Hello, well this is my first time trying to grow marijuana and i germinated the seeds and put them in the soil 3 or 4 days ago and they have already started to sprout but i noticed tiny white bugs in my soil... i dont know if i should be worried or not. i tired looking around for answers but nothing helped. i would take a picture but they're way too tiny. they kinda looked like little pieces of lint at first until i noticed that it would land in the soil and start to crawl in the soil can someone please tell me what it could be and what i should do
Neem will kill any bugs in your soil http://forum.grasscity.com/blogs/vostok/31964-neem-oil.html peace "V"
It does... BUT... there's a huge difference between mites and springtails. If it's mites, not good. If it's springtails, celebrate. Take something to poke them gently with, and see if they jump. If they do, be cool. You've got springtails, in which case leave them to it and let them do their thing. They're little cleaners and there's no need to kill them. In fact people who keep lizards and spiders etc buy and multiply them to keep their vivarium clean. They eat fungi and dead matter and break it back down into the soil. Easiest way to tell if it's springtails is to water the plant and get some run through, then put the saucer under your light and you'll be able to see them jumping round on the surface of the water. I've had them myself... I've got them now actually. They do no harm whatsoever.
Oh!.. how I wish you were correct, take a moment to peruse these links....lol Collembola | Mite Treatments Kill Mites MiteTreatments.com or this (lol) Checklist of the Collembola of the World just be careful not to breath in the tiny eggs...lol peace "V"
Sorry mate but springtail lava eat roots and a large colony can kill a small plant and will certainly stunt growth of a bigger plant. Get them gone, springtails are very bad for your plants
To put every little creature into the same category as harmful is wrong, just as it would be to do so with fungus and bacteria etc. People brew compost teas.. but why, if all fungus and bacteria are bad? It's because they're not, and many of them are beneficial and a vital part of the organic cycle of life. The type of springtails you will have in your root zone will not eat your roots, and will eat any decaying or rotting matter which they come across. It's one thing to not know this - I didn't myself at one point but I researched them when I first spotted them and found out - it's another to dismiss the knowledge out of hand is ignorant. Vostok, the link you are quoting is from a company which sells a pesticide. They tell you about "controlling" springtails and they quote some psychological study which in no way evidences any physical threat posed by these little tiny critters. Your home is a haven to hundreds of thousands of little things such as lice and mites... your bed will have mites, so will your mattress. I'm sure you could spend your life spraying your home with pesticides to attempt to rid yourself of all of them... and I'm sure you'd do yourself more harm in doing so than the bugs ever would. Really, you're attempting to kill a beneficial organism by using potentially harmful agents in your rootzone. Please, before you go investing in chemical controls, do a little bit of reading. A little bit about springtails. "In nature, they are found in their millions in topsoil across the globe. They are one of the main biological agents responsible for the control and the dissemination of soil microorganisms", so their presence can actually be beneficial to plants - just like earthworms. "Soil springtails play a positive role in the establishment of plant-fungal symbioses and thus are beneficial to agriculture. They also contribute to controlling plant fungal diseases through their active consumption of mycelia and spores of damping-off and pathogenic fungi."
I have had problems with springtails. You may not have noticed problems they cause but I certainly have. I get rid of them as soon as they are spotted. Having a proper wet/dry cycle keeps them at bay anyway as they thrive in damp soil
I'm not saying all bacteria, fungus and bugs are harmful, don't put words in my mouth. I'm just saying springtails cause problems. I have experienced it first hand, you may not of, I'm not calling you a liar, but I have and will always get rid of them straight away
With my above post I am trying to advise you that although there is very little issue between Collembola (Springtails) and MJ there is a link between Collembola and human health, just don't breath in the eggs....lol "V" ps in the tradition of Humans, just wack 'em, your plants will be fine without them
Larvae don't fly. Fungus gnats don't eat your roots. Their larvae do. If you had problems, it had nothing to do with the springtails. You can disagree, but you're arguing with nature and with facts, not with me. I'm only telling you what I know. Like I say, they're harmless unless you have somehow managed to find a rare species in your garden, which I seriously doubt. It'd be interesting to see the problems you say you had, to see the plant first hand, because without any shadow of a doubt there will have been some other problem which had nothing to do with the tiny little jumping cleaners residing peacefully in the soil You can disregard what biologists have found out about them, and any other plant and animal life on the planet, that's up to you. I just want to let people know that they're harmless creatures which work in tandem with the plant and its environment and that they don't need to and shouldn't resort to a chemical assault on something which is doing absolutely no harm. The chemicals will. Use them only if you need to. The only time a common springtail will be found guilty of crimes against cannabis is when it's wrongly picked out of a lineup
But they'll be fine with them, and so will you. It does no good to anyone scaremongering about something harmless like the springtail. This hobby leads a lot of us to gardening in general, growing fruit and veg, making compost, brewing teas, keeping wormeries and stuff.. it teaches a lot of people to appreciate nature. But obviously there are some people who just want some pot.. fuck everything else. It's not the tradition or nature of all humans to indiscriminately kill everything and spray chemical shite everywhere and give a fuck what harm it causes or whether it's warranted or not. It's in the nature of just some of them. I'm not one. Springtails are cool. Leave them the fuck be. Or run chemicals through your weed for no reason whatsoever. Each to their own.
Lol funny how people think they know something and stand by it even when the are wrong. Springtails are harmless (fact) ! I have heard of one breed native to North America that can upset the balance in the soil. Disagree all you want but facts are facts and I'm just repeating what I've researched ! I would suggest reading a little more into it before you put any chemicals in you girls cuz they will kill everything including all the good bacteria that your plants need.
Don't forget there are types of spider mites that are beneficial, such as decomposer or predaceous mites