I have all these little fly type creatures starting to multiply. Seem to be living in the clay balls where the water is. Help pleAse. What do I do? Been spraying this natural spray from nursery but it isn’t working. Nebrr seen these outdoors.
Chappy…Will here… go and get some Diatomaceous Earth you can buy it at Home Depot for around $7. bucks
thats if you live here in the States and powder you plants with it real good even under the leaves.
and that will take care of your problem.
Will
Yeah I’m in Australia Will. I’ll go to my local hydro shoo and see what they have.
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Is it fungus gnats? I think Herdrogen peroxide or a small amount of 50% ISO alcohol in your water or growing medium might help kill them. I don’t know though.
I had fungus gnats in my first grow which was soil. It was mid flowering stage and they would land on the leaves and because of the THC resin they would get stuck. I had them for about 2 weeks or so and when I found out what they were and whether I should get rid of them, I went out and bought some alcohol to put in my soil and they had disappeared. I think they just died on the leaves. Extra protein in my joints.
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Pest Troubles
Well this isn’t going to be a long one, just going to talk about what each bug does, what are its symptoms and how to prevent and kill them.
White flys:
They look just like tiny months, and lay eggs on leaves and or top of the soil. They are a pest in big numbers and are not very hard to get rid of; they can cause damage by sucking sap from the plants and also causes viruses to the plants. While they suck, the plants release honeydew which can contribute to mold on your plants. White flies are not flies they are related to the aphid’s family, and this there damage relates to aphid infestation. Your plants will have a spotty look to the leaves, and will droop and loose vigor. Leaves may have a sticky feeling as well. If you are not sure if you have them, you can shake your plants leaves a bit, the white flies will then fly around for a bit before settling back on the plants leaves. White flies like to lay there eggs on the underside of the leaves, just like spider mites. Eggs take around 7 to 10 days to hatch, once hatched the pupate will stay in an area that is good in food and then it feeds on leaves. If your plants are affected during late flowering or close to harvest, please try to use the safest means of control to be safe to your health.
Here are some ways NOT to get them: Do not overwater your potted plants. Allow the soil to dry between waterings and provide good drainage. Another one is to put sticky traps up when you think you may have them, that way when they get stuck you can identify them.
if you already have white flys, you can use insecticidal soap, this will help stop them from flying so it wont infect other plants.
It also stops them from laying new eggs. If you use the soap reapply weekly.
Chemicals
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Doc’s Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
Symphilids
Small pests that are tan to white colored and look like centipedes. They are very deadly to the plants, because they burrow down into the roots and damage them by feeding of them. Your plants leaves will begin to die off. They are found mostly in soil composites that have not been cleaned, like soil that has additives in them such as animal manure.
(I know it will smell funny but sterilizing the soil in the oven for 30 min can kill any pests in the soil, heat to 350 for 30 min.) They are easy to tell if you have them, because they come to the top soil when your plant is being watered, if you find you do have them, use Fungus Gnat Killer (“B.T." a non chemical,biological control) in the powdered form. One application should kill it, just to be safe repeat every 7 days to kill off the larvae. Tobacco juice kills them as well! And nematodes.
Picture 2 shows the Symphilids look like…
Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats like to feed on roots of the plants and organic matter. Adults and larvae live in moist, shady areas. The adults lay there eggs on top of the soil, near the base of the stem and takes about 4 days to hatch. The larvae will start by eating the root hairs of the plant then working their way up the plant, Fungus gnats like to eat organic matter so they will be stealing away nutrients from your plants, so its best to get rid of them completely. [color=red. Plants growing in rock wool are more prone to getting a more severe infestation than plants growing in soil. If your plants are affected during late flowering or close to harvest, please try to use the safest means of control to be safe to your health.[/color]
[color=red]Prevent and Control
Prevent indoor entry of gnats by making sure there is no open windows open without screens on. Aug is a bad time for them as they are worst that time of the year.
Put sticky traps on the soil surface to trap the gnats
Put potato slices on the surface of the soil. The larvae like it and will be drawn to it… After about 4 to 5 days, remove the potato slices with the larvae. To get rid of them you can do a lot of things like either use a NO pest strip, neem oil or putting sand on the surface of the soil will suffocate the eggs and get rid of them as well. Tobacco juice kills them, and works well for re-occurrences!
They can be in or on the soil and can fly. In order to get rid of them you can use neem oil, sand or perlite on the surface again kills them, and no pest strips catch the ones that fly. A chemical product called Zone works very well and is very powerful and works well in Hydroponics/Aeroponics!
Other Products which can be used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics and soil are:
Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide
GNATROL( used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics in the water as well as soil),
Safer Sticky Stakes,
TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
PERMETHRIN dust
Mosquito Dunks
Organic Control
Natrasoap
Pest Oil
Neem Oil
Hot Pepper Wax
Doc’s Neem Pest Soap
Sticky traps
Safer’s Insecticidal Soap
Neem Oil
Neem 2
Picture 4 shows the fungus gnat.
Picture 5 shows there larvae
Spider mites:
Spider mites are by far the worst pest to have, because they are the hardest to kill and can literally kill any plant. They are by far more active in warmer climates than cold ones, they also suck sup from the leaves leaving tiny white spots on the leaves from where they suck on. The damage they do is just like thrips, but with spider mites they pierce the surface of the leaves and can show tiny holes or white speckling damage, unlike with thirps they eat the surface of the chlorophyll. You can tell when you have infestation of spider mites , because you will have distorted growth, shortened internodes and petioles.
When you have bad infestation you will see webbing with larva in them. You get spider mites from either store bought soil mostly when your soil is not sterilized. Most brands do not state weather or not they are, chances are if you buy cheap soil, you have a less likely chance of the soil being sterile.Also, bringing outdoor plants indoors, or getting plants from someone else who was infected with spidermites.
Spider mites live on the plant itself and are under the leaves most of the time and are usually are so tiny you can’t see them with the naked eye. In order to get rid of spider mites one of the best ways to start to get rid of them is to use NO-Pest strips.NO-Pest strips work well and should always be used with other methods. Neem oil helps get rid of them as well. Also by raising the humidity in your grow room a lot will kill the spider mites off, by them absorbing to much humidity and will burst. You can use soap solution like Safer Insecticidal Soap to get rid of most aphid problems. Use some tobacco juice and chili pepper powder added to this for mites. (see below how to make tabacco juice)
Pyrethrum should only be used in extreme circumstances directly on plants, It starts to breaks down around a week and is easily washed away with clear water or. If your plants are in flowering and you have spider mites, using safer chemicals is your best bet. The tobacco and pepper soap solution works well and should be used daily, spraying on the underside and top leaves and later the whole plant. Since spider mites are very residual to common products, you have to find or try any number of ones untill you get rid of them. make absolutly sure you retreat as stated, other wise you will get resistant spidermites and then you have a bigger battle on your hands.Also do not allow pets that go outside alot to be around indoor plants,mites have been known to be carried in from pets to plants. PLEASE NOTE, below are ways to get rid of spider mites, but no 2 mite infestations are identical, you almost always have to use different products to get rid of them, also make a habit to check for at least a whole month after thinking you got rid of them, that way your chances of the spider mites that became resistant breeding and then having a bigger problem. Make sure you spray your plant down very good and enough and on time.
Here are some more products that may help get rid of spider mites:
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Doc’s Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum. Anything that says dicofol on the back. ( should be used in vegging or early flowering)
Avid
GNATROL( used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics in the water as well as soil)
Safer Sticky Stakes
TR-11000 Pyrethrum
Anything that says dicofol on the back. ( should be used in vegging or early flowering)
PERMETHRIN dust
Organics
Organocide
Hot Pepper Wax,
Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide
Doc’s Neem Pest Soap
Organocide
Bugzyme Natural Pest Killer
Schultz-Instant Insect Spray
Lady Beetles (Beneficial Insect)
Predatory mite (Beneficial Insect)
Pirate Bugs (Beneficial Insect)
Neem Oil
Neem 2
Check this out it mite help
Tabacco Juice recipe
Take 3 strong ciggeretes soak them over night in water
Boil it for 2 to 3 miniutes, let it cool off and spray the plants 3 to 4 times a week. You can add safer soap if you like to the mixture.
(make absolutly sure you use gloves/face protection while handling and spraying)
Neem oil works very well too!!
ZBQ has an excellent thread on how to use neem oil without geting your plants to oily!! http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthr...hreadid=482648 :tup: Your Last resort is to use Avid.
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The yellow sticky traps are great at getting the ones flying, they like the color yellow. Mine got a lot of them.
Tom
I tried those, I use them occasionally if I get fruit flies in the kitchen, they’re a huge pain to deal with for me though. I buy cheap dollar store ones and they’re crazy stick but if they touch anything it leaves goo on it including skin. My plant essentially did the same thing without the hassle. 
I think they just got stuck in the THC and died and were unable to reproduce.
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FYI … For the outdoor growers the permethrin works great to keep the ticks off you. I’ve already pulled a few off me this year. My plants are in pots in the high grass for camo purposes.
Yes… I think they are fruit flies. They look very much like that. I been spraying them with a soap spray. Only problem is it raises my PH level when it washes through the system. I will get some sticky pads today. Day 29 of flower today. Looking gruesome 
Sounds like fungus gnats. DE sprinkled on the roots in the clay balls/hydroton might work. I don’t see any harm as long as you are not running misters or something else.
H2O2 will help. Part of the likely problem is low oxygen and rotting roots allowing the fungus gnats to have a viable place to lay their eggs and have the larva survive in fungus rich decomposing roots area above the water level.
Other thoughts, water level too high, temperatures too high, these might be the cause or a contributor to creating an environment that fungus gnats can survive in a hydro environment, usually you won’t really get them in hydroton hydro set-ups.
Hey Mac. I’m pretty sure they aren’t fungus knats. They do look like fruit flies which are prolific here, all my temps are good. I have all that automated and checked daily. I’m an electrician and I’m a freak for that sort of stuff…lol.
Ok, I’ll take your word for it as I can’t see them, lol.
DE should still help.
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When suggesting the use of diatomaceous Earth; You must inform unsuspecting growers not to buy and / or use Swimming Pool DE. It is toxic and not for use on Animals ro Humans, other than to place in a swimming pool filtration system
You must tell growers to find Food Grade Codex DE. C’mon guys …
Ok will do
Thank you
Will
Hi Will, Roger here new grower. I’m using small outdoor greenhouse in Oakland. I have ten planters and a small pop of knats hanging around the soil and generally being annoying. I have some on veg and some on clones that went straight to flower. Would the Diatomaceous Earth remedy the knats, and how would I apply it. Thanks so much for your time I really appreciate it. Roger
Yes It will. Make sure you get under the leaves and dust the the dirt also.
you will see a big difference in 3. Or 4 days. Make sure that you don’t use the swimming pool D.E OK
Will
Yes sir and thanks for the advice, I think they might be fruit flies will work for that too? Thank you Roger
Ya…I’m pretty sure it will. I’ll tell ya…that’s some dam good stuff that D.E
Will
Fun gas gnats have longer legs like spiders. Fruit flys have shorter legs. From the pic I was looking at. Hope you get rid of them.
Thanks so much for that input!