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pests Aphids, Fungus Gnats and something else

bpiela

bpiela

Wow. I don't really look close daily on how the plants are doing and I especially don't always have my glasses on, but today I saw the craziest infestation on my OW plants.

There are tons of gnats everywhere. I kinda thought I saw one every now and then but now I see tons of them. Along with the gnats, it looks like I have a new aphid infestation, although these aphids are different. They have not hit up the seedlings. They really don't seem to move. I do not know if they are the larva of the fungus gnat or just aphids.

Here are a couple of pics:

First is of a yellow leaf that fell off one of the plants. I saw these aphid-like bugs underneath with some gnats. The gnats are no longer in the picture because they took off before I could get the photo.

QeRQxPM.jpg


Next picture is weird. I have been seeing this phenomena for a couple of weeks and I have no clue what it is. There is this salty like residue that is collecting on the leaves of my plants. I don't know if it is from the lights. I did notice today that two of the four bulbs are dead. Here is a pic of what it looks like:

RdpXjKT.jpg


Lastly, I just wanted to show a picture of the whole grow area. Not huge. You can see some OWs that are not directly under the light. Those plants have no salty residue or bugs of any kind.

xZ8oIXw.jpg


Any ideas as to what is going on here is greatly appreciated. I ordered some sticky bug traps. I am guessing I will need another round of lady bugs but I would guess that they would get caught on the sticky bug traps as well. Any thoughts on this white salty stuff?

Thanks all!
 
The first pic are the type of nasties I had all over my plants, last year, when I returned from vacation. They had a week to feast and multiply so that pretty much ruined my season. I did hit them with Dawn dishwashing liquid, since they are soft bodied, and it worked pretty well. That salty-type build up, I have no clue. If that's edema, I've never seen it that bad...
 
I had the same salty / mineral buildup on a couple of my plants I potted up for over-winter last year.  It looks exactly like yours.  The going theory was the soil was heavy in salt / minerals and the plants were excreting the excess out onto the leaves.  I looked all over the plants and there were no bugs.  But then about 4 weeks later I did get infested with some kind of nasty bug (aphids I think).  Don't think the grains were eggs through.  They don't look anything like them, and they were loose.  You could blow the grains off with a strong breath.  In the end I got rid of the plants because I didn't want to deal with a nasty bug problem.
 
Consider an aphid infestation that reached a point the females produced winged aphids to go forth and multiply.  Our lack of humidity here helps keep those things in check over what tiny winter we have.  Easy enough to test for salts on the white residues to see if it is.
 
aphids most def. ! not good , and sure don't need any now . get you a bottle of the Fertilome Triple Action Plus its a insecticide , miticide , fungicide , little pricy but works great for 3 things it says it does .    :onfire:
 
Turbo,  that is it!!!  I read your post and Rush32 had posted the following link on it:
 
http://www.ext.colos...sect/05540.html
 
I have a Psyllid infection and it is pretty bad. 
 
Thanks so much!!!  This explains everything.  Now, can I get rid of these pests...  That question remains.

Found this text on the Safer website:
 
"Natural enemies of the psyllid include lady beetles, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. These insects, partnered with a product like Safer® Brand Insect Killing Soap or Safer®& Brand BioNEEM are ideal to help control psyllid infestations in your organic garden."
 
Looks like another order of lady bugs will be happening.
 
Gnats here. Couple weeks of warm weather and ---kaboom!
 
No worries, a batch of pyretherin tomorrow and they will all be gone.
If they manage to migrate into the hydro grow tent, $10 worth of ladybugs will fix it all up.
 
bpiela said:
Turbo,  that is it!!!  I read your post and Rush32 had posted the following link on it:
 
http://www.ext.colos...sect/05540.html
 
I have a Psyllid infection and it is pretty bad. 
 
Thanks so much!!!  This explains everything.  Now, can I get rid of these pests...  That question remains.

Found this text on the Safer website:
 
"Natural enemies of the psyllid include lady beetles, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. These insects, partnered with a product like Safer® Brand Insect Killing Soap or Safer®& Brand BioNEEM are ideal to help control psyllid infestations in your organic garden."
 
Looks like another order of lady bugs will be happening.
Click to expand...
 
Yep those are psyllids.  A few dollars of lady buds will be NO help to you. I battle these things continually..seriously don't waste your money..
If you want your plants to survive you need some serious insecticide otherwise IMO they are doomed.
 
Aphids have NOTHING on psyllids..
 
You should also try to wash the psyllids sugars off your leaves. It will turn into sooty mould before long.
 
EDIT; oh and the "gnats" are adult psyllids

Gotrox said:
Gnats here. Couple weeks of warm weather and ---kaboom!
 
No worries, a batch of pyretherin tomorrow and they will all be gone.
If they manage to migrate into the hydro grow tent, $10 worth of ladybugs will fix it all up.
Click to expand...
I disagree.
Pyrethrum  MIGHT kill some of the ones it CONTACTS only. The scale stage has a waxy coating that is resistant to physical contact sprays.
 
You need a combination of a systemic and contact insecticide. The systemic will help with the sucking scale stage which causes all the damage, and the physical will take down (some) of the adults..
 
EDIT; not sure if your referring to gnats or psyllids..pyrethrum and ladybugs will be of very minimal help vs psyllids
 
 
Pyrethrum  MIGHT kill some of the ones it CONTACTS only.
Click to expand...
Of course.
Pyretherin is a contact pesticide.
I spray every leaf, every flower, and all sides of everything..
 
I wait an hour, and spray just as thoroughly with a hose.
 
I wait another hour and reapply pyretherin.
 
Wait another hour and vigorously shake every branch.
 
Wait a bit, and bring them inside.
 
Repeat in a week or 2 if any eggs escaped chemical warfare.
 
For the grow tent, I have found no pest that eats pepper plants that stands up to 1500 voracious ladybugs sealed inside the tent.
 
I wanted to post an update.
 
I cleaned up the area by shaking the psyllid sugary stuff off of the plants and just cleaning up with soapy water.  I did order ladybugs before nzchili's post so I was going to have to give them a chance.  It appears that for a short term fix, the ladybugs have been successful.  I do not see any nymph stage psyllids anywhere.  All of the eggs that were on the leaf borders are gone.  The number of adult gnats seem to have dwindled.  No new sugary deposits on the leaf surfaces.  I still have a bunch of ladybugs that are still alive so hopefully they will take care of any newly hatched psyllids  Just got to make it until May and then I can transplant outdoors.  I have never had issues with the plants in my garden, except for the pepper maggots which I plan on defeating this year. 
 
Pests really make growing peppers less fun.
 
Thanks to all for your assistance.
 
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