Bug Help

Discovered late last night that I have these little "grub" looking things running around in the soil of my plants. They're tiny, maybe a millimeter or less and look almost like a short piece of white string. They don't seem to be affecting the plants at all as they're growing like crazy and have strong leaves and good colour. I have to head into work today so I don't have any time right now for researching it, I'll be doing that tonight but thought I would throw a post up to see if anyone has any experience with these things and what a safe measure is to manage them. If anyone can help point me in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated. They wiggle like inchworms, but if you touch one, they go bat shit crazy bouncing all over the place. But again, they're small, I can't even see details on them with the naked eye.

Thanks!

If they are not eating your plants you are fine.

check your local hydro shop for an organic all purpose bug killer. they usually make something to sell. so you know there is no chems in it.
try that for a few feedings and ide transplant if not budding. pe@ce.

Jtoth3ustin said:

check your local hydro shop for an organic all purpose bug killer. they usually make something to sell. so you know there is no chems in it.
try that for a few feedings and ide transplant if not budding. pe@ce.

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Why give him a problem when he does not have one?

sparkafire said:

If they are not eating your plants you are fine.

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why do you say they're fine? jumping white bugs are thrips, and they are disease spreading and are definitely a PEST. water with a mix of 1.5 tsp neem oil, 2 tsp castile soap and a gallon of water. also spray the plant down with the same ingredients in a quart of water instead of a gallon.

fungus gnat larvae.............

Introduce some bug eaters like centipedes to the party? spiders? some sort of bug eating bad ass???

you need gnat off or similar product or they will start to damage the plant, reduced yield etc

Fungus gnat larvae eat root hairs and will do a lot of damage and they multiply really fast.

RRLBT420 said:

why do you say they're fine? jumping white bugs are thrips, and they are disease spreading and are definitely a PEST. water with a mix of 1.5 tsp neem oil, 2 tsp castile soap and a gallon of water. also spray the plant down with the same ingredients in a quart of water instead of a gallon.

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Notice he said "They don't seem to be affecting the plants at all " and then what I said. "If they are not eating your plants you are fine. " I didn't jump to give him an answer because he didn't need one!!

Bugs live in soil my friend and not all of them are pests

well since thrips eat roots, how would he know? sure the plant may show signs of stress once the outbreak gets bad, but more than likely he'll be trying to cure a plant disease instead of a bug infestation. the effect of thrips isn't neccessarrily direct, they simply weaken the plant and make it more suceptible to other diseases and infestations.

RRLBT420 said:

well since thrips eat roots, how would he know? sure the plant may show signs of stress once the outbreak gets bad, but more than likely he'll be trying to cure a plant disease instead of a bug infestation. the effect of thrips isn't neccessarrily direct, they simply weaken the plant and make it more suceptible to other diseases and infestations.

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FIne I will give you that but I will come back to you no wait both of us for not asking to see picks of the bugs first before making ass u me ions.

sparkafire said:

FIne I will give you that but I will come back to you no wait both of us for not asking to see picks of the bugs first before making ass u me ions.

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normally i do, but there's not many bugs that look like jumping white bits of string

This is the bug. He's a shifty little fucker and was on the move... hard to catch in the act, they burrow fast. They do jump if you poke at em. Sorry I couldn't get a better pic, but I will more than likely need a microscope to really get a good look at them. less than a mm long. I'm going to check out the ideas you guys gave, and look more into what they could be. I'm still getting fantastic growth on the plants, no signs of ill health. I'm wondering if these little critters came in with my soil. Anyone ever heard of bugs piggybacking in on bagged soil?

oh, and just as a reference, the netting you see in the top left corner is the jiffy peat pellet that I originally grew the seeds in... if that gives you any indication how tiny these bastards are.

Hotshot from home depot worked for me leave it in for 4 days. Spray a fogger and bam no mas. It worked for me. Turn off exhaust. just a fan

The only good bugs are the carnivorous any herbivorous are a problem and should be eliminated. I personally prefer to keep the carnivorous alive for obvious reasons but can understand how some prefer to kill all of them for reasons sighted with disease, fungus spread

Also I should note I have never seen myself but have a friend that got infested with a root eating mite and it destroyed everything in his bud room and he had to disassemble everything spray the hell out of it and lost 1 month of growing as well as all his strains.....it was really bad. Good luck

Exmes said:

View attachment 1616266
This is the bug. He's a shifty little fucker and was on the move... hard to catch in the act, they burrow fast. They do jump if you poke at em. Sorry I couldn't get a better pic, but I will more than likely need a microscope to really get a good look at them. less than a mm long. I'm going to check out the ideas you guys gave, and look more into what they could be. I'm still getting fantastic growth on the plants, no signs of ill health. I'm wondering if these little critters came in with my soil. Anyone ever heard of bugs piggybacking in on bagged soil?

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def fungus gnat larvae