Hi! I’ve been dealing with this pest infestation for weeks and I’m not sure what to do. This summer has been a lot wetter and colder than most in my region and I think it’s helped a lot of pests take root in my plants and in the rest of my garden. I’ve tried staying away from harmful pesticides and tried out BT and hydrogen peroxide like some other forums recommended but these bugs seem to stay anyway. I’ve also tried Dr.Earth, which works when I spray them directly, but hasn’t worked in terms of getting down to them through the roots and the soil. The pests are destroying the root systems of my plants and draining them of nutrients. The bottom leaves start yellowing and then shrivel. I initially had thought it was a nutrition deficiency but then I moved some of the soil around and found hundreds of these little white bugs! They’ve grown substantially in size as of late, I thought they were larval stages of Japanese white beetles but now I’m not so sure. Any advice on what these are and what I might be able to use to address them? I recently got some beneficial nematodes, verdict is still out on how they will do for controlling these pests. I lost one plant to them already, hoping my last two make it somehow! Thank you!
here are the pictures! I have a video of the pests (they sometimes appear under the container when I move it) and the plants.
Dont stress too much mate, the nematodes will help for sure. But lets try and figure out what the pests are first. Do you have any pics of them?
Springtails can live in soil and there are millions of them, but they are essentially harmless to the plant.
A pic of the bug would be good 😉 Welcome to Percys
@macky hmm that’s strange I thought my pictures had uploaded...will try again! Thank you!
@zn oops! Thank you for letting me know. I added the updated pictures of the bugs. Thank you!
They really look like termites but it would be the first time I had heard of termites attacking Cannabis.
@aussie_jim I thought the same. When I looked at the leaves there were no tell tale thrip damage. It looks like something is eating the roots, like termites or something. The yellowing and dying on the fan leaves starting at the bottom is also consistent with root damage. Can you take a peek at the rootball?
One thing to do is get that pot off of the ground. Whatever they are they appear to need a dark connection to the earth so break that path. Treat the area under the pot with an insecticide too but I wouldn’t treat the pot. That’s a start
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They seem massive!! or do you have good zoom? lol
I think Diamatcious earth might be the best approach here then mate. I later of that on top of the soil will stop the trhips from growing into the next stage and attacking the plant:
After watching the video I feel they are definitely termites. They are common in Australia. They like to build nests under wet pots and will destroy your homes wooden frame or anything else wood they can eat. They are mostly subterranean and build themselves tunnels out of soil or chewed wood to crawl through to protect them.
I would elevate all your pots and kill what you can then try to stop them coming to your pot with borax.
They are some organised pests, look at that single file march 🤣
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