Pestilance

Hello I'm newish to growing and in my limited experience I've not dealt with many bugs, now I've got a few gnats/fruit flys(no biggie) and now some kind of tiny crawling bugs. Would someone mind breaking down the most common insects and the threat they pose if any and if its not too much how to deal with them? I would appreciate any info pertaining to the above

Probly should have posted this in the problems forum...

Well the most common insect that I encounter is the common house fly but they usually don't interfere with any indoor plants. Snails are all over place and pretty cute to boot. Crawling bugs are very common. I've got some fat roundish ones and some skinny long ones too. Sometimes I ask for insect advice on this forum and I usually regret it and find much better info in other forums. Pictures help if they are in focus and of relevant stuff. I'm late for my bus.

Usual suspects in indoor grows are below.

Fungus gnats - small black flies that hover around and like the top of your medium. Each female can lay 300 eggs in their lifespan. These eggs turn into larvae that like to eat roots! AZAMAX, MOSQUITO DUNKS, SPINOSAD, BT, STICKY YELLOW TRAPS are possible treatments. Predatory insects - hypoaspis miles, predatory nematodes.

Spider mites - found at the tops of plants making webs across your foliage/buds. AZAMAX, PLANT VITALITY+, MIGHTY WASH, SPINOSAD Treatments should work. Predatory insects - ladybug, spider mite predators.

Western flower thrips - small winged insects that leave silvery scratches on your leaves through feeding. SPINOSAD is the only sure method I know of eradicating these. Predatory insects - predatory nematodes, hypoaspis miles. Part of the WFT life cycle is in the medium where these predators reside.

Scale - small round balls that can go unnoticed. Sap suckers. Alcohol rub removes them.

Carpet beetles - found in most homes they look like a small brown speckled ladybug. They munch leaves. Pretty harmless in low numbers.

Springtails - detrivorous feeders, generally feeding on decaying organic matter in the medium. Small white looking crawlers that when startled jump quite a shocking distance. Pretty harmless but can freak you out. I've found using an enzyme product such as CANNAZYM along with Trichoderma fungi helps to eliminate the decaying matter starving the springtails of a food source.


That's probably the most common found in the indoor garden.

There are other not so common ones such as mealy bugs, bud worms etc.



J

That is immensely helpful thank you, the tiny crawling ones are grayish in color and have long antenna in proportion to the rest of their body, I see them but not consistently. Got the yellow stickies going and a cup of schnapps as attractant. I'm going to read up on the different products mentioned, thanks again

You may have root aphids if you see "gnats" and crawling insects. Take a close up pic of one of the ones you caught or will catch on a yellow sticky. You may want to get the Merit 75 and Acephate ready.

If you can confirm it is a gnat then get some BTI (gnatrol) or some people have had success with gognats. No matter what method put up those yellow stickys everywhere.

Found a paper wasp in the grow room in the morning so I left for the whole day and killed it at night, haven't seen a bug since so maybe he ate all the little bugs
if only I could put a little leash on those little f"ckers, I'd have a couple in there at all times! Note to self, research micro-leash technology