Khronickush
Well-Known Member
I lifted up my pot to check out the roots and saw very tiny bugs I have no clue what they are how can I kill them
Running Dwc first time some sort of bug??
- Thread starter Khronickush
- Start date
Artie_new_grower
Member
I kno im probably wrong but they look like ticks....
Khronickush
Well-Known Member
Wtf.... God u hope not
Artie_new_grower
Member
Not trying to scare u bro, just wat it looks like to me...whats your water temps??
Khronickush
Well-Known Member
Kinda high I don't have a chiller 76 sometimes higher or lower
Artie_new_grower
Member
Warm temps could be a reason for bugs being able to live in there...i have mine cooling through a water cooler, temps stay at 68 degrees 24/7
Alejondro
Active Member
Yeah, those are root aphids. They will get out of control very quickly in DWC. I have personal experience with this exact problem, and luckily it is fixable.
Now a lot of people will just tell you to scrap everything and start over, and i do have to say that that is unfortunatley always going to be your best bet. However for those of us who don't consider that as an option, here's what you do:
The root aphids are bound to be everywhere, especially in the parts of the root ball you cant see.
1. Grab yourself a five gallon bucket, or bigger, whatever you have.
2. Fill the bucket with water and add your insecticide that can be used for a soil drench. Like sns 203, azamax or organicide (this is what i used)
3. dont be conservative with your application, max it out. Also, you will need to add a wetting agent, a good one if you can from the hydro store, if not some normal organic dish soap will be fine. like one teaspoon for the whole bucket. You need this because you are going to drown the aphids, and sometimes there is enough oxygen in the water for them to survive.
4. Once your bucket is filled with your wetting agent and your chosen insecticide, grab your plant and pull it out of your dwc bucket and plunge the root mass deep into your solution. basically you want to submerge it long enough to drown all the invaders but not so long that you suffocate your roots. I found that a couple of minutes works pretty well.
5. You can dunk it multiple times if you feel like it. your solution might be pretty cloudy and hard to see through depending on what product you use, but you should be able to start seeing dead floating bugs.
Also, you will probably see some of the bugs start to crawl up from the roots toward the plant trying to escape from drowning; do something to prevent this, like a layer of D.E or something, whatever
6. Now what i did after i felt like i did enough to drown all of them, i wanted to get all the dead ones that were still stuck in the root mass out, so i put an air stone at the bottom of the same insecticide solution and turned it on full blast to push all the dead (or still alive) shit out into the open. And it did. After i did that, so many of the fuckers were unearthed from deep in the roots, some alive which i was able to then kill.
7. oh yeah, i also had a pyrethrtin spray on hand. just to spot spray any aphids or spot that needed a little extra; like the base of the stem to prevent escapees .
8. depending on how it all goes down, this could be pretty stressful for the plant, so make sure it goes back into a light nutrient mix with some enzymes if you got em.
I recommend this whole process be repeated in one to two days, three times.
and this goes without saying, but everything must be thoroughly cleaned and or replaced before your plant goes back to a normal growth schedule. especially the bucket the problem originated in.
Now a lot of people will just tell you to scrap everything and start over, and i do have to say that that is unfortunatley always going to be your best bet. However for those of us who don't consider that as an option, here's what you do:
The root aphids are bound to be everywhere, especially in the parts of the root ball you cant see.
1. Grab yourself a five gallon bucket, or bigger, whatever you have.
2. Fill the bucket with water and add your insecticide that can be used for a soil drench. Like sns 203, azamax or organicide (this is what i used)
3. dont be conservative with your application, max it out. Also, you will need to add a wetting agent, a good one if you can from the hydro store, if not some normal organic dish soap will be fine. like one teaspoon for the whole bucket. You need this because you are going to drown the aphids, and sometimes there is enough oxygen in the water for them to survive.
4. Once your bucket is filled with your wetting agent and your chosen insecticide, grab your plant and pull it out of your dwc bucket and plunge the root mass deep into your solution. basically you want to submerge it long enough to drown all the invaders but not so long that you suffocate your roots. I found that a couple of minutes works pretty well.
5. You can dunk it multiple times if you feel like it. your solution might be pretty cloudy and hard to see through depending on what product you use, but you should be able to start seeing dead floating bugs.
Also, you will probably see some of the bugs start to crawl up from the roots toward the plant trying to escape from drowning; do something to prevent this, like a layer of D.E or something, whatever
6. Now what i did after i felt like i did enough to drown all of them, i wanted to get all the dead ones that were still stuck in the root mass out, so i put an air stone at the bottom of the same insecticide solution and turned it on full blast to push all the dead (or still alive) shit out into the open. And it did. After i did that, so many of the fuckers were unearthed from deep in the roots, some alive which i was able to then kill.
7. oh yeah, i also had a pyrethrtin spray on hand. just to spot spray any aphids or spot that needed a little extra; like the base of the stem to prevent escapees .
8. depending on how it all goes down, this could be pretty stressful for the plant, so make sure it goes back into a light nutrient mix with some enzymes if you got em.
I recommend this whole process be repeated in one to two days, three times.
and this goes without saying, but everything must be thoroughly cleaned and or replaced before your plant goes back to a normal growth schedule. especially the bucket the problem originated in.