Made a new mix, now it's attracting millions of insects.

[hisser]

So I made my first organic soil mix that contains a cocktail of manures and compost 4 days ago, I watered the mix 2 times, with some run off and plowing. plan is to keep doing this for at least 3 weeks till its "cooked enough.

Today when I checked I found MILLIONS of insects, they looked like ants or something as big... is this normal? or it means they'll lay trillions of eggs that will infest the grow room? is there something I should do?

Thanks in advance.

 

[el dub]

I'm guessing the eggs were waiting for spring in the compost/manure pile but you warmed them up a bit and they hatched early.

What kind of insects?

Maggots?

lw

 

[IC BUDZ]

best think i can think of doing is cooking your soil not in the oven obviously. IN THE SUN for a few weeks or you could get predatory benificial insects and let them do there work or give them some beer. honestly not a joke a lot of bugs are attracted to fermented liquids like beer and will drown themselves. if worst comes to worst toss the dirt and start over

 

[hisser]

I think what attracted them is the stinky smell out of run-off water and the mix itself, I'm not sure what insects they are, it was dark but they looked like ants, real small and black. I'll take pics tomorrow.

Maybe I'm watering the mix too much to let it cook? after my first watering it started to smell very earthy when it dried up a bit, but when I plowed the bad smell came up again so I watered it till run off. next day the chaos happened.

My mix goes like this:

12 liters Organic potting mix
8 ltrs peat moss
4 ltrs fertiplus 4-3-3
4 ltrs perlite
4 ltrs coco
4 oz Guanumus fish manure
4 oz hydrated lime

 

[guest2012y]

Pics...???? Oh 2 morrow.....curious what the hell they are.

 

[CT Guy]

My first thought was sugar ants, followed by possibly compaction or low aeration in your soil. My guess is that you overwatered. You want it moist but not damp or dripping). If you were to take a small handful and squeeze it, you probably wouldn't get a drop of water out of it, but it would feel wet. If you did overwater, then it would reduce the O2 capacity in the mix and cause it to go anaerobic, which would generate the stinky smell you mentioned. I'd turn the soil right away to inject some new air and let it dry out if it's still wet. I'll let someone else comment on the bugs....

 

[B. Friendly]

I think what attracted them
My mix goes like this:

12 liters Organic potting mix is this top soil???? bugs exist in topsoil and hatch from it, use potting mix next time, that's what my garden store had me do??????? Sterile Potting Soil
8 ltrs peat moss
4 ltrs fertiplus 4-3-3
4 ltrs perlite
4 ltrs coco
4 oz Guanumus fish manure
4 oz hydrated lime

just a thought?

 

[hisser]

@CT Guy thanks, I'll do as you suggested.

@B. Friendly it's not top soil, they call it "potting soil" contains 2 types of peat moss and some compost I think since it has some N-P-K and some micronutes, very dark in color and smells great, I'm almost sure the insects didn't come from the mix itself...

Cheers.

 

[jaykush]

maybe it would be good to ID the bugs first before throwing cures at them.

 

[guest2012y]

spiderofolus mites......often mistaken as ants. Spray 15 gallons organic sulphur vapors and wait 15 minutes.....kidding,just waiting for pix.

 

[3rdEye]

lol Capt Cheeze1 You gotta be careful with advice sometimes. Never know who might run off and try your suggestions.

I have what appears to be a large number of oribatid mites all over my soil mixture, but that's nothing to worry about.

Hisser pics of the bugs would be very helpful. I got freaked out the first time i saw some bugs, but after getting a positive identification on them i calmed down because they were beneficials.

 

[hisser]

Alright I took some pics but they didn't show shit... my naked eye says they are just normal ants and tiny flies....

Turns out the janitor was watering down the mix with a hose daily, he thought it will help with the smell... now I know why this happened.

So what I did is: I boiled some cinnamon sticks, added some rubbing alcohol to it, and some chili pepper powder, mixed the solution well and sprayed it on top of the mix, then I tossed on top of the soil some garlic, spearmint teabags, and the boiled cinnamon sticks... after doing this I couldn't see any insect, I'll check back tomorrow... I hope they didn't lay tons of eggs.

 

[guest2012y]

Not all bugs are bad. My mix has several bugs in it that some people who don't know better would just freak the fu*k out over.
Before destroying anything that moves,try to identify it as beneficial or not. If it's not beneficial,practice the trial and error phase of methods like you have employed or try to find a natural predator for it.

 

[hisser]

The small flies looked like fungus gnats, the other insects were small black ants, only saw these 2.
The pesticide I made + the stuff I laid on soil should get rid of the ants, not sure about the gnats though.

 

[hisser]

checked today and didnt see any ants left, i added some cucumber cuts on top just to stay safe.
Sadly im still seeing what looks like fungus gnats, loads of them... Gotta find a natural pesticide/detergent.

 

[guest2012y]

Mosquito dunks work great,which is basically just bacillus thuringiensis on cork donuts but...nematodes are better.