Plants aren’t showing any symptoms I’ve noticed. My tent in flower looks pretty strong to me
The second tent, which has significantly more aphids has some lighter green growth in the new growth, but that’s pretty common for me.
The urkle below has the bugs the worst
Everyone else looks nice though
Oh for sure, I’ve had that experience myself, I almost felt like puking when I found all those root aphids.
If you have some Diatomaceous Earth like Habitt was suggesting, it might be worth a shot. It’ll slice up all the insect bodies in the soil, and they’ll lose all their fluids and dry out. It’ll also kill earthworms, so be aware of that.
Plants are looking so strong, would be a shame to chop those!
OK. I’ve got a lot of DE as we use it to deter ants. @Habitt thank you for the suggestion. I will apply some now and we can wait and see.
Plants look great. RIP soil mites. Didn’t even get a chance to show Greasy what you could do. Pour one out for the homies 
I’ve never dealt with root aphids on Cannabis before but my first reaction was that they looked like some kind of mite from the picture. Agree with others but I don’t have any kind of entomology background to make any guesses.
If you’re able to count the legs on the larger ones / adults that may give you a better idea at least. Mites will have 8 legs. How fast are they moving? If you scrape back the mites does there appear to be any damage to the stem? Is that rockwool underneath them? Were the plants recently watered heavily?
I’m less optimistic about DE than others but it’s not going to hurt anything. Should wear a mask for sure when working with that stuff in an enclosed area.
plants looks beautiful 
I tried using a scope to get more detailed pics but I just couldn’t get them to stay still long enough!
Pretty quickly. Scurrying around in circles when taken out of the pot.
Harder to tell now that I’ve applied DE, but it doesn’t appear so.
Not Rockwood but rapid rooter plugs. They have been oversaturated with water the past week. I went out of town and gave them extra water than normal, and they didn’t really drink it as fast as I thought they would have.
Thank you for your input!
I’m pretty dang sure I’ve found those in varying populations in my worm bins and sips. They seem to come and go as they please. I’m guessing a beneficial soil mite, as I’ve never had any plant damage.
Edit: The white soil mites I get by the tens of thousands in my sips and are harmless. I find piles of mite carcasses on the floor of my tent after a population boom. I figure no harm no foul, they break down soil slowly and their carcasses would add chitin.
Yeah, this. If the plants still look okay, those bugs might not be an issue. But I know where you’re coming from, @Greasy. Any time I see any kinda weirdness at all with my plants, I’m always like,”Okay! That’s it! I’m trashing everything and starting over!” haha.
Hmm I wonder if it was just a lot of soil mites from the malibu compost. I’ve had big bug outbreaks from store bought compost - in my instance it was coast of maine compost, but I remember seeing an insane amount of springtails after top dressing. Later turned out those bags had tons of gnats too so I used the rest of it outside.
I too was using bu’s
@Greasy it’s starting to sound as if this may not be a big issue if they are not a danger to your harvest. If this is common to organic’s and compost.
I totally get the feeling of not wanting that issue in your room/house.
If i were you, i’d take cuts and put them elsewhere to root and consider another medium. If not a danger no reason to lose your genetics.
Best of luck bro.
I’m going to agree with everyone else here, those look like some sort of soil mite. I’ve seen swarms similar to that in my worm bins before.
That’s good to hear. I’ve also had big infestations of reddish mites in my worm bins before, now that you bring that up.
Glad to hear that others have seen these in that way.
The timing is definitely on the side of this theory.
I think that’s a good idea. Take some cuttings, and maybe dip them all in sulfur, and set up a quarantine tent elsewhere in the house.
Plants are still looking good this morning! Some leaves have a little DE on them from application
Seeing the bugs crawling around all over the stems gave me the, I’ve got to get these plants the hell out of here and pop some seeds feeling for sure! Thankfully I know better to let the issue sit for a while before doing anything drastic. I’ve got some nice sized plants, and a lot of good varieities to smoke on, would be a shame to lose them!
Thank you all for taking the time to give advice and feedback on this issue. Without you guys I would be making mistakes all over the place. It really is appreciated to have this growing community here. I doubt I would be nearly as engaged in this hobby without you all!
I just wanted to second this, it’s very important to wear a mask when handling or mixing diatomaceous earth. the fine abrasive is a severe respiratory hazard.
perlite dust is also pretty hazardous. in general, we should all probably be wearing particle masks for soil mixing, especially if the soil is dry and dusty.
I think this and eye protection for indoor grow lights are often overlooked.
Yeah, wish I had more sense back when I tried it a couple decades ago. I made my own crappy dust applicator out of a bottle with some holes in the cap back when I was new to the hobby. To add insult to injury : it had absolutely zero effect on the fungus gnats, not even the adults. In my mind it’s just another garden myth with the potential to do harm to the user.
You make a great point about perlite / soil mixing as well and that could be extended to other agricultural products including dry peat moss. Self-inflicted long term health issues sadly will be a reality for many people in this hobby and it won’t just be the people using nasty chemicals and pesticides. I’ve been on the living systems / “no-till” / permaculture / biological side of gardening for decades and don’t feel like there’s a shortage of hazard to go around.
Also it really doesn’t help when sometimes the loudest advocates for harmful processes in this hobby are self serving “gurus” looking to reinforce an ideology rather than speaking from actual experience. Concern for safety is always an afterthought. Who could have known piling rotting hay, straw, and produce in your bedroom could potentially lead to health issues. Any “problem” is just a problem with your perception as they say…
Good tips guys. I’ve got a stockpile of n95’s that we were given during covid that I’ll be using for all soil mixing and DE application in the future. I know perlite dust has gotten me coughing in the past.
As far as the lights go, I’ve been using grow glasses the past few years, and I think they are really helpful. My eyes don’t feel weird after being in the tent, which is a big plus. I got some method 7 glasses, which aren’t cheap by any means, but I think they have been worth the investment.
Looks like it got pretty frosty! Thanks for sharing.
Very sticky, dense buds. Just hit a spliff of it, not in a bad place at all right now;) thanks again for sharing your goods.
Came up with a few beans from over spray, GDP x BOG Lifesaver f1 – I will pop a few for fun, if you ever want any, just shoot me a message.
