Tiny bugs in soil

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #1

Hi

I watered a few plants that I have in veg last night, and noticed these tiny little bugs, they almost look like white or silver fleas, crawling around in the soil. It only appears to be a select few of the pots that have them, I have about ten pots up in the air on a closet rack

They haven’t caused any damage that I can tell. I believe they are fairly new. I had a little problem with fungus gnats and I got rid of over 90% of them over the last few weeks, and I was checking the soil periodically to see if I noticed another uptick of gnat larvae, that’s when I discovered these bugs

I believe they came from a pack of chicken manure I purchased. They store the manure outdoors at the place I got it from

Should I be worried because to be honest with you guys, I am scared shitless right now, mainly cuz Idk what they are. They don’t fly. They are too tiny to take a pic of I tried

 

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #2

I think it’s a spring tail based off looking through pics online these things move so fast tho. They move way faster than the gnat larvae or maybe I’m just losing it lol, but I have been trying to get like a good definitely look at the bugs it’s loke really hard and all I can say is that they are whitish/gray and have more than two legs and have a kind of a long shaped body, but once again they are tiny. I see that springtails are harmless but is there a way I can tell for sure or should I kill them, should I wait until I see plant damage?

 

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thailer

Well-known member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #3

It’s springtails. Nothing bad is long and skinny for soil bugs.

 

thailer

Well-known member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #4

If you are also checking for fungus gnat larva and you have springtails, I would examine your watering schedule because both of these critters show up when people overwater. The plant roots start to die off and these bugs decompose the dead roots. Once you stop overwatering, the roots are healthy and they disappear. I’ve had soil mites in my pots and once I backed off on the water, they went away. I’m told springtails work the same way.

 

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #5

thailer said:

If you are also checking for fungus gnat larva and you have springtails, I would examine your watering schedule because both of these critters show up when people overwater. The plant roots start to die off and these bugs decompose the dead roots. Once you stop overwatering, the roots are healthy and they disappear. I’ve had soil mites in my pots and once I backed off on the water, they went away. I’m told springtails work the same way.

Click to expand...

That overwatering thing is exactly what I suspected. Like I said it’s only those pots in the air they are smaller pots I knew they are more moist than my larger 3 gal on the floor thank you.

 

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #6

I keep looking and idk I really think these things are really mites. Like idk it looks like the flea looking things that I mentioned, and it also looks like mites too they really look smaller than the fleas and look more like dots then having a long body

 

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 28, 2018

• #7

But they aren’t in the leaves only in the soil I keep checking the leaves expecting to see something

 

thailer

Well-known member

• Jul 29, 2018

• #8

Complete Noob said:

I keep looking and idk I really think these things are really mites. Like idk it looks like the flea looking things that I mentioned, and it also looks like mites too they really look smaller than the fleas and look more like dots then having a long body

Click to expand...

i found some videos on youtube that show what you what to look for to identify them.

typical soil mites you may see due to overwatering

[YOUTUBEIF]https://youtu.be/9SLMT9DOgdY[/YOUTUBEIF]

springtails

[YOUTUBEIF]https://youtu.be/3VIJrq_IRRM[/YOUTUBEIF]

Complete Noob said:

But they aren’t in the leaves only in the soil I keep checking the leaves expecting to see something

Click to expand...

yeah they don't eat healthy plant leaves or roots. just roots that are dying from over watering. you know when you pop off the container and the roots are brown instead of white plump growth circling the bottom of the container. sometimes i do see the mites run up the plant but they just run around and back down again. i've never had springtails. just the little white mites.

 

C

Complete Noob

Member

• Jul 29, 2018

• #9

It won’t let me see vids for some reason but since they aren’t fucking the plants up I will just work on watering better. Thank u for the help.