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Ugh. Bugs

DavyJones

Is ready to take this hobby to a whole new level
Yes, another one of those ambiguous pest questions. I have noticed these small insects infesting the soil of nearly all my nepenthes. They are too small to get a photo of (shocker!), but, they are silver and pill shaped (longer then they are thin), move fairly quickly, and never leave the soil, except to move into other pots apparently, as they started off sparse and are now everywhere. Many of the plants have had these insects for some time, and they do not seem to be having any ill effects, other then just being there (which bothers the heck out of me.) Every once in a while I will give the pots that have it the worst a good soaking of GardenTech Sevin Ready-To-Use Bug Killer, and then flush it through with some water, which seems to do the trick for a bit, but they always come back.

So all you bug experts out there! What do you think they could possibly be? Any ideas how to get rid of them. I really don't want to do a mass Remove plants from pots, spray with insecticide, sterilize pots, repot, but since these are getting on my nerves now, I might just do it.
 
Fungus gnat larvae? Do you have little black gnats as well?
 
Nope. No fungus gnats at all. They are completely subterranean, if that's how you want to describe them.
 
....a springtail species of some kind more than likely.
 
Agreed, sounds like springtails to me if they aren't effecting your plants. They eat the gunk out of your soil and serve as food for pings and utrics. Do they jump?
 
That was my first though too, but I haven't been able to make them jump given any amount of prodding. I am just going to assume they are cleaning out the soil or something, and when its repot time, I'll make sure to give everything a liberal application of insecticide.
 
That was my first though too, but I haven't been able to make them jump given any amount of prodding. I am just going to assume they are cleaning out the soil or something, and when its repot time, I'll make sure to give everything a liberal application of insecticide.
If they're springtails, you'd probably be wasting your time applying pesticide as they'll be back (& they do no harm). If they're not springtails, then you better plan on doing something much sooner than repot time ....

There are plenty of threads with pics on this forum (like this one) and on the web. Probably worth a few minutes to peruse them to see if they match ....
 
Someone said put flea collars around your pots. It's worth a try.

If I were you, I'd just douse them with neem or pyrithrins. I have sooo many pests, for many of them I don't even have a clue what they are.

Today I just found MITES(!) on my nepenthes muluensis x lowii. You can bet I got em good with neem...
 
Diagnosis Confirmed: Springtails

I was trying to track some down with the insecticide I use, and one of the little buggers was being fairly persistent, i.e. not dieing. I sprayed him directly, only to watch him jump away at a distance and height that would be like me jumping from the ground to the top of a skyscraper.
 
  • #10
You're wasting your time trying to get rid of springtails. They'll just come back unless you turn your medium into a toxic dump. That won't be good for you or your Nepenthes.

http://www.tolweb.org/Collembola/
Introduction

Springtails have the widest distribution of any hexapod group, occuring throughout the world, including Antarctica. They are probably the most abundant hexapods on Earth, with up to 250,000,000 individuals per square acre. They are found in soil, leaf litter, logs, dung, cave, shorelines, etc. There are about 6000 known species.

Devonian-Recent. Oldest fossil is of Rhyniella praecursor Hirst and Maulik from the Middle Devonian of Scotland.

The name "Collembola" is derived from "Colle" = glue and "embolon" = piston or peg. This refers to the belief that the ventral tube has adhesive properties, that is, that it is a "glue-peg". However, the tube's function is primarily for excretion and maintaining water balance.

See also http://www.collembola.org/
 
  • #11
careful with pyrethrins......i recently fried a couple of plants with them with in the last month....one of which was a nep.....
 
  • #12
careful with pyrethrins......i recently fried a couple of plants with them with in the last month....one of which was a nep.....

Interesting...I've never had a problem with it myself, I'll have to be careful.
 
  • #13
i never did till this last time either...........not sure if i got a bad batch or what.........
 
  • #14
Go for Pyganic brand. It doesn't have petroleum distillates in it.
 
  • #15
Neem oil is a great non-toxic method. As well as being anti fungal, it remains in the soil, coating it to an extent, making it less desirable to nomadic populations. Try some neem, it wont hurt.
 
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