WTF is this nonsense?

[BudgetMessiah]

Aphids?

 

[Chip Green]

Indeed.

 

[fragileassassin]

yep, are you in flower or veg still?

 

[BudgetMessiah]

Okay, so what do?
My plants are in a mylar tent indoors at week 8 of bloom. Infestation seems to be relatively localized. That is, they aren't everywhere yet. I hosed both sides of the affected foliage with DE, along with anything nearby and the stems to create a firewall. Anything else?

 

[fragileassassin]

being that youre in flower, you dont have many options left. If you catch them in veg you can dunk them in water or treat them with several different things that I wouldnt want on my buds.
Your best bet now, imo, is to trim off as much of the effected part that you can and hope you can keep them under control until your plants are done. A small number of them isnt life or death, but they reproduce FAST and can become a problem.

Do you have fans in your grow? They like calm stagnant places best and keeping it windy can go a long way in preventing them.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

My fan oscillates over the canopy. I could aim it down a little more, but I'm concerned that blowing them all over my tent might not be the solution I'm looking for.
Also, not sure if I was clear enough, but I've sprayed down half of everything with a solution of diatomaceous earth, mostly below the canopy aiming up. I'm not terribly concerned if the larfy stuff has DE in it, I'm just going to cook that bud anyway. I'm hoping that knocks them way back.
Do they go after buds, or only leaves?

 

[fragileassassin]

They get all up in everything. They will shed all in your buds if they grow up and spread.
Fan is prevention not solution, youre passed prevention and it just helps anyway not surefire prevention.
From what youve already done, and passed spraying something else, removing the infected part of the plant or getting the infected plant out is your next recourse.
If youve caught it early, it should be centralized to a fairly small area. If its bad enough for extreme measures a fresh water dunk or spray down/cold shower could still be possible without too much negative effect.

"One feature most species share is that they are incredibly prolific. Wingless adult female aphids can produce 50 to 100 offspring. A newly born aphid becomes a reproducing adult within about a week and then can produce up to 5 offspring per day for up to 30 days!"

So you could potentially wait a few days and see if your treatment was enough.
Being that you may still have a month or more to go youll want to watch close over the next week and do more if they get worse.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

This is my first grow, and the idea was to top the plants once, prune it enough to get at the pots, but otherwise LITFA.

But now this happened. Enough. Today the war begins in earnest.

Carved away swaths of canopy this morning. Very creepy. Didn't apply more DE because the lights were about to go out and it wouldn't get a chance to dry. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's a shame too, had some very pretty leaves.

 

[Couch_Lock]

Sorry to hear it, man. Get it under control ASAP.
TBH, it looks pretty dense and crowded in there. I'd have lollippped a few plants or defoliated every one. Density creates a haven for infestations.

 

[Couch_Lock]

If u can purchase ladybugs locally I'd do that. Live predators won't affect the taste or potency, Neem oil might.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

If this grow was in my basement, I would just have a ladybug picnic and call it a day. Alas, it is in my downstairs bathroom, and a ladybug infestation in my living space would probably be more annoying than an aphid infestation in my grow tent

 

[Couch_Lock]

get rid of aphids by wiping or spraying the leaves of the plant with a mild solution of water and a few drops of dish soap .

It's not bad yet, I wouldn't go the Neem Oil route first. Mild is better.

 

[Moldy]

If u can purchase ladybugs locally I'd do that. Live predators won't affect the taste or potency, Neem oil might.

Yeah, neem oil can screw up your taste and also shock and herm you plants. Been there, seeded bud sucks. There are rumors that neem can also make you sick but I haven't seen firm proof of that yet. Many growers now shy away from neem.

 

[moorebass70]

Okay, so what do?
My plants are in a mylar tent indoors at week 8 of bloom. Infestation seems to be relatively localized. That is, they aren't everywhere yet. I hosed both sides of the affected foliage with DE, along with anything nearby and the stems to create a firewall. Anything else?

Hi, try a mix of 90+% iso. alcohol and water, at a 1-1 ratio. Use it in a spray bottle.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

get rid of aphids by wiping or spraying the leaves of the plant with a mild solution of water and a few drops of dish soap .

It's not bad yet, I wouldn't go the Neem Oil route first. Mild is better.

This is the "drown them" approach. The dish soap causes the water to lose surface tension, you can do the same thing with a glass of water and a drop of dish soap to kill fruit flies (mixing vinegar in the water makes good bait). They land on the water and fall in immediately instead of walking on it.

I think the DE should also break surface tension in a similar way, right? If not I'll add a drop of detergent to the next bombing run.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

Yeah, neem oil can screw up your taste and also shock and herm you plants. Been there, seeded bud sucks. There are rumors that neem can also make you sick but I haven't seen firm proof of that yet. Many growers now shy away from neem.

This grow was already light and heat damaged, and I've tweezed stamen out of my buds already. I'm anticipating seeds, tbh, and nbd.
I'm not keen on using neem oil on the buds. If I can get some food grade lemongrass oil, I might try diluting that in some water and hitting affected buds. Or just extracting those buds instead of smoke, I've got to get a better look at them with the scope tonight.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

So I went to the local vitamin store and got a half ounce of their finest lemongrass oil and mixed with with about 7 parts water and a drop of iso alcohol, shook it really good, and misted the canopy lightly. About a half dozen sprays. I don't know about the aphids, but I know I wanted to die after about a minute of that. It's like a citronella apocalypse in there.

 

[Wizard of Nozs]

Just order some ladybugs. Even if it's an indoor grow, they only eat larva and eggs. I set loose about 500 in my grow tent and a ton of them got out, but I never even see them.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

Just order some ladybugs. Even if it's an indoor grow, they only eat larva and eggs. I set loose about 500 in my grow tent and a ton of them got out, but I never even see them.

My wife would 100% see them, and I don't want this to be my last grow.
Besides, at this point I'm not about to send hundreds of trusty ladybugs to their deaths in a lemon-scented silicate wasteland. I'm not a monster. And I would like to see how well this works.

 

[BudgetMessiah]

I bring good news from the lemon-scented battlefield.

While there are still some aphids that I have spotted here and there (ew btw) mostly the undersides of leaves look to have small circular holes, but no passengers. I think they really don't like the lemongrass oil.