Hi all, today while I was spending some time with my plants I noticed small, white, teardrop shaped insects crawling all over the top of the soil. I’ve never noticed them before but today so far I’ve found them on several of my plants but not others, and some research makes me think they’re root aphids (been seeing the symptoms in my plants… thinking it was nutrient deficiencies). They’re so small they don’t even show up in a photo. Has anyone encountered this before? How did you get rid of them? I’m trying to save my plants so I’ll try anything besides throwing the whole thing out. Please help!
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Then put a layer of Diamataceous Earth on top your soil
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You might like this @1andonlyredneck
Im a fan of
Always the diatomaceous earth
I get nervous at the no testing of smoking spinosad. Or any chemicals I don’t really understand lolol…
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Alot of folks use this here.
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G’day m8
I’m no entomologist, but what I’ve seen on my short time here is that there is a lot of super smart professionals on this site that should point ya in the right direction. So take my advice with a grain of salt till they chime in. Anywayz I just thought I’d jump in jst ta give ya a heads up on my experience with them fkrz
I had a dwarf pheno of Sensi Star back in the day that had the best coffee/chocolate terps. It got infested after an extended holiday where the mum’s endured a few to many days of fert stress. Anywayz, I didn’t want to loose her so I took cuts for back up & mother rotation to save the line. After that I dunked my pots in a bucket of pH adjusted water & let the pots sit in the bucket of water & drowned em. I even wrapped the stalk @ medium level with plastic wrap about 8 inches up the stalk & put vasoline on the plastic wrap around the stalk to stop them lil fkrz from climbing up the plant. 
I also covered the top of the pot with plastic wrap to stop em getting out… I dunked the pots twice a week for three weeks man…It was a mission & a half. It’s a pretty primative method 
… but it worked & I used no chems. I don’t want no tomato dust on my flower 
(spinosad)
I know not all grow techniques will be able to do this either… So good luck m8
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Spinosad is a soil bacteria detrimental to bugs, only reason it’s not aloud for commercial grows is the effect on the bees, if gonna recommend bacillus for caterpillars then ur not far off from the same concept, did look over the Dr zymes though and that seems to be an excellent alternative, just comes with a high price vs the 5 bucks for spinosad at Walmart
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Looked into this one too, appears to be plant oils, found a similar at Walmart for way less
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It’s the residue (if you don’t foliar or wash) and the no testing for smoking the chemical, that bothers me. I’m sure there’s no smoking testing done on any of the products we use though.
Ultimately can’t be worse than my cigarette habit. Ha
I am more for all natural everything. No chemical of any kind other than nutes. Soon that will be nkf too!
I feel medical products should be as sterile as possible.
I’m the same way about Neem oils. Oils on oils you know.
I’ve seen alot of success from all methods. Just takes diligence and care.
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Check these out … They are cool.
And these,
Stratiolaelaps scimitus is a small light brown mite that lives in the top ½ in layer of soil. As a natural predator of fungus gnat pupae and of the snail parasite Riccardoella limacum it is used by gardeners and snail breeders for biological pest control.
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Again it’s not a chemical it’s a culture of Saccharopolyspora spinosa a bacteria that attacks insects nervous system. Extremely detrimental to bees and can cause issues with the worm bins if feeding them the leaves shortly after treatment, that’s where the controversy comes from such as the roundup and bees topics. Bacillus is a bacteria that messes with caterpillars digestive system. So as far as approach both ways are letting the microbes do the dirty work killing the pests so if ur gonna suggest caterpillar killer don’t be so quick to boot spinosad. I’ll never use neem oil and hesitant for any of the plant oils as oils leave residues typically or taint the buds but I typically also don’t have pest issues going into flower, I make sure everything is sorted out before the flip and do the natural preventatives like DE, cinnamon(goes on a plate to no disturb soil cultures), garlic, and cayenne on top of my soil. I do compost teas and my feeding are foliar and root drench, only time I stop foliar is after my intial flowering feeding before budsites appear so anything I treated in veg should be washed by flower. Also harvesting I wash my buds with lemon juice and baking soda in water mixture and 3 buckets, even when I don’t treat my plants I’ve always washed em, ud be amazed at all the crap that comes off of em and as long as the water isn’t to cold the trichomes are untouched
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Yeah I didn’t look it up and I felt the way you said it’s similar to bt, put me in that guessing.
Your a cool kat!
But the bees! The bees yo!
Alot of folks don’t or haven’t started foliars. I toss em in the shower for some bath time! Lol
Kinda dangerous if they are to big. Lol
Have a great day all. Hope these give you lots to think about @ajager
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Haha I grow indoors and a sealed greenhouse, typically doing my treatment in the late evening keeps the bees out of harm’s way lol foliar and root drench together is where it’s at gets the plants soaking up nutrition right away in the leaves so the plants can take their time soaking it up from the soil, only complaint is the water weight bending branches more than I’d like some days
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I’m actually glad these topics came up. I started a run of plants indoors and wondering why they don’t seem as vigorous as in the past, well closer look and I think I’m dealing with thrips seeing lil black dots that look like resin, looks like dry spit on the leaves and seeing lil pin head size insects, everything seems to be on lower leaves too
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Thanks so much for all of the replies!! I’m looking into all these methods to see which would be the best for my operation. I appreciate the help 
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Update: After some more research I think they’re too small to be root aphids, and I’m not seeing the infestation I would expect in the roots. Here’s the best picture I was able to get of one of these guys - any guesses? 
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OK, for the sake of simplicity here, and not intending to step on anyone that has found a solution that works well for them…there is a EASY solution to root aphid problems that will have no effect on the quality or safety of your plants.
Simply make up a solution of any household pesticide that contains pyrethrin and irrigate your plants with it. It kills on contact, has a short residual, and is not detrimental to your soil microbes. It was originally derived from a botanical. Your plants root system will not absorb the pyretherin.
How much to mix? Well any pyretherin insecticide will turn water milky white…you want just enough to see some cloudiness in the solution before applying…anyway use it or not it’s a quick, cheap, effective alternative…FWIW
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ajager those are mites not aphid …different deal entirely!!
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So from all the research ive done. For root aphids the bug lady from KIS organics podcast recommends this product! Hope you get control of them. After treating it with anything I also agree and highly recommend speeding diatomaceous earth after!
And whoops after I posted I realized it does look like you have other problems than root aphids! Ouch well hopefully the community will figure it out and help find the best way to control the problem!
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