Potting soil full of thrips?

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green76thumb Radford, VA(Zone 7a) Nov 19, 2008

Has anyone found their potting soil (new bag) to be full of thrips?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Nov 19, 2008

I've never heard of that happening but I suppose it might be possible. But I don't know how you'd see them in there to know they were there, so if you've got thrips on a plant that you just repotted in this soil I think it's more likely that the thrips came from somewhere else.

Post #5808523
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green76thumb Radford, VA(Zone 7a) Nov 20, 2008

Well, it may not be thrips. I thought I had sterilized some soil-must not have heated it long enough. I kept it separately in a sealed bag after sterilizing it, then I put some in a container and planted fern spores in it and kept the container sealed. This is why I noticed, and why I was surprised. When I checked on the spores I was surprised to see tiny long, thin, white, winged bugs--about 1/4 or less of the size of a fungus gnat.
Since the spores had been drying for awhile, I don't think that was the source of the pests. The water I'd used was from a spray bottle, so I'm pretty sure they were in the soil.
Now, if they were in the soil when I bought it, or for some reason got into the bag of soil later, I couldn't say. Just wondered if anyone else had the experience--if it was reasonable to think that was what had happened.

Post #5811195
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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Nov 20, 2008

If you could see them I don't think they were thrips, those are very tiny and you usually only know they're there by the damage they caused. Also I don't think they're white, what you have sounds like it could be whitefly instead? I don't know if they usually like ferns, but since the spores are typically on the underside of the fern leaves and whiteflies typically lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves, it's possible that's where they came from, and when they got some moisture again that triggered the eggs to hatch. I'm really just speculating here, but particularly if you sterilized your potting mix I doubt it was the source of any insect issues.

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