hey Tead. good afternoon, or late morning there, as the case may be.
. i have a sort of curious for curious' sake question for you so no rush, whenever you feel like it...how in the bleepity bleep do you keep all the various critters out, esp since you're outdoors? i mean, when i was there, in my kitchen ALONE, which was INDOORS, i encountered 1 smallcat-sized rat (once), 20-40 mice (not all at once), hundreds of smallmouse-sized roaches (many variations), those crazy swarming termites that come around for a month and then leave...you know. and so when you add in all the plant-specific ADDITIONAL pests, god, the fungus gnats alone--holy crap!!!--HOW do you do it, man???
like i said, i'm just curious... thank you!
Gooooood question. I kinda feel my answer to the subject is lacking really.... I know that sounds odd.
There are many passive steps involved really. They apparently combine to form a very protective barrier. And as with any Gumbo, identification of the most important ingredient becomes impossible and probably pointless (Oh yeah baby.... it's always about food!).
First, and I just can't preach about it enough, it's the medium. The complete lack of soil (hmmmm.... well... until yesterday) in my really leaves many beasts without a home for part of their life cycle. Many insects spend part of their lives in the soil. When one doesn't have a soil environment in place, life gets significantly simpler in the bug department.
Second, light discipline. Many bugs are attracted to light. I use a tent inside a shed for the 24hr light and I run the bloom light during the day to avoid the issue. I'd be much better off running the bloom room at night, but I haven't got a handle on the light yet.
Third, I have a simple double barrier going. The shed forms one physical barrier and the veg tent and bloom chamber form another. When combined, it appears quite effective.
Fourth, I go nuclear on first detection of the enemy. It's actually very rare, but if I see a buggin I think is established, I assume it has buddies and I take whatever steps needed. The single sighting of a spider mite would bring out the pyrethrin immediately.
Fifth, I don't bring any foreign anything into the shed... ususally.... kinda broke that rule yesterday after a good scan of a new girl. I took some LEDs off BN's hands yesterday... I'm so anal that I pulled them apart to check for hiding bugs and to clean up the glass.
Sixth, I keep fans pushing air out of the exhaust holes and lots of other fans stirring everything up.... this keeps flying insects at bay some. I avoid anything that might be a home for or attract any buggins. Fans are also important to avoid any fungus or mold growth in the humidity.
It's all just passive stuff, but it's working, and it's been working for a very long time now.
I'm happy to have that angle recognized fully by someone that has experienced growing anything in NOLA. It really is filled with a stunning variety of beasties that wanna eat my girls.
Not in over three years. I do have an extended road trip coming up in a couple of months and have worried about carrying enough to get through two weeks and 5000 miles. 
