How concerned Should I be with Small Bugs/Aphids?

oh and safers end all catapillar dust with BE will work to kill these guys off mix into soil and or dust the top of soil I use this and the diatomaceous earth in my soil mixes as a preventive

Thank you Dr Who. I fear and am prepared that it may get that drastic.

I got up at 4am when my lights turned off and sprayed the plants and top of the coco with the Safer's. It definitely reduced the amount root aphids dramatically overnight. I am seeing some fungus gnats which I wasn't before. EDIT: Maybe they're just root aphids in their next stage of life - I guess they do grow wings.

The fucked up thing is I have 5 freshly sprouted Alien OG seeds in peet pots in my lower (veg) chamber. Hoping I can kill these off without infesting the sprouts in the lower chamber.

Can someone tell me do these things mainly live/breed within a couple inches of the surface? Or are they deep down under?

The other mysterious thing that I'm trying to figure out is this:

These plants that are infested were in my veg chamber just two weeks ago. 8 plants went into flower, and 2 got put in a separate cabinet that I keep my mothers in. I don't see any bugs on these two plants nor am I seeing any on the mothers they're sharing the cabinet with.

Is it possible that these root aphids didn't exist 2 weeks ago? Or have they been hidden and amassing themselves for weeks and are just revealing themselves now? But if that were the case I'd be seeing the infestation on the plants in the other cabinet by now.

root aphid infestations can come on very quck and as far as I know they stay in the top couple inches of soil as with most other soil bugs

It's official I have some sort of flying pest too - they look like fungus gnats. I'm pretty sure they aren't flying root aphids. Root aphids only fly to find another plants root system to colonize. The flying bastards I have are on the leaves. I sprayed the whole plants too, not just the soil.

I've done a lot of research tonight and it seems that Met 52 is the long term answer to root aphids.

I'm pretty sure Botanigard is Met 52 or something like it. It works in the same way - living organisms that attack the root aphids.

EDIT: Botanigard is Beauveria bassiana strain GHA; Met 52 is Metarhizium anisopliae strain F52

I suspect the guy you got the clones from cheaped out and used questionable soil. This is probably where your bugs originated from.

I am so fucked I think. This Safer's did nothing (I'm about to mix it with water and use it as a root drench out of desperation at this point). i have "flyers" all over my cabinet.

I ordered some Met52 on Friday with 2 day shipping. This stuff is really supposed to be great for these root aphids, even though I feared that my population had grown too big for it to be effective. Well the shit didn't arrive today so I email the company and they say oh they ran out of Met52 and won't have any til mid-September! WTF? So now I'm scrambling big time.

I was waiting around with my fingers crossed hoping this Safers would work, waiting for the Azamax (which I have but I know won't work), and now waiting for Met52 with no avail.

So now I'm hoping the local grow store has this stuff called SNS 203 so hopefully I can manage these things enough to save this grow.

can you pull them out of the pots and scrape away as much coco as possible and add new to get rid of as many bugs as possible

That would be a good idea however probably very stressful on the plants at this stage. But you did make me realize the fact that I'm growing in coco and in a cabinet, may just give me chance eradicate these creatures without interrupting my perpetual much. Coco just presents a much cleaner situation all the way around. Could be wishful thinking.

Despite there being tons of conflicting info out there about these particular pests, I keep learning more and more about these things. I feel like compiling everything I've gathered into one post. Like if you don't put Vaseline around the base of your stalk, when you treat your soil they will climb up your stalk, hang out until the soil is less toxic, and go back down to recolonize. They also will gather and right below the root ball where often the pesticide won't reach.

It seems that many have found the only way to truly eradicate these root aphids is to stop your growing cycle, completely sanitize, and then restart from scratch. There have been many reports of people having long term success with Met52, although I think that getting a granular version to add to your soil might be the most practical way of using it. I understand that the predatory insects atheta cassaria (rove beetle) and Hypoaspis will keep these under control. Lady bugs will go to town on them but I don't think lady bugs bore into the soil. These things are willing to venture very deep into the soil.

So after much toiling and research I ended up express ordering a bottle of Big Time Exterminator. It should be here today or tomorrow. I'm not really expecting them to eradicate the problem completely. I was really just looking for something to nuke the bastards. We'll see though, maybe the stuff will work. Given it's dilution rate of 2-10ml per gallon as a root drench, may make it the most economical of any of these. that's primarily why I chose it over SNS 203