Aphids Marijuana Pests
One of the most common pests of marijuana plants is the aphid, a parasite of the Hemiptera family and of the Aphididae sub-family. It is a pest that attacks Cannabis plants and also a large number of other plant species, and can damage them to death due to its parasitic action, sucking the plant’s sap until it dies and then moving on to another plant, although they are also very dangerous because they can carry other types of viruses and diseases with them, which can also be transferred to our plants.
How to recognise aphids on marijuana?
These small aphids can come in a variety of colours, although they are most commonly black, green or yellow. They can be spotted or smooth, and their body shape is ovoid, with head, thorax and abdomen joined together. Interestingly, aphids may or may not have wings; if they do not, they have two membranes in their place, which can easily be mistaken for wings.
They have several antennae, 4 or 6 to be precise, and have developed a symbiotic tolerance with bees, ants and some other insects, which protect them from specialised predators, which is why when buying an aphid predator you must first make sure that there are no ants, as these will attack the predators before they can kill the aphids.
Due to the diversity of aphid forms, the best way to recognise this pest is by how they are positioned on the marijuana plant. They are usually located all over the main stem and on the underside of the leaves, always in large colonies of up to hundreds of individuals. This is the best way to recognise them, many specimens together in the places mentioned above and bearing in mind that each individual is about 1-3 millimetres in size.
The aphid is a complex pest, which can have up to 12 biological cycles depending on the outdoor conditions, the number of species it can colonise and the number of plants it needs. This is what produces such a diversity of aphid forms and cycles, which can be explored in more detail in this article.
How does the aphid attack Cannabis plants?
This pest has a sucking apparatus, a kind of mouth lance with which it pierces the outside of the plant and sucks the plant’s sap. As mentioned above, they colonise the stems and undersides of the leaves completely, attacking each plant en masse, feeding on it (to the point of death if there is no external reaction) and/or transmitting diseases and viruses.
It should be noted that aphids, in the early stages of colonisation of a plant, when there are still few specimens, do not leave marks on stems or leaves, so it is difficult to see symptoms that marijuana plants are being attacked. The best way to detect them is to visually detect the aphid or aphids themselves by almost daily inspections.
Aphid pests prefer the newest, youngest and most tender parts of the marijuana plant. They are also more likely to appear in warm climates with low humidity. Excess fertiliser is also a factor to be taken into account as it attracts this pest more easily.
Special care should be taken in indoor grow rooms, especially in houses in rural environments, as the conditions are ideal for aphids. It is recommended to change clothes when entering the grow room so as not to bring specimens that can reproduce inside.
How to prevent aphids on a marijuana plant?
First and foremost, care and cleanliness are the basis for preventing aphids and other pests of marijuana. The compendium of good practices includes:
– Change of clothes when entering the crop.
– Regular cleaning of the cultivation area with cleaning products.
– Cultivate plant species that keep aphids away: nettles, marigolds, wormwood, honeysuckle, hydrangeas, tulips…
– Cultivate varieties of marijuana that are more resistant to pests.
– Use ecological preventives, such as neem oil, although there are also solutions without having to spend money, by making an infusion to water with nettles, garlic or nicotine. In this video you can see how to make a nettle infusion:
How to eliminate aphids from a Cannabis plant?
Once we have the aphid, we can no longer prevent it, we must try to eliminate it, and to do so we must act with a little more forcefulness. We propose the following possible solutions to eliminate aphids on marijuana.
The best are natural remedies, ecological solutions that do not harm plants or the environment. Natural predators are a highly recommendable option, although they are sometimes difficult to obtain and use (they can escape or die), among them Chrysopa Carnea, Aphidius Colemani and Adalia Bipunctata or the neopteran.
If these predators are not available, a biological insecticide can be used. Neem itself can be used in larger quantities, although its effect is not very powerful. For a more powerful effect we can resort to Pyrethrins, which are perfect for eliminating aphids from marijuana, although with a certain safety period, which means that we cannot harvest the plant for a few weeks because there are still traces of the insecticide on it.
Founder of Experiencia Natural, creative and entrepreneur, designer, master in grower and marketing. For a normalization of all plants and substances, giving priority to patients and users.
