Tiny black bugs, little black flies. Root aphids?

Ugh.. I think I have root aphids, but I need some help identifying these pictures I took of them.
They're crawling on the floor of my tent, so I stuck them to a yellow sticky trap and looked at them under my microscope. I think there's some fungus gnats too....

Is there any hope? Or should I cut my plants down, burn/trash everything and start over? I'm 1 week into flowering

I noticed the little flyers landing on some of the leaves, but I haven't seen anything like these little fuckers until today. I've sprayed with neem oil/protekt, and some rosemary oil. I could use Azamax but I hear that root aphids are nearly impossible to eradicate, especially during flower.

Any suggestions?

Fungus gnats. Diatomaceous Earth or tobacco juice is enough to handle them. Dust the top of your soil/medium and you won't get them with diatomaceous earth and they will be gone in about 3 days and won't return as long as you let the diatomaceous earth dry out between waterings.

I've never seen them without wings however.

Tobacco juice is just tea from tobacco. Soak about 3 cigarettes worth in hot water to fill a sprayer and mist. The nicotine will repel or kill the bugs.

Fungus gnats are a much more minor issue, be happy you don't have root aphids.


Here is a root aphid.

Thanks, I plan on getting dia. earth today and top dressing with it. I'm also going to water with azamax and the BTI dunks, crushed up in water.

The little ones without wings are the ones im worried about. Today is the first day I saw them... They're literally crawling all over the drip tray in my tent. I keep it super clean too. Soap/water and vacuum every day. I'm thinking they're root aphids, but they're completely black. I haven't seen a single yellow or white one.

Make sure you notice the warning on diatomacious earth. Put on a mask or just put it down while holding your breath and leave the room until it settles. You don't want to breath it. It can damage your lungs in the same way it can damage an insect.

nomofatum said:

Fungus gnats. Diatomaceous Earth or tobacco juice is enough to handle them. Dust the top of your soil/medium and you won't get them with diatomaceous earth and they will be gone in about 3 days and won't return as long as you let the diatomaceous earth dry out between waterings.

I've never seen them without wings however.

Tobacco juice is just tea from tobacco. Soak about 3 cigarettes worth in hot water to fill a sprayer and mist. The nicotine will repel or kill the bugs.

Fungus gnats are a much more minor issue, be happy you don't have root aphids.


Here is a root aphid.

Click to expand...

not sure if ive got the right diatomacious. It says 85% silicon dioxide from DE, 10% other elemental oxides, and 5% inert ingredients. Not sure if theres a pure DE or will this work. I definitely don't want to kill my soil microbes

apbx720 said:

View attachment 3556731 not sure if ive got the right diatomacious. It says 85% silicon dioxide from DE, 10% other elemental oxides, and 5% inert ingredients. Not sure if theres a pure DE or will this work. I definitely don't want to kill my soil microbes

Click to expand...

Fire away, looks like another brand of DE that goes above and beyond with labeling. Nothing bad in there, sprinkle away on the soil surface, in the bottom of pots when filling, even on the plant itself while in veg. Note it will have a minor PH up effect.

The first picture appears to be a root aphid, the little exhaust pipe-like appendage gives it away. Pictures 3 and 4 are fungus gnats.

Alot of growers mistake fungus gnats for aphids. I bieleve those are gnats. Easy to control. In coir they can be a problem. Yellow sticky cards are not a solution. They are really meant for a monitor type situation. Imidacloprid is an easy fix...added to your res tanks will knock em out for sure. There are more organic ways but thats up to you. Like thrips they are relatively easy to control. They are more of a nuisance than anything. But they can get out of hand if left unchecked.

I have dealt with them before and have some now in my veg tent. Watered with neem oil and topped soil with DE. Using sa e bag of soil in my flower tent now so i dont know where they came from, had some is some herbs planted in cheap soil that i know has gnat issues, Kellogs cough cough.... these are inside my house down stairs but i guess they might have hitched a ride to my grow room. Good air flower and not having wet soil all the time helps.

Yeah the top one looks like an aphid to me.

CC Dobbs said:

The first picture appears to be a root aphid, the little exhaust pipe-like appendage gives it away. Pictures 3 and 4 are fungus gnats.

Click to expand...

^^^^^ this^^^^^^^^^

First and second pictures are root aphids and pictures 3 and 4 are fungus gnats. Sorry

rice root aphid..

Bayer pesticides company has a mite spray that works great for aphids. You should be able to get it at walmart as they are starting to put stuff out for the season. use it 2 days in a row back to back and spray everything except plants that are in flower (you will have to manually kill them twice a day on flwr plants).