Hydroponic gardeners from all around the world have had issues with pests in some way shape or form. The reason for this is, with a perfected environment, you are essentially advertising to sneaky pests and inviting them into your flawless breeding conditions.

This article is a very basic treatment/prevention guide. This topic (Pest Control) is forever evolving as new control measures emerge almost daily through innovation.

Know your pests!

Sticky flytraps will help capture these pests, which will allow the grower to more accurately identify what’s chewing up their crop.

Even the most advanced grow room can be prone to pests, the one thing we CAN do though is try our best to PREVENT an infestation, the most common things used when setting up rooms are simple things like bug screens, intake filters, sticky traps and some backup sprays like Pyrethrum or Terminata. Taking these little precautionary measures will save you in the long run.

First I will briefly outline some of the more common pests that indoor gardeners face while growing and how we can eliminate them using either a branded product or one we make from our own natural ingredients.

FUNGUS GNATS

Every grower I know including myself, HATES these little pesky critters, they fly into your grow room and lay their eggs within your plants root zone.

As the larvae develop they consume the nutrients you give your plants. The very nutrients that the roots are using to feed the plant. Which leads to a host of different problems, as the root zone is weakened the first bacterial problem to show itself is pythium (root rot) and it only gets worse from there if left untreated!

How to Eliminate:

Use Terminata (Works great! And its an Organic)

Garlic broth, few drops of surfactant 1 drop of hydrogen peroxide (1L bottle)

Garlic clove & Chilli seed brew in (500ml bottle)

THRIP

Thrip are tiny, annoying little insects that can devastate your plants extremely quickly!

As an avid Chilli grower, thrip do my head in, they will affect where your flower sets and new growth emerge, causing that new growth to twist and weaken in turn dropping any new flowers that emerge, this is because this their saliva contains a toxin that they “inject” into the plants sap.

These guys are super quick too, so trying to get them manually is quite tedious, they cant fly though! so spray the plants well and they will cease to exist. Greenhouses will also employ the use of Blue sticky traps as thrip (and leaf miners) are attracted to the colour!

How to Eliminate:

Use Terminata (Re-spray 3 days after initial)

Pyrethrum spray (natural plant extract)

Garlic clove & Chilli seed brew in (500ml bottle)

SPIDER MITES

When these guys show up and “fly” under the radar, its generally too late especially if the grower prefers natural treatments. Insecticides can be used to remove these unwanted crop wreckers however if the crop is a consumable crop spraying a poison over your harvest is not a good idea.

There are many organic oils and sprays that have been developed to target these mites without leaving behind harmful residues.

Spider mites, like most pests, are searching for the ultimate environment in which they can breed, they love warm and dry environments.

How to Eliminate:

Neem Oil

Garlic broth, few drops of surfactant 1 drop of hydrogen peroxide (1L bottle)

Spotless (Cx horticulture)

Mite Rid

APHIDS & WHITEFLY

As far as infestations go, these little bad boys will do some serious damage to crops if left unmanaged.

They initially attack the apical bud and work their way down, the destruction left behind is distorted/twisted growth – using a good organically based spray should kill most minor outbreaks.

For major outbreaks most outdoor/environmentally controlled greenhouse would employ biological control by introducing predatory insects, most commonly used are ladybugs, wasps etc.

How to Eliminate:

Neem Oil

Garlic broth, few drops of surfactant 1 drop of hydrogen peroxide (1L bottle)

Biological control: Lacewing, ladybugs & predatory wasps

Insecticide: Kill-a-mite

LEAF MINERS

As mentioned above the blue traps will attract these little pests. Another innovation to keep these at bay is a Pheromone trap, which has recently been used with great success in blueberry, cucumber, cut flowers & other fruiting crops.

How to Eliminate:

Neem Oil

Blue sticky traps

Pheromone traps

Insecticides

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