Root Aphids, Fungus Gnats, and other fun bugs (ID PICS)

[Coir]

The thought that they might be Hypoaspis miles ( a commercially available predatory mite) is ruled out by the fact that they are blooming in a vegetative environment.
Hypoaspis would only bloom in the presence of abundant prey.
Kill those fuckers.

And if you READ what he wrote you would see that he has a fungus gnat issue. Guess what Hypoaspis feed on?????????????????
So "Kill those fuckers" might not be an appropriate measure. But you are obviously the expert so what the hell would I know?

 

[Dunge]

And if you READ what he wrote you would see that he has a fungus gnat issue. Guess what Hypoaspis feed on?????????????????
So "Kill those fuckers" might not be an appropriate measure. But you are obviously the expert so what the hell would I know?

Didn't intend offence, just concerned that any insect bloom can be a problem, and unless he introduced a predatory mite, it seems unlikely they happened upon his garden.
I hope you are correct.

 

[Bangarang]

Just brewed up a batch of ogbiowar foliar pack. Gave the plants in veg straight tea yesterday morning. Just went out and dug around a little bit and these little guys are still cruising around. What next?

 

[Coir]

Just brewed up a batch of ogbiowar foliar pack. Gave the plants in veg straight tea yesterday morning. Just went out and dug around a little bit and these little guys are still cruising around. What next?

The first thing is to get a positive ID on them before doing anything else. A microscope will be good for that. If they are Hypoaspis then you don't want to kill them! I have not been able to find any information that there are soil dwelling mites that harm plants. In fact, it seems that most soil dwelling mites are beneficial.

 

[Myco]

Those are a harmless, beneficial or predatory soil mite.

H. Miles (or similar species) will feed on things like FG larvae and/or decaying organic matter i.e. helps break down organics in the medium.

You will not be able to eradicate them... you will hurt your plants before you wipe them out. Don't waste your time.

 

[Myco]

Here's a close up of a mite that is either H. Miles or a very similar species... I literally had hundreds of thousands of these things at one time... and never saw a single fungus gnat, that's for sure.

Keep in mind this picture was taken using a standard point and shoot digicam, through a cheap $15 scope... the flash makes the body look a bit more transparent and the color is a bit off. But you can be assured that any one of the many, many soil mites of this shape are NOT harmful to plants. And are either beneficial, predatory, or simply an organism co-existing...

Some people have a theory that particular soil mites present may be an indication that you have a harmful bacteria/fungus that the mites are feasting on... I've heard that before, but can't speak on it.

There are indeed some soil dwelling mites that are harmful to plants, such as bulb mites (which look distinctly different than the critters @Bangarang posted), but chances are if you have soil mites present and are experiencing some sort of issue, it's very likely unrelated to them...

 

[ElManiaco]

Keep them! They're your soldiers against bad bugs... I keep them at the ready like our military branch... They've saved my garden plenty of times with fungus gnats & two-spotted spider mites.
Some companies are adding H. Miles to their soil due to bad bug complaints & loss of business.
Must always ID any bug ya find with 100% certainty so no mistakes are made.
Peace

 

[Toaster79]

Anybody recognize these? They are size of a fungus gnats.

 

[Seamaiden]

Look like FG motherfuckers to me. I hate those things, just had to clean a bunch out of my balsamic I had on the counter. IIRC, FGs wings fold neatly one on top of the other, whereas RAs wings meet over their back like praying hands. This is from memory, though.

Excellent photograph.

 

[Toaster79]

Hey Sea! Always glad to have you around :)

They sure look like @/$#ng FGs to me too? BUT! The last time I had those mofos round fking up half o my crop they looked different. They were striped like those nasty mosquitos had me nearly piss my pants. Who wants sick girls with him/her sick himself to death :$

 

[Myco]

I think Sea is correct about her description of RA fliers, and IMO those are FG.

FG is a generic term, so are there different species that we deal with?.. Or even regional variations, perhaps? I've been lucky enough to never have huge issues with FG, thankfully, but I do recall some behaving and looking slightly different than one another, but still looking, basically, like a mini-mosquito.

I also have seen what I believe to be shore flies (?), getting stuck in my resin-encrusted colas and sometimes buzzing around. They fly with more purpose than the dumb/oblivious/clumsy nature of FG... have the same perfectly folding wings, but have more visible eyes and appear to have kind of a shiny body, almost like a mini-shit-fly.

 

[Seamaiden]

Sciarids is the family or group, IIRC. Gotta look it up via the UCDavis site.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7448.html

Of course, the real tell is who's living in the roots. If who's living in the roots looks like an aphid, then you've got yourself a real problem. If it looks like a maggot, you still have a problem but it's a lot easier to deal with.

 

[Myco]

Thank god I've never had to deal with RA *knocks on wood*

I happened to come across that page last night, 'twas a good read. Now I'm 99% sure that I see shore flies in my main flower room from time to time, particularly in the summer. I don't have an issue with them, aside from picking the little bastards out of sticky flowers.

 

[Hellno187]

Seamaiden is spot on, go to UCDavis's website Toaster. I used it (with the help of my trusty 30x magnifying glass) to ID not only that I had the dreaded RA, but the exact type of RA. And yes Myco you're lucky to have never come across RA their like the Marines of pests, damn hard to kill. Keep a steady vigil on your plants folks, catching the RA early allowed me to win the fight before numbers overwhelmed me lol. I'm sure it's that way with most pests. Good luck eradicating your pests problem Toaster.

 

[Skuna Tuna]

ive come to a safe theory through my observations in regards to beneficial mites. A mite that is fast in speed is most likely to be a predatorial mite of some sort. They need their speed to prey. A mite that moves relatively slowly (spider mites, root aphids, aphids, etc..) are herbivores and tend to feed solely on plant matter. i like to observe my living mediums and will often find little white and sometimes red mites running in and out of my medium. However i do weekly AACT and spike my tea *after its been diluted* with OG Biowar foliar @ 1/2-1 tsp/gal. this seems to keep everything at bay, never had population explosions of anything, (FG, RA, springtails, H miles, etc..)

 

[Myco]

Nice I hope that's what I have... What do you think? http://m.youtube.com/?reload=2&rdm=1daoxp6ww#/watch?v=RVkZLoTKSjQ

Super hard to tell... all I see is some fast moving critters. Good possibility it's harmless, but we'd need a closer pic. Do you have a USB scope? Or even just a regular cheap RadioShack type scope? Like I mentioned that pic I above I took with nothing more than a cheap scope like you'd use to check trichs and a cheap point and shoot digicam. It's a bitch, but possible.

 

[Toaster79]

Been digging through my pots tonight playing with dirt when I came across these:

I'm guessing some good guys in my soil. If you pay close attention you will also see a nematode in second video. First video is a seed shell of a previous run and the second is of a freshly sprouted seed. So these came either with soil or EWC.

 

[Spetys]

Sry, im new here, I didn't notice that this was a marijuana site lol :p
But, anyways... well, I was searching the internet to see if I can find any information about this bugs I have in my tomato plants. they are very small. I don't know if there is only one type of bug or there is many. Like some looks like fleas, but other looks like, I don't know... small termites?
This is a video, is hard to see, but at the end you can see a few of them jumping around?
Ok, I hope somebody can tell me. Regards!

 

[Coir]

Sry, im new here, I didn't notice that this was a marijuana site lol :p
But, anyways... well, I was searching the internet to see if I can find any information about this bugs I have in my tomato plants. they are very small. I don't know if there is only one type of bug or there is many. Like some looks like fleas, but other looks like, I don't know... small termites?
This is a video, is hard to see, but at the end you can see a few of them jumping around?
Ok, I hope somebody can tell me. Regards!

Looks like springtails but hard to say for sure since you can't get in closer.

 

[Toaster79]

The fast jumpy guys with long bodies are called springtails :D What a coincidence lol
No worries, you have good bugs in your soil. They are harmless :)