Help! Monsters in my coco eating the roots!

[VladimirPutin]

Apparently the larvae that you see in the top photo were on the surface of my coco. And the 2nd photo shows the older insects eating all the root fuzz and killing my plant below the surface.

I already eradicated them... I think.

Has anyone else had this problem in coco?

Maybe I'm just paranoid and it was a one time occurrence from when I bought a soil potted pure sativa plant in colombia for $3 at the farmer's market last month and it was already infected.

 

[VladimirPutin]

 

[VladimirPutin]

 

[Major PITA]

Looks like root aphids to me. If so, they are a bitch to get rid of. At different stages of their life cycle, they are in the roots, on the plant leaves, and flying around. Several grows ago I had to resort to multiple sprays and drenches with Azatrol for anything to be effective at controlling them.

 

[VladimirPutin]

Thank you Major,

I googled their image and you got that one correct 100%

Removing all the soil medium from the plant's roots should have taken them out. I suppose most gardeners wouldn't resort to something so aggressive as blasting the roots with water until all substrate gone?

either way, a google search returned the exact same symptoms I have

"Damage from root aphids is usually visible in a lack of vigor from plants. Withered, curled, and yellow leaves, similar to signs of nutrient deficiencies, appear and plants fail to reach the size of uninfested plants. Fruits and blossoms on aphid infested plants will be small, stunted, and generally less desirable as nutrition is siphoned away from them.

Attacks from root aphids can leave plants vulnerable to root rot, mildew, and disease.

Visible symptoms, like yellowing leaves, often lead growers to consider adding certain minerals, usually magnesium, to their nutrient mixture, often with no result."


so ... case closed for now

 

[NuttyProfessor]

Horrible !!!

 

[VladimirPutin]

So it's been only 5 days and the disgusting bugs are still gone. I like that

New roots started shooting out of the old dead ones , whoopee!

V

 

[Major PITA]

So it's been only 5 days and the disgusting bugs are still gone. I like that

New roots started shooting out of the old dead ones , whoopee!

V

What did you use to kill the lil bastards?

 

[VladimirPutin]

I got lucky and killed them all when I took the pots of coco with the plants over to the sink and shook away all the coco underwater.

Washing the roots to kill the eggs, It was the equivalent of throwing a live hornet's nest into a volcano I believe.

V

 

[Richard Richardson]

Tovarishch

 

[VladimirPutin]

Tovarishch

Thank you. I wanted to leave a follow up. These are the roots one week since the attack
The bugs are totally gone. I'm happy. The end

 

[VladimirPutin]

It was time to don the battle helmet yesterday.
All was calm and growing well until suddenly the aphids reared their ugly head.

Instead of making a big mess again I decided to use a nicotine bomb. 5 ciggs and 1 liter of boiled water with some liquid dish soap to make it filmy, in a spray bottle. So far they have taken a big hit and hopefully all will be dead for good.

Game plan is to hit them every night for 3 days at lights out by drenching the coco and flood table with the tobacco water.
So far so good, they are abandoning the coco and then I just squeeze them as they surface. Many are dead lying in the coco already.

Aphids suck But I'm not about to scrap my grow. Here is how things look so far after the tobacco bomb :

V

They got into my whole grow practically...
Will keep updating until the crisis is over

 

[iwltfum]

Had these about 8 months ago. Nasty buggers. A friend of mine, who grows on a larger scale than I do, told me he used imidacloprid as a root drench, and some other spray (thats also highly toxic) for the leaves that I can't remember the name of. Apparently, it was the only thing that worked after months of trying different things. I'd like to not get cancer from crazy chemical pesticides and I also don't want to kill bees so I tossed everything (including the old pots, drain trays, and some brand new bags of coco), cleaned every surface in that room and the rooms adjacent to it, and started new from seed. Haven't seen them since.

Addition: These guys love overwatered, loose-fiber growing mediums like coco and peat. That's usually why they show up in the first place. Letting your pots dry out (almost to the point of wilting) will help to keep their numbers down if you choose to continue with those plants.

 

[VladimirPutin]

Had these about 8 months ago. Nasty buggers. A friend of mine, who grows on a larger scale than I do, told me he used imidacloprid as a root drench, and some other spray (thats also highly toxic) for the leaves that I can't remember the name of. Apparently, it was the only thing that worked after months of trying different things. I'd like to not get cancer from crazy chemical pesticides and I also don't want to kill bees so I tossed everything (including the old pots, drain trays, and some brand new bags of coco), cleaned every surface in that room and the rooms adjacent to it, and started new from seed. Haven't seen them since.

Addition: These guys love overwatered, loose-fiber growing mediums like coco and peat. That's usually why they show up in the first place. Letting your pots dry out (almost to the point of wilting) will help to keep their numbers down if you choose to continue with those plants.

Thanks, I did reduce watering.

I wouldn't use the imidacloprid because it's systemic and I wouldn't want to smoke that.

Today I stripped the plants out of the coco, boiled everything, sprayed the roots with tobacco juice and soap, and then I followed up with a layer of sand on top of the coco. I hope those buggers are DEAD because I'm done and will cut clones and start over if I can't keep them gone. Everything is as clean as it could get without using industrial pesticides.

Updates coming soon

 

[iwltfum]

Thanks, I did reduce watering.

I wouldn't use the imidacloprid because it's systemic and I wouldn't want to smoke that.

Today I stripped the plants out of the coco, boiled everything, sprayed the roots with tobacco juice and soap, and then I followed up with a layer of sand on top of the coco. I hope those buggers are DEAD because I'm done and will cut clones and start over if I can't keep them gone. Everything is as clean as it could get without using industrial pesticides.

Updates coming soon

I like the sand idea. That could definitely help. I think I tried using perlite to drown them out because I didn't have any sand. Didn't work as well as I was hoping though. Maybe the sand will be enough to keep them off the soil surface. Keep us updated Mr. Putin! Looking forward to seeing how you attack these guys.

 

[VladimirPutin]

So it's been 5 days, the plants are haggard but not destroyed. Just today a faint smell of cannabis began to linger in the grow room and the lifeless forms that are supposed to be plants have shown new green growth again.

Phew... A constant circle of treating illness and recovery is no fun.
The bugs have been absent for 5 days now. Nothing on the roots, nothing alive except the plants themselves.

So I will be following up with pics on Saturday, see how the aftermath is coming along.

Peace Comrades

 

[VladimirPutin]

It's been 2 weeks and they are dead as a door knob, the bugs that is.

Prevention, that is the best cure to these things.

Don't bring strange plants into the grow area until treating the grow media with something, just to be sure.

Also leaving the window open may have played a role.

Anyway, happy belated 420 everyone and see you back at my grow journals

 

[VladimirPutin]

Got her growing again.

Didn't kill any plants or start any new ones. All bugs dead

 

[iwltfum]

Woohoo!

 

[VladimirPutin]

after 7 weeks of miserable times growing indoors, things have finally gotten back on track XD

I will probably never get another root aphid in my garden ever again. I will be going from my own clones and seeds, no more strange plants from the market.