Preventative Measures for Soil Bugs

bugs in soil is a pretty common topic on here and other sites. they are everywhere.

so i thought it might be good to have a thread to talk about (preferably Organic or natural) preventative measures you take to prevent bugs in soil/roots that WORK (no he said/she said)

the three main soil/root bugs are:

FUNGUS GNATS (identified by black flyers, worms in soil with black heads, destroyed roots)
THIRPS (identified by fast long bug in soil, lower leaves have shiny spekled look, destroyed roots)
ROOT APHIDS (identified by crawlers on lower stalk and containers rims and drain holes, white waxy substance on side of soil or smart pots, black winged flyers that hang around the plant, phantom CalMag deficiency, destroyed roots)

in all three cases i have found cutting a potato in pieces and placing on soil cut side down, waiting 12 hours and scoping the cut side, reveals the bugs. in all three cases the roots will look thin, non hairy, sometimes brown, spindly.

any thing i am missing?

Drench with Azamax in your water once every couple of weeks.......

first preventive:

dont take in clones, as you inherit any problems, if you have to, quarantine, treat and watch carefully
sterilize all containers, mixing tools, walls, trays etc. with bleach or alt sterilizer.
soil choice is also a big part, some that have compost and peat are more suseptable to having bugs or eggs

gnats i have found that BTI works best, just water in
thrips spinosad
aphids met 52

i have also found mighty wash helps kill populations as a first treatment for most soil bugs.

i wonder if putting all three into the soil at once has any negatives, as i mainly use just met52, but add spinosad or bti if i get thrips or gnats.

thoughts?

Ok so what it BTI??

I began putting chunks of mosquito dunks in the soil/coco upon transplant.

Put about 1/4 - 1/6 mosquito dunk about 2 inches below the soil/media line in every pot. Then add more after about 3 weeks. Also keep dunks in res.

Buy a tub of tanglefoot and a stack of yellow construction paper. Keep your grow filled with these cheap yellow traps to both catch adults and monitor gnats. Potato slices can be used to monitor larvae. I let them sit for a couple days. Perhaps I should try a short 12 hours as you are doing...

I treat my mother stock with imid (merit 75) 2-3 times a year. Any clone cut from the mother is at least 90+ days from finished product... so i am not worried about any kind of dirty product.

I would use pyrethrin to drench plants over azamax. Although pyrethrin is not so effective against fungus gnats... it is very effective against root aphids and does much less damage to the roots than azamax will.

The thing is... flowering plants end up getting pitched in the end. So as long as you clean your mother room well (including bombs between flowering) then you really just have to worry about your mother stock/veg room. Imid treatments 2-3 times a year will keep your mother stock in check.

Once a year... shut down. Cut all your plants you wish to keep down to clones. move them to another area (quarantine). Clean the hell out of your room and bomb at 3-4 day intervals. When your cuts take root, transplant and water them in with imid. Then reintroduce to your room and start all over again. Just remember to take enough cuts before shutting down to both start up your next round AND keep as mothers. Make enough mothers that you will have cuts for your second round in time. 4 harvest per year can happen with 9-wk strains even while shutting down for 2 months to clean. The most unforgiving climate months are an ideal choice for shutting down. Like July and August heat, for example.



That's my method these days. There is a reason so many large ag producers use imid... when used correctly, it works and it is safe.

Diatomaceous earth added to your soil mix (a few cups per cubic foot) will keep your garden pest free. For established plants, sprinkle a thin layer of it on the surface of the soil and scratch it in. It looks like tiny razor blades under a microscope, and it really messes up insects bodies to the point of death. It is completely natural and non toxic to humans and other animals, just avoid breathing in the dust, breathing in any kind of dust is not good for the lungs. DE is made of fossilized unicellular fresh water plants called “Diatoms.” Cheap, effective, can't be beat.

yea, that dust reason, makes it my last choice to use. i guess i am paranoid that that dust can get on to smoking material.

also heard it doesnt work well when wet. can this be confirmed???

BTI is Bacillus_thuringiensis_israelensis

I do not have a University study or anything, but, my understanding is that when wet DE does not work. It can get wet and then dry out and work... but while it is wet it does not work. So I would think mixing it into the soil would not work to well. I have no hard evidence on that.

I use DE in flower buds for ants and other large groups of bugs in one area. It just sort of sits in the garage and gets dumped on top of groups of bugs. Mostly ants.

Which reminds me... an important part of root aphid prevention is checking for ants getting into your grow room. They will bring in root aphids.

This is completely out of the box but

-Dryer sheets
-plant lavender/mint/garlic/geranium rose

planted mint and lavender in my grandmas garden and it really kept out a lot of small insects including aphids/fleas/ticks which are very common in our area.

So maybe a plant near your grow room could help, not to mention lavender is notorious for its smell (and maybe an ability to mask scents)

oldschooltofu said:

yea, that dust reason, makes it my last choice to use. i guess i am paranoid that that dust can get on to smoking material.

also heard it doesnt work well when wet. can this be confirmed???

BTI is Bacillus_thuringiensis_israelensis

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Diatomaceous earth works wet or dry. it is a fossil. It is often used as a dewormer which is ingested by the target animal, if it did not work wet then this would be ineffective. It is a fossil with razor sharp edges, which is what kills the insects by slicing up their bodies.

Added a layer of DE to my soil last night. Already see way less flies. Good stuff.

yeah that stuff is great, i always add it to the soil recipe and mix it into the batch, 2-4 cups per cubic foot works great. In higher quality soils you will see they do the same thing, they call it Diatoms in their ingredient list...

There is a product called "Gnatrol" that I used to use for fungus gnats that seemed to work well. It's a soil drench.

intenseneal said:

Added a layer of DE to my soil last night. Already see way less flies. Good stuff.

Click to expand...

how has that been working out for you? your plants not seem to mind the DE? i've never bought or even looked for DE either, you guys think i could pick it up sat a local nursery or hydro shop?