlings. The azamax seemed to work with the healthier ones but the weak ones it didn't seem to help at all.

 

[attila76]

photo id of Phylloxera

photo id of Phylloxera

Trying my first attachment on this site:

Is this what you see in the hand held at 60X?

 

[PrivateAero]

don't have a magnifying glass, or microscope yet, picking one up tomorrow, any recommendations?