Bugs in coco loco soil

Over the last few weeks I noticed every once in a while a pot would become infested with golden/orange colored small ass bugs

I also had a bad case of thrips or something months back, destroyed some plants, I have been treating for thrips ever since

Now today I noticed one of my pots I started an auto in was infested with these bugs once again

I checked the plants next to it and they do not appear to have any bugs, not one. These bugs eventually develop wings and occasionally I will see tiny bugs flying around the room

Well anyway I checked every auto pot with coco loco and they have bugs and I haven’t checked every other pot yet, but I’ve checked quite a few and the other plants appear to be empty and bug free

I have seen people online claim they are harmless but in my situation that is false, the symptoms resemble thrips. This is solely from me spending hours looking at pest symptoms and descriptions of bugs for countless hours online. The autos in question do not appear to be showing symptoms, although they are only days old

My other pots have bigrootz and combo soil with reused/coco/cheap potting soil etc all those pots appear empty

And I remember one time before someone suggested that I decrease my watering

This pot I initially discovered was bone dry it had a seed in it that I killed on accident and I left the soil in pot and was just about to add a seed to the pot today. The soil is bone dry and infested with these bugs

Indoors, I grow in coco, so I don't have any of these issues. I also try to avoid bagged soil if I can. Try researching using DE on the soil surface. I know people who have had success

Can I put diatomaceous earth in my weekly tea I feed my plants? I had been thinking about doing this anyway

I'm not sure it works that way, but I'm not an expert. The way that it works by nature is that it kills the bugs by cutting and damaging their exoskeletons. I'm not sure trying to dissolve it in a tea would be effective of even possible.

Complete Noob said:

Can I put diatomaceous earth in my weekly tea I feed my plants? I had been thinking about doing this anyway

Click to expand...

Put the DE on top of your soil, not in it.

Complete Noob said:

And I remember one time before someone suggested that I decrease my watering

This pot I initially discovered was bone dry it had a seed in it that I killed on accident and I left the soil in pot and was just about to add a seed to the pot today. The soil is bone dry and infested with these bugs

Click to expand...

Months later, I can finally say the thrips have been defeated

The bugs in the fox farm soil are still there and at this point they are obviously beneficial. If they aren’t then I’m in trouble, because none of the stuff I used on the thrips, such as fungicidal soap and pytherin, were able to kill these bugs. But I don’t see adult thrips in the room anymore and leaf damaged has definitely halted

I had to use sns 203 followed foliar directions. It didn’t keep the adults away much but it seemed to deter the larvae from hanging out on the leaves

Killed the adults myself with my hands/spray

These thrips caused me to lose 4 different strains

The bug that is still present that I cannot kill is called stratiolaelaps scimitus. A predatory mites which is beneficial because it attacks fungus gnats and other insects and do not harm the plant