Thought they were fungal Knats or springtails but they don’t “spring”. Haven’t been able to figure out what they are to fight them. Used Neem Max spray but that’s about it. please let me know what these are. And they seem to come up when I blow air on the soil or when it’s watered.
Gets ok amount of sun living in WA but it sits in the a room where they get all day light just not direct. East and north facing windows.
Video attached for help hope it’s decent enough to figure out what it is. Thanks in advance for anything!
by itsm3pinky
11 Comments
Tradescantia
Your soil is occupied by soil mites or [springtails](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springtail). These beneficial insects aren’t pests. They are harmless to established plants & thrive in organic soil with excess moisture. [More here](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/springtails) and [here](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74136.html).
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they look like springtails, I think. definitely not fungus gnats, you’d see a lot more flying and the larvae are more worm-like I think.
Oh wow, that’s a TON! They look like springtails to me, I made a post earlier today about the same thing lol!
Most comments said they’re chill little guys, but if you wanna dwindle the population you can do so by letting the soil dry out completely between watering! They thrive in moisture so dry soil will help keep them at bay.
Someone else said something about fully submerging the soil and pot for a bit, and supposedly most of them will drown and float to the top? I can’t vouch for that method, but I do let my soil go totally dry for the pot that has these guys. I still see them but the population is nowhere close to yours.
Good luck! 🙂
I’m not sure if it’s 100% true all of the time, but I’ve heard “If it’s fast it’s friend, if it’s slow it’s foe.”
They look like spider mites or greenfly babies. Try spraying with soapy water
happy ecosystem!!! Springtails are the little opposums of plant world, they feed on the bad stood and excrete good stuff which creates the perfect environment for a recycling habitat.
Neem oil drench,3parts water, 1 part neem oil.
It likely means that your soil is too moist. The spring takes really need a wet habitat to survive. And they eat things like molds/fungus. You could always culture them in a container of very moist charcoal and nutritional yeast.
A good population of good bugs will out compete bad bugs.
Soil mites – good bugs 🙂
Spidermites