War Room - Operation: Root Aphid

[Tmac12]

I think McNugget scrapped his grow, have not seen him in ages.

 

[PBRMJ]

I just read this thread a couple of days ago, because I had root aphids and was looking for a cure. I thought they were fungus gnats as well but they were hurting my girls badly I cut them down. I was on like day 50 of flowering now what. Make hash, butter are they ok to smoke don't know couldn't find any info anywhere.

 

[Tmac12]

I guess it would depend on what treatments you did and how long ago it was. Maybe make hash out of them. Cause you will be getting rid of the water and just keeping the trichs. I probably would not make butter.

 

[PBRMJ]

The only thing I tried was gnatrol and the last time I used that was about 5 days before they came down I had started to give them plain water after that cause they were about to come down anyway.

 

[Tmac12]

Is that something you flush the soil with or apply to the leaves?? If it is a flush I would do what ever you want with the plant and not worry. If it was applied to the plant....hmmm not sure because I have never used it.

 

[PBRMJ]

Gnatrol has bacillus thuringiensis which is commonly used as a biological alternative to pesticides

 

[Tmac12]

Then I would do what ever you feel like doing then, what ever is most comfortable to you.

 

[PBRMJ]

Thanks Tmac. from what I've read on these things they are very hard to eliminate. I figured they would do more harm before I could kill them off and complete my grow.

I was wondering if anybody knows now that the plants have been cut down will the aphids die off if any are left in the buds or will they continue to feed on the buds.


Thanks again Tmac +reps for you.

 

[Tmac12]

I know you did the right thing. I really dont know, but would "think" if they are still present when you jar the buds, it will kill them. You really need to get rid of the soil and clean very well. And a waiting period would not be a bad idea if you can wait awhile. Do you know how you got them?

Thanks for the reps~

 

[PBRMJ]

I don't know where they came from and it pissed me off. I'm going to wait a week or two maybe. I have some seeds in towels right now they will start somewhere else. I was cleaning all day today. I'm going Hempy with my next grow so won't be using that soil except for my backyard maybe.

 

[wohlichen]

i don't think root aphids eat the buds, pretty sure they feed on the roots
buds shouldn't have root aphids on them as far as i know

 

[kenjammn]

mannn i feel your guys pain, i left for a vacation and left my plants in the care of my good buddy(1st mistake), he did a great job the girls were 3x the size and healthy looking, I neglected to mention him that checking the root zone for bugs might be a good idea(2nd mistake) came back and right off the bat noticed bugs flying and moving around in the root zone, I looked carefully and saw a hefty root aphid infestation. I took all of my girls out of the grow room and into the shower, i ran all the pots through running water and watched as thousands of root aphids gushed out the bottom. i think i got to about 80% of them, put them back in the grow room and started drenching them with Sns203 (stuff works, the fuckers seem to hate it and crawl out of the medium/hydroton)
All seemed well for a couple of weeks I was drenching them every 5-6 days(3rd mistake) should have been drenching them every day or every other day but didnt have the time. All that work and they came back in full force. I think its becuse we had a week of nice hot weather they seemed to love that. the infestation got insane to the point where these things were eatin my roots, maturing into these little winged aphids and getting stuck in my sweet sweet buds in a time frame of about two days, every time i would do a drench these bastards would fly out of the medium trying to avoid it and get stuck in crystaly buds, after a while my buds started to looked like little peppered fly paper. DR. MCNUGGET you finally answered my brain twisting question, i Knew that the the winged ones that got stuck in the buds were mature root aphids but what the fuck were these small tiny black specks (sometimes in clusters) that looked like mini aphids, they were usually stuck right next the the winged aphids???? they must be those female baby nymphs that you were talking about, i thought i had an additional leaf aphid problem.
sorry about the long story but in the end i couldn't stand all the flying bugs in my room and couldn't stand watching my girls turn into fly paper so i put them outside, 6th week into flowering!!!!! it sucked. im starting over cleaned,bleached,hotshots no-pest stripped the place for a couple of days.
If i learned anything from this whole experience(other than go on a vacation for weeks and let someone take car of your plants) is that............. if you get clones from the dispensarys make sure you do a root zone pesticide drench (make sure it wont harm the plant as they are very fragile as cuttings) wash all the leaves off with water or soapy water to get the leaf critters off, clean and de-bug your cuttings before you plug them into your main grow room and if you do get these things make sure your on top of it, recognize them, catch them early and treat them early with multiple applications till there gone! this goes for any pests, fungy gnats, spidey mites anything. PREVENTING THESE THINGS ARE ALOT EASIER THAN HAVING TO TACKLE A INFESTATION!!! Hopefully this info will help someone because my fingers hurt from all this typing!!

ps: has anyone tried azamax or azatrol as a drench? does it work to kill the aphids or does it just repel them? wondering if i should use it as preventative measures.

 

[wohlichen]

i agree treat clones like they have everything i don't know for sure but i think thats how i ended up with root aphids

i'm in the 7 week of flowering now and flushing with the 2 plants that have them i know i never completely got rid of them but my plants are finishing

i used bayer fruit and veggie contains imidacloprid and is systemic in the 2nd week of flower its supposed to be out of the plants in 30 days
after that i dunk them in safer insecticide soap for 4 min
top drenched with azamax and sprayed any i saw with pyrethrin
this knocks them down good but they come back
i continue adding azamax and safer soap with regularly with waterings
and dunked once more with safer soap and sprayed around pots and on top of medium with pyretherin
needless to say they did effect the plants and all this wierd watering threw things way out of wack and yield decreased

i'm bombing and cleaning in the next week or so hope they go with the plants

sounds like you had them bad if you had that may adults sticking to your buds bummer

 

[kenjammn]

cool thanks man! im glad someone is winning the battle, hope you have a bountiful harvest.
Im hoping to keep this new batch as pest free as i can. The place i got em specializes in clones so they do a pretty good job of keeping clean & healthy cuts. The visual inspection seems to checks out but just to be sure i did a root drenched with sns203 for about a 1/2 hr then ran water on the roots just to clean them off, washed the leaves with soapy water, hit em with sm90, and finally some good ol' neem. Now that i think about it maybe i should have concentrated on the root zone a bit more, hey i was wondering if you have tried bayer fruit and veg on rooted cuttings or if i should wait till the roots are a bit more developed? i dont have any root aphids but as a preventitive measure, or am i being paranoid?

sux.... it looks like some of the girls i put outside are goin into shock and its starting to rain....damn.....oh well that was expected, probably gonna harvest early.

ATTN: THROWIN PLANTS OUTSIDE 7 WKS INTO FLOWERING....BAD IDEA!!!! ESPECIALLY IF ITS RAINING. MOLDY SHOCK

 

[pjmdog]

Have you tried Azamat?

 

[wohlichen]

i did use the bayer fruit and veggie on some clones too for preventative
i didn't use much though 4 mil in a quart split between 4 2 week old clones

 

[wohlichen]

i don't like to use that stuff i only used it once and don't want to again really i'd rather try to keep it organic as long as i can but these root aphids are hard to get rid of it seems
the dunks in the safer soap worked the best i'd say but i'm sure the bayer helped
i use azamax too for drenching

 

[Mork]

I know this thread is old, but I too am dealing with root aphids. I thought they were just fungas gnats until I looked at them under my microscope. I received a free sample of SNS 203 a few days ago and decided to try it. I used 3 ounces per gallon of water. I added three gallons of water to my 5 gallon pot. The stuff started killing the aphids right away. I went ahead and sprayed the leaves too just as a precaution. I have heard great things about SNS- 217, but SNS-203 is even better in my opinion. According to the label it kills thrips, fungas gnats, root aphids, white flies, and shore flies. Best of all I haven't seen any signs of shock on my mother plant!

Here is a link to the Siera Natural Science's website (I think they are also a 420 sponsor): SNS203

 

[glassking420]

So I'm mid flower (Day 31) with a root aphid infestation. She originally had them in veg and was treated right before transplanting. She responded very well to the Bayer so I opted to not treat a second time at flip. Big mistake. So now there back and she's dying. I'm going to try a root soak with Ed's Zero Tolerance but I'm definitely not expecting it to wipe em out. Botinaguard and nematodes are in my battle strategy but I'm open to all suggestions. Keep in mind I'm just over 4 weeks....

hey bro i can actually save us some time and effort here....basically when attacking any pest you gotta understand the pest how it lives and how it breeds................basically if your infestation of root aphids has gotten to the point they are flying around then they are at bare minimum third generation and have developed wings to survive because they no longer can sustain the colony on just the individual root base of your plant...depending on what your growing in is how you deal with problem....either way a root drench is the start ...id reccomend...this formula....per gallon...10 ml neem oil..37 ml botanigaured..7 ml of pyretherum...3.7 ml of coco wet...basically without getting technical this is a nuclear bomb of natural oils on ur roots....flush with water....do it again....bomb ur room with a pyretrum fogger....wipe all surfaces with bleach and add pyreth-it to your rez or feeding schedule...repeat in two weeks....end of story...the trick to these fuckers is to act fast....if the organic way like this doesnt work...go with a insecticide with imd in it...bayer tree and shrub....but remember systemics stay in ur plant for bare minumum of 60 days so this is not an option for u....

 

[The303Stoner]

mosquito dunkers work best for in-soil best con it will kill your beneficial bugs to.