First off I don't have any pictures, I'm sorry but they are just so small to get a picture of. I have looked through the pest threads and looked through the pictures and what these are do not look like any of those pictures. I have my plants set up in bubble buckets, 5-gallon w/ 10" net cups. I usually check on them a few times a day and make sure the PH is good, and this morning when i checked one of the plants I noticed these teeny tiny little "jelly" dots on the side of the bucket, above the water-line. It looked like there was at least 60 of them. I was curious, so I scraped one off the side and put it on a solid surface and took a look at it with my magnifying scope. Its definitely a bug of some kind, its alive, but its clear/jelly looking with a dark splotch in the middle (I assume its stomach or heart or something?) and I can see little legs underneath its body that it uses to move itself around. Its a fat little clear thing?? Definitely not a spider mite, doesn't have the same shape at all, and they are no where on the plant itself only by the water. Every now and then I can find a very tiny light green skinny bug on the underside of a leaf, its about the size of two .. put together, and its surprisingly quick. I tried to take a look at it with the scope but its too fast. Nothing is flying around the room at all though, and the little green dudes don't fly at all either. I'm not sure what these are, or if I should be concerned, my plants look pretty good I mean some of the older growth look a bit spotty but its nothing major or concerning or stopping my plant from getting bigger, but I just want to know what these things are, how to stop them, if they're bad? Thanks in advance for the help
kind of, but more clear and they have a dark splotch in the middle I don't know maybe they just had full stomachs or something.... So a Thrips predator mite is that what they are called? Do they look like little skinny green bugs when they mature or is that unrelated? I see in the picture that one is on a leaf, why are all of mine in the bucket by the water?? I looked over my plants there is definitely none on the leaf itself just those skinny green guys... I am doing a water change on Friday, is there something I could add to the water to keep them from coming back?? Thanks for the response, by the way
Since you say they are by the water i bet they are springtails..here's a couple pics I found. They like to stay in moist environments. And yes soap will kill them..wash out your reservoir with soap and hot water to smash them. Shouldn't be a problem after that.
Hmmm.....I'll keep my eye out for those, but they don't look like that, unless they mature into jelly-blobs or vice versa? That first pic you posted looks more like them, mine just look a bit more clear. I looked up some info on those Thrips Predator Mite's that you suggested, I guess they really like humid environments, once the humidity is too low they die or leave. So maybe they are in my bucket because its not humid enough out on the surface? The humidity in my tent is only at 48%. I've been washing my buckets with vinegar & Water but if soap is safe to use then I will start using that as well. Although if this is what they are, I guess they are a good bug, and I should maybe let them stick around. Thanks for the help IFourTwenty, I at least have a direction to look in now!