Gonna need some positive identification here

[Bennyweed1]

I am not good enough to distinguish good bugs from bad bugs in my organic soil.

What I do know is when I poke around my top soil, I see bugs, all different kinds.

The two I see the most of are tiny little white mite looking things that crawl around and tiny white/clear worm looking things.

My plants are healthy as can be in the organic soil so I am not that concerned about the bugs but I wish I knew what they were.

A lot of my soil is recycled for the most part and I never use any type of pH adjusting agent.

The tiny little white/clear worms are exactly that. I can see into their torso and inside I can see what looks like a mud vain like in a cray fish. They act just like a red worm when I expose it to light, twisting and flopping around trying to fall into a dark crack.

They range from 2-4 millimeters long for the most part.

Watcha think?

A picture would be impossible because they are so small.

 

[Space Ghost]

is this outdoor or indoor? EDIT: or greenhouse?

 

[Bennyweed1]

My bad, it is indoor soil that is probably going on 5 months old now.

 

[Space Ghost]

Ideally for indoors you're going to want sterile soil with the exception of beneficial fungus and bacteria to fix the N, but if it works for you, hell... keep doing what you are doing...

 

[ixnay007]

Sterile soil is an impossibility (and honestly the antithesis of organic growing).

I'd bet a couple nugs on the clear worm things being fungus gnat larvae, or other fly larvae..

 

[Bennyweed1]

Sterile soil is an impossibility (and honestly the antithesis of organic growing).

I'd bet a couple nugs on the clear worm things being fungus gnat larvae, or other fly larvae..

Yup I found a positive ID on the intrawebz. Sure enough they are fungus Gnat larvae. They seem to be immune to mosquito dunks. Little fuckers.

This is what the look like:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/insimg/Fungus gnat larva on potato slice.jpg

 

[ixnay007]

Yeah, like someone was saying in the fungus gnat thread you need to use BTI, not BTK, only the isrealianis kills em. Also, it needs to be used fairly quickly, as the bacteria won't live for long in plain water.

 

[rckymtnthuglife]

Dude I've seen both creatures you describe for years now...about shit myself the first time I noticed them.
Really doesn't bother me much. I don't try to kill them. I hang some yellow stickies and it's all good.

 

[ICMaggotMe]

Soil mites and/or springtails are the little white bugs. The white worms are pot worms. All of them are decomposers and are welcome in my organic soil. I also have a large population in my worm bin.

 

[ICMaggotMe]

 

[stak]

.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

some good info here, thanks for sharin' guy's.

peace, SOG

 

[magiccannabus]

Wow that really looks a lot like what I found in my soil and on my cuttings! Good to know. I flushed the soil with chlorinated water, then with a peroxide mix, and then used enzymes and dechlorinated water. I also put a little Bio-Tone StarterPlus on them to reintroduce beneficials and then followed with a AACT application. Totally saved them, though two plants suffered heavy damage. I'm worried that's not enough though. Any suggestions? Will that Napa floor dry 8822 D.E. stop these things? Did the peroxide do anything? Whatever has the least impact on my beneficials would be better.

In case you're wondering how bad it can get....

Reasonably healthy plants a week or so before(ignore those ugly males in the middle that were removed after this shot):


Then the two that got it bad:

This is EO before I worked on her:


EO after my efforts(notice Blue Skunk behind it was not so lucky)

 

[rckymtnthuglife]

MC- I'm gonna put this bluntly. What the hell are you talking about? Are you trying to kill fungus gnats? I personally have never seen fungus gnats so bad that they can nearly kill a plant.

If my plants looked as bad as yours, I would kill them and start over. They look under/over watered, slightly burned and really pissed off. Less is more. You can't fix an unhealthy plant overnight. Generally speaking the best thing to do is transplant, water and wait.

If ya want some help man...feel free to PM me.

Rocky

 

[magiccannabus]

There is no starting over. Not an option. I am already digging out of dumpsters just to pay my bills. If this grow doesn't work out I am going to be homeless, simple as that.

I've seen fungus gnats kill plants before, so I don't know why you think that's so unlikely. There were other environmental factors that made it worse, like the AC getting clogged up. Either way, they got really bad and I made them get a lot better, so I'm not sure what you think I am doing so wrong. There's so much more to this story. Those are two plants out of the entire grow.

 

[dank.frank]

no but really... who told you to dump all that crap all over you soil and all over your roots? You are not just killing the microbes but you are destroying the fine feeder hairs within the soils structure by using all those chemicals...

If I would you, I'd start treating that medium as if it were inert and begin feeding it as if it were a hydro plant ... after that treatment, successful organics would seem of the question with out chopping it back, cutting off some of the root mass, re-planting and letting new, healthy roots grow into healthy soil...just my opinion.


dank.Frank

 

[dank.frank]

PS....fungus gnats kill plants as they spread fusarium wilt and can also spread pythium root rot...

They can certainly be lethal to an entire garden when left untended...


dank.Frank

 

[Hammerhead]

I had a massive infestation of F.Gnats...I used Sevin-5 Dust... You could see the soil moving it was so bad. Plants did not show any sign of problems. I put a layers of the dust after I watered the plants really good. 3 days later I used my mini wet/dry vac sucked off all the dead bugs and dust. Inspected all where dead but if you need to reapply just water well again and put some more Dust let it sit for 3 days..

I like this method. It does not let the pesticide get to the roots or on the plant..

 

[magiccannabus]

PS....fungus gnats kill plants as they spread fusarium wilt and can also spread pythium root rot...

They can certainly be lethal to an entire garden when left untended...


dank.Frank

This is exactly why my treatment was more of a treatment for pythium than for gnats. The gnats are not that numerous here, but they've made my plants very ill, and treating them for that specific illness made them improve. So I definitely agree with this statement from my personal experience both with this grow and losing an occasional plant in this same way in the past.

If everything is going well, it's not a high likelihood, but when things are not so great like I had, the damage can be amplified greatly.

I didn't have enough turbulence of air flow in there, and slightly high temperatures, plus some watering mistakes on my part because of my inexperience with grow bags(first time I've ever used them). When your plants are stressed like mine were, things in general are more vulnerable. In healthy organic soil, many beneficial species combat pythium, and help plant health in general, but when your conditions are a bit off, those safe guards aren't always working anymore and a little gnat can bring in what would have been a little problem in healthier times. In this case the gnat is really more of a vector than an actual destroyer.

 

[Microbeman]

To the OP; Your little white worms could easily be a number of friendly species. Unless you can see for sure the distinct rounded segments and black spot (as someone else stated) do not assume they are fungus gnat larvae. If they are larvae and you've seen them for a while you will have flies buzzing around.