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Psilosopherr
A psilly goose



Registered: 02/15/12
Posts: 12,278
Last seen: 1 month, 10 days
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Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do?
#22232100 - 09/13/15 02:44 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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It started in my perioskopis spatula plant. I buried some unused mushroom spawn in the plants soil and after a while bugs appeared all throughout the soil. Perhaps a fungus gnat 
When I water the soil the bugs all appear seemingly from underground. They hop around sort of like fleas would. (I'd take pics but I doubt you could see the buggers)
I ignored the bugs for a while. Now today I saw that they had spread to one of my other plants nearby and now I'm a lot more worried.
I've never dealt with a bug infestation before. Does anyone have advice? I could pitch the perioskopis (though it is my best specimen) but the new plant it has spread to is a little more special.
There are many other plants nearby. I'm thinking I should probably evacuate all of them?
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kactus.brand.g
Registered: 08/22/14
Posts: 6,886
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: Psilosopherr]
#22232118 - 09/13/15 02:49 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Sounds like fungus gnats.
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Psilosopherr
A psilly goose



Registered: 02/15/12
Posts: 12,278
Last seen: 1 month, 10 days
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: kactus.brand.g]
#22232137 - 09/13/15 02:55 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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yeah the second plant they spread to is kept wet all the time so thats probably why they liked it more if thats the case
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spaceman101
Friend to all



Registered: 01/18/13
Posts: 11,726
Loc: In heaven bored as hell
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: Psilosopherr]
#22232706 - 09/13/15 05:01 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I don't know what they're called but I have them to in a couple of my mots they're like a lice of some kind but I haven't seen them do any damage so far.
They're way to small to be fungus gnat larva and they're in mass numbers.
-------------------- ------------- Check out my Pollen Trade thread for spreading Good genetics far and wide Great Vendors thread where we can discuss "Non Shroomery" Vendors that sell good products worth checking into A few things I wanna get my hands on check it out and let me know if you have any of these Need help getting started growing mushrooms Here's The Noob Forum
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kosmokratorshaman
Cosmic Creator


Registered: 05/13/15
Posts: 1,206
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: spaceman101]
#22232778 - 09/13/15 05:20 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Get diatemaceous earth, put a layer on the soil. Get captain jacks dead bug brew and spray the crap outta them.
-------------------- I am.
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Psilosopherr
A psilly goose



Registered: 02/15/12
Posts: 12,278
Last seen: 1 month, 10 days
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: kosmokratorshaman]
#22232828 - 09/13/15 05:30 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
kosmokratorshaman said: Get diatemaceous earth, put a layer on the soil. Get captain jacks dead bug brew and spray the crap outta them.
diatemaceous earth, I forgot about that stuff. thanks!
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karode13
Tāne Mahuta




Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,290
Loc: LV-426
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: Psilosopherr]
#22235318 - 09/14/15 03:20 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
rbalzer said:
When I water the soil the bugs all appear seemingly from underground. They hop around sort of like fleas would.
Sounds like Springtails. A harmless insect that lives in soil and eats decomposed organic matter.
You don't do anything until you've identified what the bug is. You then have to determine if it's even a pest.
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El Torcho
Time for tea?


Registered: 04/16/15
Posts: 1,365
Loc: Lone Pine Hill
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: karode13]
#22236960 - 09/14/15 02:40 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Not all bugs are bad bugs. 
They sound like springtails, as mentioned above. If they start eating the plant, possibly thrips.
They could also possibly be a soil mite, which is not to be confused with a spider mite. Soil mites are good, unlike spider mites.
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"Well it sounds trivial, but the key insight is . . . . . you don't know shit" ~Dennis McKenna "There is more to human existence and to reality itself than science can ever give us access to." ~His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama
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Psilosopherr
A psilly goose



Registered: 02/15/12
Posts: 12,278
Last seen: 1 month, 10 days
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: El Torcho]
#22238057 - 09/14/15 06:46 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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many thanks to karode and el torcho! Maybe I'll just leave them be. I still got my prized plants the hell out of there just in case.
I did some investigating today. The bugs appear to have completely left the perioskopis behind and are now all in the newly colonized plant.
The perioskopis seems fine. The only weird thing was a fair number of roots were exposed? (the plant is far too large for its container though, so I wouldn't be surprised if the bugs had nothing to do with that)
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kizatzhaddarak
Fairy Tail



Registered: 10/13/14
Posts: 775
Loc: Pacific Northwest
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: Lots of little white bugs in my plants soil. what do I do? [Re: Psilosopherr]
#22242086 - 09/15/15 04:36 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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If indoors, My guess and I may be off base, is (House mites). look on your other houseplants very carefully. If you see (Tiny threads) . and tiny itty bitty red, or white, or amber, or brownish.. Probably are spider mites. Threads are the dead give away for sure.
Get a magnifying glass.. or ocular loop and inspect stems, leaves, nodes pay special attention to the undersides of leaves.
Its weird, sometimes I get them.. I eradicate them.. they come back.. I kill them again.. its an indoor issue. (sigh). I try not to use harsh chems on my plants. I suppose I have gotten lucky so far, but for some reason they seem to leave my cacti alone and only go after some specific kinds of plants. like Cannabis.. and this year, I had a Plumeria that got attacked. I moved it outside and it is recovering.
I tend to think it might be fungus gnats or as Karode suggested springtails, however,.. if you have other plants in decline.. and the insects are tiny and on undersides of leaves, with tiny spiderlike threads and webbing . 9/10 times it is a kind of Mite.
I tend to use Nicotine spray to get rid of them.. and I have pyrethrum chrysanthemum too.. make a tea of both with some hot chili pepper and you have an awesome natural bug killer/repell. I use it to get rid of critter infestations.
-------------------- The Sleeper Must Awaken! (I do not advocate the ingestion of any substance without extensive research, and or the advice of trained medical and or spiritual personelle)
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