Help!! Tiny bugs in my houseplant soil..

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Meighan Vancouver, Canada(Zone 8b) Mar 14, 2006

Help! I've noticed some tiny tiny bugs crawling around in the soil of my house plants, I don't know what they are and they are too tiny to take a photo of. They are not winged, they are very small fast moving crawling bugs that hide in the surface of the soil, any ideas of what they are and how to get rid of them??

Thank you SO much!

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GrowHappy Nottingham, MD(Zone 7a) Mar 14, 2006

Probably fungus gnats. Keeping your soil dryer between waterings will help eliminate the larvae. They thrive in constantly moist and wet soil. If you have bright yellow cardboard and popsicle sticks, you can cut out squares and glue them onto the PS. Smear the paper with vaseline. This will attract the adults to the paper. Once they are on there, the vaseline prevents them from flying away. Just repeat this procedure until the population is diminished or eliminated.

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Meighan Vancouver, Canada(Zone 8b) Mar 14, 2006

Not fungus gnats, I've had those before and they fly around. These are very tiny, the size of spider mites but more oblong, and they have no wings.

Anyone have any ideas? For now I've just sprayed everything with safers soap and sprayed it on the soil, checked quickly this morning and there were no signs of the little bugs, hopefully they are gone. Just for reference though I would like to know what they were! In my searches through the internet I thought they might be thrips, but when I saw a picture of a thrips it didn't match what was in my soil.

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greenbud Houston, TX(Zone 8b) Mar 28, 2006

Maybe fungus gnat larvae. I've had those before (gnats and the tiny things crawling in the soil). Neem oil seems to work well.

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lovethydog Payson, AZ(Zone 7b) Apr 05, 2006

Ive recently noticed some as well on mine. They are not fungus gnats but more like a reddish brown mite that moves real fast. I cant seem to figure them out but I do believe they are killing my seedlings. Any advise anyone?

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orkidlady Drumheller, AB(Zone 2a) Apr 05, 2006

Hi Meighan,

Quoting:
Help! I've noticed some tiny tiny bugs crawling around in the soil of my house plants, I don't know what they are and they are too tiny to take a photo of. They are not winged, they are very small fast moving crawling bugs that hide in the surface of the soil, any ideas of what they are and how to get rid of them??


http://www.optimara.com/doctoroptimara/10000-10006/10000.html

A very good site for diagnosing bugs. Hope it helps.

Joanne


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hcmcdole Powder Springs, GA(Zone 7b) Apr 05, 2006

Meighan,

May be springtails from your description?

http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/pest/Nebline/Springtails.htm

Lovethydog,

Sounds like you might have spider mites.

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