SPRINGTAILS!!!

help! anyone else have those annoying white things pop and jump around the soil surface after a watering??? HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THEM. i heard thier pretty harmless but i dont like them jumping on me because im sure some of them can and do!

buddin_904 said:

help! anyone else have those annoying white things pop and jump around the soil surface after a watering??? HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THEM. i heard thier pretty harmless but i dont like them jumping on me because im sure some of them can and do!

Click to expand...

Buddin , boil hot chillies and black pepper ,cool and then strain in a coffee filter...and feed to the plant it will slow down the springtails and seems to invigorate the plant as well

Malathion

1ml per liter

VagPuncher said:

Malathion

1ml per liter

Click to expand...

Don't use that crap! Here's a short list of reasons why:

Wildlife Photos - Photos of animals killed, organs damaged & mutations from malathion
Human Deaths from Malathion - 5 die and 2,800 poisoned after spraying in Pakistan

Intestinal Disorders in Children - Take Note! this research does show significant public health problems after aerial spraying
Intestinal Disorders in Test Animals - more evidence supporting intestinal defects in children from malathion
Leukemia - Child leukemias develop after homes sprayed
Kidney Damage- Physician finds kidney damage after patient sprays home
Human Birth Defect - suspected from exposure to malathion lice shampoo
Brain Damage - for unknown reasons malathion causes far more damage in older brains
Chromosome Defects - found in human blood cells
Gene Loss - malathion is able to literally "knock-off" genes from our DNA molecule
Review of Malathion Genetic Studies - technically oriented - recommended for health professionals
Health Disorders found in Second Generation Offspring - evidence for harmful effects appearing in future generations
Lung Damage - unusual effect from malathion ingredient - not found in other pesticides
Birth Defects - occurs in hens after malathion feeding
Impurities in Malathion - highly toxic compounds increase during storage due to time and heat
Immune System Weakening - thereby increasing risk of bacteria or viral infections (2 studies)
Sunlight Makes Toxic - malathion reacts with ultraviolet light to become more toxic
Impurities Weaken Detoxification - impurities found to weaken ability of liver to detoxify
Breakdown of Malathion - time periods for malathion breakdown in soil - forming of malaoxon
Fish Heart Defects - heart defects appear in exposed fish
Fish Gill Damage - low levels of malathion cause deterioration of Blue Fish gills
Turtle Birth Defects - turtles unusually sensitive to birth defects
Frog/Tadpole Mutations - evidence of genetic damage
Shrimp Effects - malathion at low levels affects a shrimp's ability to locate food
Lizard Organ Damage - small lizards suffer internal organ damage
Unknown Risks of Malathion - Surprising information about what we do not know

Use Spinosad (Monterey Garden Insect Spray) organic and completely safe. Mix up a batch as per direction and soak your soil thoroughly. One dose was all I needed. Works great on thrips if you foliar spray as well.

Had an issue with them myself... mostly an annoyance. Like HP's suggestion of spinosad, especially if at 1 application only.

Tried hard to avoid the ag chem pesticides & ran a coarse of Azamax w Pyrethrums. This worked as well, though took a month. Best brah.

Dry things out they like it wet. They don't seem to do any damage and are part of the decomposition process. Not sure but I think their coming in with the coco.

budoghi, funny you should say that... i too feel some coir products have shit in them.

Run atami, canna, cct, ccg... no noticeable issues. Cut with a bag of Cococan Croutons about a year ago & had a nematode, springtails, and at least 3 types of soil mites. Have killed them all but one type of mite as it is now in my pipes & terribly persistent. Absolutely no harm to plants so these are "beneficial" to the decomp process... they eat my bene's though. $32 bucks at the store for 2 bags & how much effort/money to address...?

BTW, after 3 years, no other bugs but these... and thrip issue, but that was introduced by me. No other mites, nothing. Pretty damn sure it came from the CCC...

Yeah spinosad is the shit. One dose at 1/4 strength (1 tbl per gal) got rid of my fungus gnats.

I'm trying this next for my last mite problem as the bti-k isn't working! Thanks again HP! Appreciate the confirmation RM!

i got a shitload of them in my bag of atami bcuzz.... they seemed to dissapear after nuting

Oregon Bob Bti-K is for specific caterpillars and larvae only...I read that insecticidal soap works well on mites and is 100% safe. You need to spray them every 2-3 days to kill all the newly hatched mites as eggs are not affected.

They are pretty easy to get rid of tbvh...SM-90 mixed with a little neem oil killed all of the springtails I had invading my grow last year when I was using soil as my medium. SM-90 will do it alone tho. What you can also do to prevent others from coming around is allow the medium to dry out completely between waterings.. springtails thrive in a moist/damp environment so it is essential to spray those leaves and then dry everything out. Also, you can teke a little neem oil and rub it around the edges of youre pots that the plants are in and the place a small fan near the medium. they have a problem landing and staying still when air is being blown on them.
Good luck to you in your quest to kill these things off. Just be lucky its not the borg. ewwww LOL
Peace, Indi

Thanks HP... tried to send you one, but blocked from last help.

This last batch appears resistant to the soap... will spray them to full saturation, let them dry for a minute or two, then they come back to life & crawl away. Same w the pyrethrum. Seems strange to write even, but it's true. The bti & bti-k was last volley to combat... fig to give it a shot. Same w the neem extracts... just a deterrent for them.

Inevitably I miss at least one, but I do this every watering so fig overlap would prevail, but...? Persistent little buggers. All white, biggest adult less than .2mm, crawl everywhere & can live w/o moisture for at least 1 day. Thank you for the advice.

oregon bob said:

I'm trying this next for my last mite problem as the bti-k isn't working! Thanks again HP! Appreciate the confirmation RM!

Click to expand...

As a spray I use spinosad at full strength. Should do the trick.

thanks for the advice guys.....however completely drying the medium is hard to do in coco!

Post an update ! How'd you get on with your springtails ?

I read this thread when I was experiencing the same little annoyances. I run a recycling system and was watering every day. I was tempted to try a couple of the things mentioned in this thread but I ended up just changing my watering schedule from every day to ever other day and that seems to have done the trick for me. Dried the little buggers out gradually. Did you use any of the methods mentioned ? or are you still plagued by them ?

I've had Spring tails for over ten years now. Even when i started from scratch a couple times, they would still show up. Now i just embrace them.

mikeoldschool said:

I've had Spring tails for over ten years now. Even when i started from scratch a couple times, they would still show up. Now i just embrace them.

Click to expand...

haha! WOW! well honestly, thats reassuring that they dont do jack.

If you can get 35% h2o2 that will kill them.

id rather keep my beni's, thanx........

well i would spray the pots with a permethrin spray right when i would hand water. it definately wiped out the fungus knats....like 100s of them in the trays. i think it got a majority of the SPRINGS, maybe even killed them off. but who knows. when you notice them, then you always look for them, but if you dont notice them, then you never look and you forget about them. thanks for reminding me