Infested with bugs

M

monsterhill

Member
I have these little dark colored bugs which fly around my girls and they seem to like being around the soil and water the most.

I killed as many as i could by hand but each day more and more show. Its like they are coming from the soil man.

Is there anything i can use to put on the plants / soil that will kill the bugs and keep them away but without putting any harmful pesticides or chemicals in to the plant?

Last thing i want too do is smoke my harvest when its been treated with nasty chemical and pesticides. I am trying to keep it organic.

Also is there anything at the local garden center i can use to feed my plants?

But the bugs are my main concern. I have tried yellow sticky traps but they do not work.

Thanks
 
tyke1973

tyke1973

Well-Known Member
Get some fly papper and this will attract some of them but if they have laid eggs you are in for alot more of them my advice would be take the best plant that you have and put the plant seperate from the other's if you did the grow right then you should either have a mother or clones on stand by.take the plants out of the grow room once the grow has finished up.wash all the grow area out with bleach water and turn the lights off.leave the area for a week or longer if possible the fly papper will show you what pest you have in the room,i have fly papper in the room even if i have no pest in there.i think the reason that i have never had any problems with pest is that i flush my plants regular.while flushing the plants i clean the grow room through out.i flush at least 3 times during veg and 4 during bloom.i always have monster nugs the flushing in it self is great for the plants and gives you a little time to clean the area.by regular flushing this gives any insects no chance to house so keep a clean and tidy grow area.
 
CANinBIZ

CANinBIZ

Well-Known Member
Ok i'm in florida and i'm going to make this simple and easy, no there not spider mite I already had those and they look completly diffrent. They're ethier fungus nats or alphids, ehier way the type dosen't realy matter unless your useing petcides and inceticides, you need soapy water, which may sound ridiculous but it's true, you take a little bit of soap (I measure 1/2 to 1 tea spoon) for every gallon of watter and spitz or pour on all the follage and enough to get the top soil wet, it's a repelent for the bugs and the soapy water has NO effect on the smoke unless use directly befor the harvest. Goodluck!
 
M

Mose

Active Member
Those sound like fungus gnats. They lay eggs in the soil and the larvae eat roots, so you don't want them.

Let your soil dry out thoroughly before you water again. They like very moist soil, so an infestation of them can mean you are keeping your plants too wet.
 
Hayduke

Hayduke

Well-Known Member
So far some very good advice here. And yes those are fungus gnats, and yes they have larvae in the medium so you really need to treat both the flying adults and the ones you don't see...or at least keep them well controlled.

Lady bugs kinda work to keep them in check. They will eat a few of the juveniles that walk a lot, but they are definitely not their preferred meal, and will not really stop them. they also seem to be fairly ineffective with thrips.

Pyrethrins (from chrysanthemum) will kill any flying (and any lady bugs) but will not kill in root zone, so I am not convinced it is worth using, though I have only used once. Spinosad seems to control the thrips less toxicly, but these are not your problem unless you see silvery color on leafs and black dots on lower leaves (excrement).

Some have said that sand on top of medium will kill the fungus gnats. I have always thought something was wrong with this (blocks oxy to root zone in theory?) and now I have seen good reason to abandon this idea...They will live in bottom of pot also, seen it first hand.

Your thumb, fly paper strips (sprays if you choose) will take care of adults.

Here is a very good solution for the larvae: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap. 1T/gal (it raised the pH...I found afterward...?...do as you choose) water heavily so all medium including bottoms are thoroughly saturated. The peppermint oil f's with them bad. I have never seen the larvae until now...they crawled out of the bottom of the pots and I found stuck to bottom dead.

As these little bastards will find their way back in, my guess is this may need to be done more than once, but is eco/mj friendly and best of all WORKS!

I used this soap with baking soda and hemp oil in water to treat powdery mildew in flower also.

They sell this at the health food store!

:leaf::peace::leaf:
 
Hash Lover

Hash Lover

Well-Known Member
Great stuff hayduke, I'm working on them myself. Started with Gognats since it was the only thing the hydro store had. It has a lot of cedar oil in it. I ordered some Gnatrol also but have not got it yet. The Gnatrol kills the larvae and both are all natural too. I like the sound of the peppermint stuff, will have to look it up.
 
H

Hemlock

Well-Known Member
Hayduke said:
So far some very good advice here. And yes those are fungus gnats, and yes they have larvae in the medium so you really need to treat both the flying adults and the ones you don't see...or at least keep them well controlled.

Lady bugs kinda work to keep them in check. They will eat a few of the juveniles that walk a lot, but they are definitely not their preferred meal, and will not really stop them. they also seem to be fairly ineffective with thrips.

Pyrethrins (from chrysanthemum) will kill any flying (and any lady bugs) but will not kill in root zone, so I am not convinced it is worth using, though I have only used once. Spinosad seems to control the thrips less toxicly, but these are not your problem unless you see silvery color on leafs and black dots on lower leaves (excrement).

Some have said that sand on top of medium will kill the fungus gnats. I have always thought something was wrong with this (blocks oxy to root zone in theory?) and now I have seen good reason to abandon this idea...They will live in bottom of pot also, seen it first hand.

Your thumb, fly paper strips (sprays if you choose) will take care of adults.

Here is a very good solution for the larvae: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap. 1T/gal (it raised the pH...I found afterward...?...do as you choose) water heavily so all medium including bottoms are thoroughly saturated. The peppermint oil f's with them bad. I have never seen the larvae until now...they crawled out of the bottom of the pots and I found stuck to bottom dead.

As these little bastards will find their way back in, my guess is this may need to be done more than once, but is eco/mj friendly and best of all WORKS!

I used this soap with baking soda and hemp oil in water to treat powdery mildew in flower also.

They sell this at the health food store!

:leaf::peace::leaf:
Click to expand...

Use ladybugs they will rid you of them
Sounds like a lot of work above
Sorry Hayduke don't agree,
ladybugs will work and you don't have to put any of that shit on your plants and possiblely set them back
 
Hayduke

Hayduke

Well-Known Member
As for the Lady bugs...I use them. They keep the numbers low, but do NOT eat the larvae so they can get ahead of you. This worked really good when I was using soil, but now with coco, there is enough air space to keep the plants a little wetter without any problems (except for bugs) and increased growth.

Lady bugs do work good, and I will be getting another batch since I did not have to go the pyrethrin route. But this is very important to note: Any predator introduced will only control the pest if introduced before an infestation. If you have all stages and enough to be bothersome, more aggressive action is needed.

Think about it this way...your lady bugs do not fly around and chase down adult fungus gnats...and they do not burrow in the soil to eat...you are only left with a very hungry lady bug who will eat a slow walking juvenile, and more often than not will ignore it an continue searching for its real prey.

In sunlight supply, Inc's National Garden Wholesale catalog from my local shop; they have a chart with common pests and the corresponding predator. (I read this yesterday) And they actually do not list the lady bug as a predator of the fungus gnat...but they list it does for thrips...I do not believe either is totally correct.

I am just putting this out there as help. Each of our gardens and the pests of our local areas are different. None of what I add here unless noted is stuff I just made up or read, but from personal experience. Though I do not work in the field I have a degree in Bio/Eco and am observant enough to possibly be helpful to someone.

I do not know if the soap would hurt lady bugs. Short term, the plants seem to like the soap even though the pH was high... I even used it on two beautiful 11" tall baby Ak-48 bushes that I am in love with and showed their sex under 18hrs...they took up more water after the initial soap...long term remains to be seen...the gnats are 99% gone after 24 hrs. There are tons of ways to get rid of these f@ckers that WILL hurt her...and depending on when and how used...the smoker/applicator. This seems to do neither, and also does not hurt the planet.

Ingredients:Water, Saponified Coconut-Hemp Olive Oils (with retained Glycerin), Olive Fatty-Acids, Peppermint Oil, Rosemary Extract.

Also: The Mosquito Dunks that use Baccillus Thuregensis do not seem to even bother the larvae...I believe they are resistant to BT in this area (socal)

:leaf::peace::leaf:
 
Hayduke

Hayduke

Well-Known Member
Hash Lover said:
I didn't know ladybugs also ate fungus gnats too. I planned to get some if mites came around.
Click to expand...
get them anyhow, before a problem happens. They are good vibes in the grow room. Only thing is they come in huge numbers and many will die in fridge (as well as starve). Let some go in the 'hood or share if you know other growers.

:leaf::peace::leaf:
 
Hash Lover

Hash Lover

Well-Known Member
Hayduke said:
get them anyhow, before a problem happens. They are good vibes in the grow room. Only thing is they come in huge numbers and many will die in fridge (as well as starve). Let some go in the 'hood or share if you know other growers.

:leaf::peace::leaf:
Click to expand...
Ya, I have thought about that man. Maybe find out what I need to give them to keep them going. I have not done any research on them yet though. I want to see if I can get them local maybe. I know I can get them on Ebay for about $15-20 maybe. And get like about 1500 or something. I would not mind just letting the extra ones go. But to much of that is not good for the ecosystem either.
 
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