You don't really need to dig deep, I found all my critters within the first 1/2" of the top of the soil.
The pic I posted was soil taken from flower, the plants were not showing any distress so I'm fairly certain that the bugs were not harming them.
Do you have any pics of your effected plants? Root aphids should be much easier to find than what your describing, so you may be chasing ghosts.
Ya know thats good advice and if i read you giving it to someone else, i'd tell them to consider carefully what you are saying. And there was a time i considered it carefully. I then spent hours viewing the Aphids under a 30x loupe. At that magnification they are fairly easy to tell the difference between Root Aphids and other soil creatures like soil mites.
So yeah i am certain that the aphids are around. I never had them in the numbers that some folks post, but have always been able to find them in a pot with not much effort. Why not now? Well i have treated pretty heavy in veg for them, have used triazicide, met52, and bayer complete, and i believe their numbers to possibly not be too high, and i also really found these other bugs within the first five minutes of using the scope. On both occasions. Tomorrow i will be catching a video of the Aphids. Promise
Anyone that's had the bastards knows that a few in a 5 gallon pot can easily decimate said plant... I have actually seen the same exact ones as in this pic, from what i can tell:
http://indoorgardeningu.com/how-to-get-rid-of-root-aphids/
I am sure all these new critters are a result of the long war i have been waging with the aphids. My best guess, the met52 is being used at possibly too high a dose, cause fungus to grow like crazy in the coco, the worms are feeding on the fungus, and maybe the soil mites are eating an occassional worm and/or root aphid. and i want to get some more predators and throw them into the bug soup!
As for the coco being wet in the vid, its true i filmed one of those right after a watering. I do let them dry out between waterings as its helpful to keep Aphid numbers lower, but i can and will keep them even drier. Time to thirst some of those nematodes(?) to death!