Quote Originally Posted by sarah louise
A systemic pesticide applied to the leaves will slowly, but eventually, get rid of root aphids... good for bonsai Junipers but not really a usable solution for cannabis. Have to agree with Johnthemick, if clones came in with root aphids, they'd go straight in the bin.

The quickest way to check for root aphids is slip off the pot. Root aphids will leave a whitish fuzz that looks like beneficial fungi (mycorrhizal). The difference is that mycorrhizal fungi don't move and aphids do.

If you regularly need to buy in clones I think it would pay to have a small quarantine area, where new material can be pretreated before entering your garden space proper.
Well, I think the problem is that they come in as eggs... eggs in soil are going to be damn near impossible to find. You won't notice any symptoms from them at all typically until about day 25 of flower! So, it's not as easy as checking/quarantining your clones.

In the future I'll dunk all foliage and roots in a neem solution (possibly a pyrethrum solution first after testing). The root dunk is just as important as the foliage dunk. Then I would inoculate the soil with predatory nematodes after a week or two and the neem/pyrethrum has been rinsed out.

From my understanding these things don't tend to cause as many problems during veg because the roots will grow back as quickly as the bugs can eat them. However, in flowering the roots won't grow back at the same rate (if at all), so the aphids become a HUGE problem ultimately killing your plant if unchecked.