Root aphids!! Anyone have good info???

Damn I have spent a shitload of time reading about how to kill root aphids but the conflicting info is relentless. Some say neem oil will kill them(or atleast take the numbers way down). Others say neem oil does absolutely nothing to hurt them. Some say Beneficial Nematodes (Steinernema Feltiae) will take care of them, but some places say that they do nothing to kill root aphids. Anyone have any real experience with root aphids? Damn these things are a bummer.

Dank Hands said:

Damn I have spent a shitload of time reading about how to kill root aphids but the conflicting info is relentless. Some say neem oil will kill them(or atleast take the numbers way down). Others say neem oil does absolutely nothing to hurt them. Some say Beneficial Nematodes (Steinernema Feltiae) will take care of them, but some places say that they do nothing to kill root aphids. Anyone have any real experience with root aphids? Damn these things are a bummer.

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i just dealt with them myself. i used the perlite method by putting a mulch layer of perlite on top and a few fly strips around the surfaces. watch out those strips are sticky as hell lol. hope this helps.

I dealt with fungus gnats in the past and ever since I have always used a fat perlite layer automatically. These root aphids dont mind chilling deep in my soil and I see some flow out every watering. I havent ever seen one of these aphids fly or end up on my leaves, they just suck the juice from my roots i assume.

fast way i have used is grab a sac of ladybugs to eat them all, should be able to find at a local grow shop.

Or a bit of dishsoap in a spray bottle, spray the top of the soil before you do a heavy watering makes it so they cant fly out when you drown them.

its never harmed my plants and neither have the root aphids it takes a few weeks to get the numbers down, i had a bad batch of soil and sticky tape works to an extent but just dont let the sticky tape touch a plant or you will have a fly trap with some leaves on it.

Hope you can get rid of em fairly quickly.

You think the ladybugs will hunt deep into the soil to kill these root aphids? I dont have any flying around, only aphids inside the soil. Prolly due to my perlite layer.

Anyone have any good info?

Dank Hands said:

Anyone have any good info?

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The best shit around is SNS203 made by sierra natural science. Good luck dude, that stuff will take care of them in minutes. We live in the same county, all the hydro shops carry it now.

marc88101 said:

The best shit around is SNS203 made by sierra natural science. Good luck dude, that stuff will take care of them in minutes. We live in the same county, all the hydro shops carry it now.

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are you talking about the SNS that is in a spray bottle? main ingredient rosemary? That stuff works so good for spidermites as well its rediculous, litterally dissolves them per say. Right now im haveing a similar problem but with spidermites and im too far into flower to spray(5weeks) all fatty tops. so im stuck useing the SNS209 the solution that you feed through the soil, this will most definatly be your best bet for getting the ones in the soil, it uses rosemary extract and oil and in about a weekish it makes your whole plant systemic(which means a bug bites it, it dies) in this case the bugs will be coming in direct contect with the solution so you shouldnt have to wait nearly as long at all. I wish you luck as i know this product works but some different breeds of the insects have resistances to it which is what im running into with the spidermites, im 2 weeks into feeding them the SNS209 and still no effect, starting to lose hope =[

The 209 takes 10 to work, I'd use the 214 just not on the buds to get them under control. The 203 Is for root aphids, works great! they make killer products either way.

I have not had them..Look at Sevin in veg..its has to be used properly. I'm not fond of that strong a product but its used on crops.

Anything with imid. Bayer fruit and citrus is a favorite. Soil drench 5/7 mls a gallon. If in hydro add at the same rate feed once and they should all be gone instantly.they can be harder to kill n soil or coco. Let ur soil dry up before watering helps keep them down also.

marc88101 said:

The best shit around is SNS203 made by sierra natural science. Good luck dude, that stuff will take care of them in minutes. We live in the same county, all the hydro shops carry it now.

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I've been hearing this, over and over, from reliable sources. Not just some guy trying to sell me a bottle. I've had root aphids twice over the last 5 years and gotten rid of them with a combination of Merit 75 (Veg), Evergreen (Flower), cleaning, quarantine, hotshot bug bombs (veg), pyrethium bombs (flower) and tears... haha. They are a relentless bug. Treatments were sort of like chemo therapy... I would nearly kill the plant (root system) to kill the bugs, then have to nurse the plant back to healthy.

If they ever come back I am going to try the SNS. The spider mite stuff worked so well, I couldn't believe it. It was just instant, spider mites gone. A hydro shop gave me a sample bottle and that was enough to fix the problem... I was previously fighting spider mites with Azatrol and pyrethium bombs.

From my experience, it is worth your time to stop production and get yourself down to as few plants as possible... Just the plants you want for future mothers... Then clean your rooms and tools very well... treat your remaining plants... when you are confident they are completely gone go ahead and start up the full garden again. If you assume victory to quickly and move forward, you find yourself in the same situation but worse a couple months later.

100% rosemary oil. 30 drops into 1 gallon. use an insecticide sprayer. ($15 at lowes or home depot) and you'll be glad to have it anyway.
This works very well for me. Make sure you spray thoroughly and repeat in 3-4 days. Works Great in flowering too, without the worry of adding anything to the bud.

they live in the roots.. you gotta drench or innoculate

do you guys ph the water when you drench? I do but just wondered if I had to.

probably best.. just to keep things in check