Arrgh, I think I have scarid-fly!!!

[Guest Eikel]

Ok,

 

So I don't have Spidermite, I'm pretty sure they're scarid-fly, but I have these tiny little white things crawling over the top of my plants in potting-mix. The plants themselves look perfectly healthy and are growing strong, but I'm concerned as to what these little things are.

 

They are "jumping" across the surface of the medium - I assumed from this behaviour plus the fact I dug in the mix and found a tiny little flying insect that they are scarid fly.

 

Fortunately, the plants are watered with Dutchmaster Guardian - I believe this will help?

 

I just gave them a good spray-down with a pythreum/garlic spray I bought at the nursery, will this do anything?

 

I do have some biobugs, should I stop using oxy-plus and start using that instead-of/in addition to dutchmaster guardian?

 

The growfaq at Overgrow says "The larvae resemble little worms. They have clear or white bodies with black heads." Well they don't really look like little worms, I can't see any black-heads, but they jump - the larvae I mean.

 

Am I panicking over nothing or do I have reason for concern?

[Guest Eikel]

Here's a pic of the little things, the white stuff crawling over the bark.

[Guest Eikel]

After doing more reading on the topic, I'm sure it was a scarid fly problem.

 

I've dug around all 4 plants, only one seemed to contain any larvae (interestingly enough, the one with "crinkled" leaves - should've realised). That plant is now outside and will not be returning to the grow-room.

 

The other 3 plants remain, all 4 got the garlic/pyrethrum spray treatment, I'm hoping because I found no adults in the room that it was only one plant.

 

Lets hope there's at least one female in the 3 I have left.

[Chev]

I've had a few scarid fly infestations, they're little bastards to get rid of! I've never actually seen the larvae at the top of the media though, they usually stick around the root system munching away. If you tap the pot, do little black, clear-winged insects come flying out? Normally when you get a few, you can see them flying off or crawling around the media/stem of the plant.

I wouldn't let yourself think that by removing the one infected plant, that the others will be safe, especially in a recirculating system (if that's what you're running, not sure) There may be larvae waiting to hatch out in your other girls, you won't notice until they've hatched and start to munch out.

Get down to your local hydro store and get yourself a good drench to treat all of your girls with, just to be on the safe side. Go easy on the stuff though, although I think it's a derivitive of neem oil instead of the heavy duty scarid fly stuff they used to sell. Luke Skywalker would be the man to ask, I've had to call on him before in times of scarid fly infestations

Goodluck with it man :yingyang

[Guest Eikel]

I've had a few scarid fly infestations, they're little bastards to get rid of! I've never actually seen the larvae at the top of the media though, they usually stick around the root system munching away. If you tap the pot, do little black, clear-winged insects come flying out? Normally when you get a few, you can see them flying off or crawling around the media/stem of the plant.

 

Hi Chev,

 

Yeah, your previous posts about Scarid Fly are where I got alot of my information from.

I dug around the base of each plant, suprisingly enough, the larvae were staying to the edge of the pots, and not near the centre. I do use a fair amount of perlite in my medium mix so I'm wondering if they just had unpleasant conditions and didn't like to go too low into the soil. Either that or it could be my use of the Dutchmaster Guardian, I've been told they don't liek the chemicals in this mix.

 

Nope, tapping the pot results in no insects whatsoever, I only saw one little black fly when I dug down into the mix, and promptly sqaushed him.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on the other plants, but I have a feeling I got the infestation early and only one of my plants had eggs laid in it... I'll be buying some insect strips today to hang in the room, and treat them again tomorrow with another Pyrethrum/Garlic spray.

 

I'm not running any sort of auto-watering system, I simply give the plants a water with my trusty watering can filled with my nute mix, they usually get about 500ml per 12-hours. At the moment I'm not giving them a water for to allow the medium to dry out, I want it to be unpleasant as possible for the fly larvae in the chance the other pots DO have some eggs in them.

 

Thanks for your input, it's appreciated muchly!

[mrbillz]

:reallyexcited: Here in Oregon, USA near the coast we have fungus gnats that resemble your problem and where I live I get "Witch-Hazel Aphids". Tiny, tiny little critters that don't look like aphids at all. They start as tiny dots like a sharp pencil dot in the soil, hard to see at that point. They quickly grow to about 1/32" long and you will see them hopping, etc.. Then most but not all will grow wings that appear white but are clear and shiny and they will fly around, hit the light and fall in your buds and stick or crawl in them and stick. A pure bitch to get rid of. Diatomaceous earth you can buy from the garden store is too sharp for them to walk on and cuts them up til they die. These aphids attack the roots stunting growth. The worm-like things you describe sound like "Thrips". Usually clear with 2 dots for eyes at one end. these will turn into winged creatures long and narrow that lay their eggs inside the leaves thus slowing growth also. BOTH these bugs are a bitch to fight off. Ladybugs just don't get 'em fast enuff, BUT I found something that will. I don't recommend this for any less than 5 weeks remaining in "flower", but it WORKS! Add 1 tsp "neem-oil" and 1/2 tsp garlic powder to 1 Gal of water and water your plants with this formula per gallon 2 weeks in a row making sure you have at 5 weeks remaining in flower afterwards. The neem oil gets INTO the leaves and stems and kills anything that eats it for 5 wks. Thrips hatch inside the leaves so they are history and soil gets treated so the bugs there are killed also. The garlic will act as a deterrant to keep the bugs away to begin with. I do this in my second week of vegging EVERYTIME and that along with sticky traps and electronic bug repellers an occasional spraying of the neem/garlic mix and ladybugs in between spraying. Whatever it takes.... :thumbsup

[jackfrost]

Hey bro,

 

give the ladies a good watering with the pythreum you got - mix it in the nutes you are feeding at 1/2 ratio it says on bottle for folier spray .

 

Make sure you water every part of the root system, else some will survive - do this for about three days then rinse roots with plain water. - if you got any neem oil use that instead.

 

If you are using oxyplus use this the first week after flush (this will strip any dead dead material off the roots and kill any virus), then the following week use your bio-bugs (this product you said you had and will help the plant build healthly new white roots)---- do not ever use together, as the oxyplus will kill the biobugs.

 

Only use the guardian every few weeks as ive found using every week puts stress on the plants.

 

Ive found a good product to repair root damage is Canna Zym, imho better then biobugs.

 

Hang a few sticky traps around your plants and you will soon get fore-warning about the fly. ----> if you see some fly on the trap, then run some more neem oil in the nutes.

 

Jack

[F420]

Neem is majic stuff but also is slow working.

I had a bad dose of these things awhile ago and used 950g/l emulsifiable Botanic oil and 800g/l Diazinon.

 

was called" Xtreme Scarid Fly Drench"

 

Only thing with this stuff is you have to make sure you leave it at least 14 days before you harvest.

For me this wasnt an issue as I used it, flushed it all out and then went straight to flush for 16 days.

 

That fixed the bastards .

 

im suprised to hear that Guardian didnt keep them away.

I was thinking about trying some but dont think I will bother now as it clearly doesnt work ;(

[Chev]

im suprised to hear that Guardian didnt keep them away.

I was thinking about trying some but dont think I will bother now as it clearly doesnt work

It does work man, if it hadn't been for the regular doses of it, our last harvest would've been totalled from scarid fly. It won't keep them away completly, but it discourages them quite a bit. We use it on a regular basis with the girls :thumbsup

[F420]

Oh okies. Iu just had in my head that it was a 24hour insecticide. And he still has them after using it??

 

but yea I see what your saying also, if it wasnt for the guardian they probably would have wiped out his grow.

 

Will have to research it more.