Aphids and Thrips with 1 Week to Go

[Delps8]

I've got 2 Gorilla Glue autos that have been in an RDWC res for 111 days. Two other plants have already been harvested and I thought I was on a safe glidepath to chop the remaining two in about a week or 10 days.

Two weeks ago, I noticed white dots on some of the leaves on one plant. The leaves were turning around the edges and were a little crinkly. I thought it might be too much light. As the condition progressed, I wondered if it was a K deficiency and I posted a message on the grown journal that I have on another site. No-one chimed in on my posting and things took a downturn a few days ago. It turns out that I've got thrips and perhaps aphids, as well.

Current plan is to use Spinosad to get rid of the critters but I'm also wondering about changing the light cycle so as to speed up the maturation process. Would the plants finish faster if I were to go to 24/0? I'm hoping that the Spinosad will do the trick but, if it doesn't, another option is to just grin and bear it and hope the insects don't do much damage.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on how to handle this.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

If you are only a few days from harvest you might want to just let it go. It depends on how large an infestation you are talking about a handful or hundreds? You do not seem to have identified the pests. You should do that first.

Pictures might be helpful. Turn the grow lights off and use a flash. Get close-ups and whole plants.

 

[Delps8]

MOG - Appreciate the comments. Pix attached.

I believe that it's thrips.

I've got a bottle of Spinosad coming in tomorrow but I'm having second thoughts about using it. Lots of proclamations that it would be safe to use even 1± week from chop but found a research paper that indicates lung damage. I've request the full text of the paper so I haven't read anything of how that study was conducted. Based on all of the positive comments about Spinosad and the absence of negative comments, I'm inclined to believe that it would be safe to use even this late in the growth with the understanding that I will wash the buds when I harvest them.
Any thoughts on that?

Of the postings, articles, etc. that I read, there were two authors suggested using 1% dishwashing soap. The concept behind that is that it chokes the insects. If I follow that route, I don't know the efficacy but I do know that it's safe to put on the plant and to put in my lungs.

Final option, and always the first, is do nothing. One site categorized insects as being minor//annoyances or major//significant damage. Thrips and aphids are in the minor category. As much as I hate to see these plants go through this (the grow has been so damned smooth up until now), there's a lot of merit to that approach. It's premised on the concept that the plants won't be damaged very much before they're harvested in N days but what does the "damage due to infestation" curve look like? Is this a valid approach because the little bastards simply can't "ruin" a plant that's already fully grown and so far into the flower stage that the maturation process won't be significantly impacted?

For the picture of the entire tent, the plants in question are on the right side of the tent. The other two plants were also GG's but they've been harvested. They were not infested.


I thought this was an aphid or is it just a larval thrip?

I think the amber liquid is the "honey" that thrips create. Are the black spots necrotic, from where the insect has attacked the plant?

Nasty little bastard.

 

[Autofire]

I might be wrong but going by those pics I reckon you have about 3 weeks left.

If the thrips are just starting to show up I would either carefully spot spray and get as little on your buds as possible or I would just let them go and then nuke the tent with neem after you harvest. They probably won't affect yield weight or quality that much at this stage of the game. Just keep their number down by plucking off the leaves that have eggs underneath.

 

[Delps8]

I might be wrong but going by those pics I reckon you have about 3 weeks left.

Some of the trichs are amber but I see a lot of clear trichs when I check further down the stems. Three weeks. Got a kick out of that because I decided to do autos so the harvest would be done by June.

If the thrips are just starting to show up I would either carefully spot spray and get as little on your buds as possible or I would just let them go and then nuke the tent with neem after you harvest. They probably won't affect yield weight or quality that much at this stage of the game. Just keep their number down by plucking off the leaves that have eggs underneath.

They’ve been around for at least two three weeks. I posted a “Heh what does this look like?” on another forum and, getting no replies, I assumed that it was just how these plants were getting ready to bud. I inspected the undersides of some of the leaves but didn’t use a loupe. Won’t get fooled ago, so to speak.

"They probably won't affect yield weight or quality that much at this stage of the game."
That’s the key. I hate to see the little bastards “win” but if I can run out the clock, that’s OK with me.

Thanks for the input.

 

[LabRat]

You're not crawling with them but you can keep the numbers down by hand. I have two big plants about 3 1/2 weeks into 12/12 with a few areas that have a few thrips but it takes me 5 min of hard looking with a big old 5X magnifying glass to find even a few. Just came up from watering and doing some hunting and didn't find a one. Have some plants in a small tent upstairs and they got bad but knocked them back with Safer's soap and will hit them again in a day or so.

Some on my autos outside too but so few I barely look for them any more. It's the grasshoppers and leaf hoppers causing me the most grief out there. These heat waves way up north are not usual and those bugs are all over the place this year. The plants love it tho.

I just thank jah that they're not mites!

 

[Delps8]

You're not crawling with them but you can keep the numbers down by hand. I have two big plants about 3 1/2 weeks into 12/12 with a few areas that have a few thrips but it takes me 5 min of hard looking with a big old 5X magnifying glass to find even a few. Just came up from watering and doing some hunting and didn't find a one. Have some plants in a small tent upstairs and they got bad but knocked them back with Safer's soap and will hit them again in a day or so.

Some on my autos outside too but so few I barely look for them any more. It's the grasshoppers and leaf hoppers causing me the most grief out there. These heat waves way up north are not usual and those bugs are all over the place this year. The plants love it tho.

I just thank jah that they're not mites!

LR - interesting insight into an outdoor grow and, yes, my plants are not crawling with them.

I sprayed 16OZ Safer's on the plants yesterday afternoon and, when I checked around noon today, there were a few casualties but I did find aphids/larval thrips on the undersides of some leaves. I wish I could deal with these guys by just picking them off the leaves but this grow is…"unmanaged" in that the only pruning was to top them and to cut off the undergrowth. There's still a lot of dense foliage under the canopy. Realistically, there are many hundreds of leaves on these two plants. I planted four GG auto's and, when I asked for advice on culling two of them (it's a 2 x 4 tent) got no replies so I kept all four. Bad move.

Re. grasshoppers and leaf hoppers - yeh, that those are real farming problems. Never had to deal with mites, either and want to keep it that way.
Does Safer's do the trick with the 'hoppers and mites?

 

[LabRat]

Does Safer's do the trick with the 'hoppers and mites?

Any of the soap sprays are contact killers so the bugs have to get soaked in it but did nail a fat leaf hopper with it tonight and he stopped moving in 15 sec and was still there dead later. Hit another bug that looked a bit like a smaller black wasp and the same with it. Crawled for a few sec and never moved again so it kills more than just mites and thrips.

I doubt it would phase a grasshopper but luckily they seem to have run through this generation but if it stays hot and dry we can expect another wave before they're done according to the experts.

At least the forest fire haze has been very light up here compared to further south.

 

[Delps8]

Any of the soap sprays are contact killers so the bugs have to get soaked in it but did nail a fat leaf hopper with it tonight and he stopped moving in 15 sec and was still there dead later. Hit another bug that looked a bit like a smaller black wasp and the same with it. Crawled for a few sec and never moved again so it kills more than just mites and thrips.

Score one for the home team!
The Safer's did some good but they're still in the plants. I pulled of a few leaves over the course of the week and there were a few aphids on the undersides. Good news is that I haven't seen any thrips. And the ants didn't stay long.

I doubt it would phase a grasshopper but luckily they seem to have run through this generation but if it stays hot and dry we can expect another wave before they're done according to the experts.

At least the forest fire haze has been very light up here compared to further south.

Sounds like Biblical stuff! Plagues and all.

Forest fires - What state?

I in SoCal and it's not winter so no doubt something's burning somewhere in CA.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

If you have amber I think you can beat the bugs to harvest. I would not apply anything else. Soap will need to be washed off when you harvest. I have used a baking soda/ lemon wash then fresh water in the past and it worked well. Just google bud washing for the specifics.

Whenever I have a bad insect outbreak in my space I nuke it with a Hot Shot for a couple of days after I clean up from the grow. That shit is so poisonous be sure you can isolate it from your living space. It can get into all of the nooks and crannies to kill anything that might be hiding there.

The race is on............ .