If seen already forgive me. Hope this helps if it hasn't been up.
From PC Hydro
"Root aphids are typically light colored round, slow moving, insects that suck vital juices from the roots of your plants. They live in the soil or grow media, and they are extremely damaging to your plants. Under certain conditions the adult females can fly! You may see the plants show drooping leaves, spots, or deficiency like symptoms. They can devastate your garden, indoors or outdoors. And once you have them, they can spread very quickly. To add to the problem, ants are known to plant them on your roots. Yes, the ants will actually keep the aphid larvae with their own, and tend their “crop” of aphids. The result is the ants can kill your plants!
Don’t give up hope! You can kill them. You will have to mix together special batches of pesticides to irrigate the roots with. The best combination I’ve used with success is pyrethrum with
Azatrol, diluted in water. Too strong of a solution can kill your plants. Also you must apply this every three days for three weeks to achieve success. Why for so long? These root aphids are capable of reproducing very quickly. The eggs hatch at least every three days, and there isn’t any way to kill all of the adults and eggs in one application. Your persistence will pay off. Here are the specific directions on how to kill root aphids:
Pyrethrum is an extract from the chrysanthemum. Do not try to use the synthetic aerosol versions, they will harm the plant. The extract is far less damaging to the plants. For example
Fox Farm’s Don’t Bug Me is an all natural extract in liquid form. You can dilute this in water 100 – 200 ml per 1000 ml of water.
Azatrol is an extract from the neem seed, azadechtrin (Azamax is another option, very similar). It dilutes (emulsifies) in water very easily. Add this between 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp per 1000ml of solution.
Use both the
Pyrethrum and
Azatrol together for best results. They are synergistic. Completely drench the grow media or soil, and remember you can increase the strength of the solution if you’d like. But it’s wise to start late if you don’t want to risk killing your plants. Also, you should wait a couple of hours before irrigating the plants again. You need to let the pesticides do their work. You can use the pesticides every other day. There are other things you may drench with (diluted in water of course) in order to mix up the toxins and kill more pests. Cedar extracts, like
GoGnats and herbal pesticides like Zero Tolerance and Rasta Bob’s Death Mite, will help you kill these guys.
There are other products that also work, but they aren’t for consumable plants (they are only for ornamental plants), like Merit 75. Remember don’t use this on any plant you plan on consuming."
Bueno suerte y hasta la manana!
