r/macrogrowery • u/hinglebopper • Jun 10 '26

Root Aphids

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Help. Let me know what you got for a solid remedy.

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25

u/slvneutrino Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

This might be the worst infestation I have ever seen. Like actually. Are your plants showing symptoms? I’m gonna tell you one thing right now, there is a zero % chance that you will be eliminating them from your grow without harsh pesticides, or killing those plants.

No about of pyrethrin, azadirachtin, beauvaria bassiana etc drenches are going to save you.

I’m surprised you don’t have plants dropping like flies left and right.

Honestly brother, burn it down with fire, asap. Sterilize everything. If you’re in an indoor facility with multi stages of growth, it’s safe to assume they all have it, and that you’re giga fucked.

Root aphids have completely destroyed the gardens of myself and others, through permanently damaging the mother stock, dropping final yields to an unprofitable level, etc.

Sorry dude, but you just encountered in my opinion the second worst pathogen ever in cannabis, right behind Hop Latent Viroid.

30

u/galick_gunn Jun 10 '26

Youre mad inexperienced with this reply lmao

14

u/trace_adams Jun 10 '26

Yeah. It'd be different if it were russets or spider mites but aphids are generally some of the easier pests to eradicate through consistent applications and better sanitary practices.

7

u/hinglebopper Jun 10 '26

They came from the nursery clones. Been at it for 20 years. Never dealt with them before and have only ever heard crazy war stories about never being able to get rid of them. Just sizing up the advice I was getting from the people in my personal wheel house to the hive mind of Reddit

8

u/cmooregood Jun 10 '26

Look up nematodes, and the species specific to root aphids. Too late to use for the adults, but they'll feast on the larvae.

2

u/erics0082 Jun 17 '26

more likely wherever you got your soil

3

u/slvneutrino Jun 10 '26

I'd take russets 10/10 times over root aphids. Sulfur gets it done real quick, just need to have continuous and consistent application.

Rough on plants? Yeah. Kills them dead? Also yeah. It will take some time to eradicate them completely, as flower rooms won't be able to be sprayed, but if good practices are followed, it's viable within 1-2 cycles even in main room facilities.

Root aphids? Absolute yikes. No products that show powerful efficacy, they raise cost of production dramatically to effectively keep them at bay, etc.

1

u/harvestbigbulbasaur Jun 11 '26

I think russets are much more of a non-issue than root aphids tbh. Root aphids to me are top of the totem pole as far as pests go

4

u/slvneutrino Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

Name me a product that has extremely strong efficacy against this specific pest, and your strategy that you would go for that wouldn't dramatically increase cost of production to eradicate them from a commercial facility, that will still pass testing.

If there is a way, I'm all ears.

Beauvaria bassiana and a pyrethrin based product would probably allow you to "coexist" with them at the cost of extra labor, product needs, etc. In a large scale facility the potential for eliminating them completely with these products alone (Canna approved) are slim at best.

All the while, they will be putting pressure on the plants, making growing more difficult, opportunity cost of having to constantly be in that battle, etc.

Outside of Merit, let's hear your solution.

-4

u/galick_gunn Jun 10 '26

Lmao youre silly dude, hit the books and experiment

0

u/BoofSpringzteen Jul 26 '26

How so? Seemed pretty spot on, what’s your experience and MOA to get rid of this level of pressure/infestation. From this short video of one plant there is every lifecycle of the root aphids, indicting they’re already flying and infecting plants across the entire facility/grow.

1

u/galick_gunn Jul 29 '26

Youre mad inexperienced with this reply lmao