Fighting the Hydroponic Pests with the Right Control Methods

What keeps the hydroponic gardener on their toes are the hydroponic pests that can attack the plants at any given stage, ultimately spoiling the yield.

Despite several organic ways that may be adopted by gardeners to keep the pests away the plants get attacked and it is time that conventional ways are now left behind and new improved ways for hydroponic pest control are adopted.

This write-up summarizes the types of hydroponic pests and the possibly selected ways of keeping them afar –

1. Spider Mites – This is the most common pest that attacks hydroponic plants; these tiny little buggers (less than 1 mm long and it is because of their small size that they may at most times fail to notice them. However, these are a serious damage to the plants; therefore, make sure even if you happen to spot just one you do the needful almost immediately. There are two reliable ways to spot an infestation: one, look for spider-like webbing. Two, take a tissue and wipe gently on the underside of leaves—if it comes back with streaks of Spider Mite blood—you know you have mites.

2. Thrips – Just about 5 mm in length these thrips are extremely tough to identify; they however leave a damage that is easy to see. Look for small metallic black specks on the top of leaves. This will often be accompanied by the leaves turning brown and dry (possibly with yellowish spots) because the thrips have sucked them dry. Since these are all tiny insects spotting them easily isn’t possible but make sure to spend some time in the hydroponic garden and try to spot them out.

3. Aphids – Heard about plant lice? That is what aphids are. They can be green, black or gray. Irrespective of their color, they can weaken your plants because they suck the juice out of leaves and turn them yellow. You may find them anywhere on the plant, but they often gather around the stems. There is no particular stage or point in time when the plant gets attacked by aphids, so make sure you do the needful right from the beginning.

4. Whiteflies – With an appearance like moths, whiteflies are merely 1 mm long insects. This makes them easy to spot, but they’re harder to kill because they fly away when disturbed to a new plant. They also suck your plants dry causing white spots and yellowing. Manually killing the white flies isn’t easy or possible so make sure you have the

5. Fungus Gnats – Surprisingly, the adult fungus gnats are not harmful, but their larvae feed on roots and feeder roots, which can slow plant growth, invite bacterial infection and if take to extreme even plant death. There is not so much you can do about the larvae feeding on the plants apart from just using some really effective sprays or pesticides.

The Best Ways to Getting Rid of Plant Bugs

There are quite a few methods to hydroponic pest control you can employ.

1. Use Sticky Traps – When you hang these around the room, you can trap the pets and that makes it easy to identify them (and of course, it takes them out of the game). Blue stick cards are good for thrips. Yellow cards attract fungus gnats and whiteflies. Tip: make sure some cards are at the soil/medium level of your plants—where fungus gnats congregate.

2. Sprays – You want to avoid chemical poisons like Avid or Eagle. And we can’t vouch for the effectiveness of homemade sprays from household items like garlic, etc. These sprays are available in the market so you basically have the option to choose them depending on the type of bug you’ve spotted in the garden.

3. Beneficial Predators – some growers report success using beneficial predatory creatures like nematodes. Put these live predators into your medium and they can hunt down and kill the pests.

Pick the best pest control for hydroponics by choosing from a range of options available online at Hyjo.