When I was watering I noticed small clear/white bugs that look suspiciously like mites. They're not on the plant itself, but in the soil near the plant. There is no noticeable damage to the leaves or anything, but the fact that these bugs even got into the indoor soil is frustrating. What should I do?
Might be adoloscent fruit gnats as well...If there not on plants and in soil that is where they come from... Dry out soil and get a couple extra fans in there to dry it all out...Look into some pesticide methods, I just let mine dry out and it went awa...Stay away from heavy watering....
When i had bugs i let my soil dry out and put a cup with a little bit of vinigar right next to my plant and it worked great
I noticed a littl bug walking around on the surface of the soil. Not on the plant. Plant and soil is only 3 days old. The bug looked like it had dark grey or black strips? Now that I think of it they may have been white? I don't believe it was a solid color. It's the only on I saw. I tried to kill it by pressing some perliite or something down on it. It was small but very visible. I tried to find it to see if I killed it but I may have ended up just pressing it down into the soil without illing it. Any idea what it could be? If I see another one I will try to kill it and take a pic of it to post. Don't look like it was doing any damage to the plant.
It's gnat larva.. don't panic.. use a mosquito dunk in your water, and in two weeks they will be gone.. It's a bacteria that eats the larva.. If you add poison to your soil, you'll end up killing the plants..
Thank you for the response. Where can I get such a product and does it have a name or is that the name? If I let the soil dry out some will that be enough to kill the larva?
The larva lives in the top three inches or so.. so drying that out helps, but it never worked for me.. by the way, the larva will feed on the roots, so they must be taken care of.. Hardware stores carry it, also some pool supply outlets.. It's used to kill mosquito larva in abandoned pools and such..
Its not the fruit gnats themselves you gotta worry about its the larvae that live in soil and eat roots. If you are going to takecare of this you need to kill all life stages of fruit gnat, larvea, teen, and gnat...Try not to over water and dry out for a few days if possible...Then get some vinegar in a jar with lil holes in lid and put in room...Then get a few pest strips...To kill larvae you can use mosquito dunk...Mostly just dry everything out, make sure there isnt any water sitting under grow bags or pots...Clean room and you should be fine
I am letting the soil dry out some. The seedling looks fine still. Standing up and sprouting leaves. Has the two round leaves (don't know what those are called) plus two normal leaves right above those that look pretty good. Forgive my ignorance on what they are called. I have only noticed the one bug but it didn't look like larva to me. I don't think it was a mite. It was short maybe had 6 or 8 legg's. I don't know if it had a hard shell or not. I wish I would have taken a pic of it. I wanna say it was white with black stripes but it might have been the other way around. I added a little bit more FFOF to try and draw some of the moisture out of the top couple inches of the soil. I wonder if it's because I mixed the Sunshine with the FFOF? Like I said, I have only seen one. Don't mean there are not others but I haven't seen any more. I'm going to keep a sharp eye out and let the soils dry out as much as possible. The first couple inches are pretty dry but it's still feels pretty moist deeper down in the soil. Do they sell stuff at hydro stores for bugs and larva to add to your water? I'm going to the hydro store tomorrow for ph up/down, and buffer.
I did my best to explain the bug I saw and he pretty much eliminated gnat larvae, mites, and most others. He said it sounded like a house bug that happened to find it's way to the soil. He also said it was possible that it came in with the bag of soil I got. Seeing that's it's the only one I have seen and it's been 3 days I am hopeing that it was just a single bug that ended up in the soil somehow. My closet is clean with no bugs so it had to of come from the soil somehow. Plus I haven't watered for about 3 days cause I am trying to let the soil dry out as much as possible to prevent bug problems. It still looks really good, no wilting but I think it may be due for a little drink sometime today or tonight. I have 4 more WW beans so if this one don't make it, I can start another one. It's all a learning experirnce right? There's just so many different ways of doing it with great results that it can be a bit overwhelming to pick the way that works best for you.
the solution is easy dude. buy this stuff called sm-90 : SM-90L, 1 Liter by: Whitmire / Nutrilife / Einstein - STORE_TITLE - you can use it as foliar spray or in your watering mixture to keep roots healthy and bugs away. Works against aphids, spider mites, and powdery mildew too man. this shit owns. i've used it for gnats, spider mites, and powdery mildew. Killed everything and the plants thrived afterwards.
Thanks for the link man. Sounds like something I definitely may be checking into. Just called my local hydro store. They have it in stock. Think I may go pick some of that up tomorrow. Dude said it works great.