huge dissapoinment.

Corso312 said:

I have no scope, how do I tell the difference between RA n gnats?

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fattiemcnuggins said:

If it is fungus gnats the larva are fairly easy to identify witout a scope. Slice a potato up and spread it out on your dirt. Twait 4 hours or so and check what you got. Hopefully nothing.

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These things are a real bitch from what I gathered.
I got rid of my stuff: all of it.
Even flower pots I wasn't sure I could clean.
Cleaned/cleaning everything else with 15 - 20 % bleach in water solution.

You did not want clones; I pulled them out of cloner and tossed them last night.
There were 5 or 6 of those root aphids on the lid to it when I went down this morning to cut others down.
They look just like fungus gnats until you look under microscope.
Then you see what they really are, and it I guess if they are to winged stage it's too late for easy eradication.

They fly real fast; but not a lot.
They don't run from you swatting them.
They like the brightest area of the room;
In mine I noticed them collecting on a Hot Shot which has a white plastic case that is shiny.

I started noticing them about 10 days or so ago.
First one or two, and eventually, 10 or 20 a day I see.
The only reason I thought to look it up was a an thread on riu someone drug up.
I trapped 3 on silver tape and confirmed them to the picture above with my microscope.

They don't stay knocked down, and the chemicals like Avid kill off their predators.
Over time they grow wings and start serious multiplying.

Yield goes down.
Cal-Mag like deficiencies, and nute lockout, appear to be the cause.
But it is the root aphids causing the imbalance.
Nitrogen gives them energy: they don't normally appear to hurt plants until into bloom a bit.
PM and other mold-like stuff is a sign of their presence as they weaken the plant and help it get infected with fungi.

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FatMarty said:

Nothing? Gee Thanks Fellas.
Well I used a lot of bleach and can't seem to locate any of the root aphids since I vacuumed up.
Pretty sure I killed everything outside the old pots.
I tossed out all of that stuff.

So now I am freezing the little fuckers who might be hiding in the cracks.
Got 34*F air blowing in right now.
This should clean up my air tunnel too I would think.
Doesn't seem like these things can live very long outside the plant.

I let my Bubba dry out pretty thorough a few days ago, and them fuckers must have been coming out of that.
Apparently they don't like dry at all.
After doing a freeze out for a day or two I got 2 HEGA filters for my intakes.
HEGA filters are just like HEPA filters but catch a lot more stuff because they use smaller pores.

Just need to come up with flanges for them.
Got a 10" and a 6"; both are like a foot long.
I'm done playing man.
I don't want to have to do this again.

Soo... does anyone know how the OP made out?
I'm sealing my rooms, buying new material, and starting some seeds in a week or so.
I figure I will cover the intakes with the HEGA filters, and build a barrier wall between rooms and rest of that area.
Then I will use the new area for lung room for ac unit.

In a way this could be a blessing in disguise.
Sorry to be rambling; but this is kinda traumatic, and I needed to vent.
Also noticed folks don't want to talk about it; so that's disappointing.
I figured out where and when I got 'em; but that's not important.
What's important is that folks stop passing them around.

And to be honest I haven't any good ideas how to insure that with visual inspections.
These things are about the size of a pinpoint when in the normal state down below.
They are off white colored at this stage: like many roots.
They go through about 9 metamorphosis stages before they start to fly.
Good luck with that huh?

Again: Thanks for all of your kind words.
I don't deserve it; really.

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bloodytrichomes said:

so these was a result of clones or plants you introduced to your garden..hopefully not from members here

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st0wandgrow said:

Man Marty, you got me second guessing now. I'm pretty sure I have fungus gnats, but now I'm concerned they might be these Root Aphids. If I put a slice of potato on the soil surface, would that be the easiest way to identify them (by their larvae)?

I've kinda just ignored them as there is only a few, and the plants seem 100% healthy.

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fattiemcnuggins said:

A good way to distinguish between the gnats and RA is the RA would rather run than fly. They will hide from yiou where I have found the fungus gnats seem more oblivous to your presence and are easier to clap fron the air.

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Capt. Stickyfingers said:

If you want to quit over some root aphids, you suck at growing and shouldn't have wasted other people's money to do so. Also, if that's real bubba, you're waaay off thinking you should get 4-7 oz. You can't be in much pain if you refuse to medicate all week because of aphids. You sound like a fucking drama queen.

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