Mites...but not spider mites?

[Tha206]

Greetings,

I went in to my grow tent last night to do my daily inspection and prepare to feed when I noticed a small branch that I had clipped off and missed a couple days ago was lying on the floor. I picked it up to dispose of it and noticed a large amount of tiny black bugs all over the stem. Upon magnified inspection, they appeared to be shaped like spider mites, but were much larger, visible without magnification and black or black/green in color. After disposing of the branch, I inspected my grow tent and noticed a large amount of these mites running around on the floor and congregating in the corners. They are large enough that I could see them moving from across the room. I vacuumed them up as best I could, but they were coming out of nowhere and would show back up a few minutes later. They walk pretty fast. I noticed them on the rims of my pots and some in the soil, I vacuumed them up as best I could as well. I did not notice any on the plants themselves though, nor any tell tale signs of mites on the leaves. I fed as planned, flooded out the floor, noticed many more of them in the water and shop vac'd them all up. I am planning to hit the girls with neem oil tonight and will keep a close eye on them.

Can anybody tell me what type of bugs these might be? I have also been having a slight problem with little black flies, the type that you often see around house plants. They are starting to get stuck on the leaves. I put a Hot Shot Pest Strip in there about a month ago and it would appear it's not working. Any suggestions on how to deal with these pests is welcome. I am 4 weeks into flower BTW.

Thanks for your time.

Tha206 Reviewed by Tha206 on 10-02-2011. Mites...but not spider mites? Greetings, I went in to my grow tent last night to do my daily inspection and prepare to feed when I noticed a small branch that I had clipped off and missed a couple days ago was lying on the floor. I picked it up to dispose of it and noticed a large amount of tiny black bugs all over the stem. Upon magnified inspection, they appeared to be shaped like spider mites, but were much larger, visible without magnification and black or black/green in color. After disposing of the branch, I Rating: 5

[Tha206]

Managed to get some decent pics of the buggers today. Aphids maybe?

[attachment=o278918][attachment=o278919]

[CanGroIt]

Them look like ticks....but I don't know....

Got some duct tape??? Place some on small sheets of cardboard with the sticky side up and they should stick if they crawl over.... Sounds good in theory, right???....

Make conditions unbearable for them and they will leave....

Have fun:thumbsup:....

CGI::::::

[Tha206]

After some research online I'm pretty sure they're aphids. On my way to Lowe's to get some WMD's! lol

[WashougalWonder]

Might be too late now, but just get "Sevin" and spray it in corners and such. It will kill the plant if it gets on it. This should be a monthly or every other month chore to prevent infestations.

Not sure how far along the plants are, but Neem should be stopped in the last month of flower at the latest.

[Tha206]

Thanks for the reply. I'm 4 weeks into flower, so I have around a month or so to go on them. I didn't really find anything at Lowe's that I thought was suitable, so I decided to neem them down and literally just got done nuking the whole tent. Gonna hit my local grow shop today and see what they have/recommend. Saw very few bugs just now and still none on the plants themselves, so hopefully I caught it in time.

[Tha206]

They are ROOT APHIDS. Does anybody have a solution to get rid of them? I see some people just scrap their grow and start over. I have only 3-4 weeks at the most to go, so some chemical solutions are not going to work. HELP!

[Weezard]

I can tell you how to prevent them.
But once infested, that late in the game, there is little hope.
Hadda scrap my grow, scrub every surface, dump my coco, and start fresh.

Now, I keep the flyers from laying eggs with dryer strips on the soil surface and treat seedlings with Imid. to kill the sap-sucking spawn.

If you do find a remedy, please post it.

Aloha,
Weezard

[Tha206]

I'm really at a loss as to how I even got them in the first place. I treat my grow room like a clean room, this is not my first grow and I never had them before this. I change clothes before I go in, have a special pair of shoes that I wear, wash hands, keep it clean, etc. I was reading several complaints on some other msg boards from people saying Happy Frog soil (the type I'm using) has been known to have root aphids in it and it's been recommended not to use it because of it. Both customers and retailers were saying this.

Went to my local grow shop and they're the ones who helped me positively identify the bastards. They recommended SNS-203 and I bought it, although I've read mixed reviews on it. I literally have 3.5wks left of flower and only 1 of my plants looks to be in somewhat bad shape. Even if the SNS won't eradicate them, I'm hoping it will at least keep them at bay long enough for my girls to finish and then I can sterilize the place. It would be a shame to chop them now. Gonna try a soil drench tomorrow and see what happens.

[Tha206]

BTW...the ones I've been catching running or flying around, I've been spraying them with 91% rubbing alcohol. Kills them instantly.