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Little white bugs

I found what had been attacking my barrels due to the fact that they are now at my lithops. They are like small white dots when on the plants. When older they can cross the soil, rice shaped at this stage (very small), and I believe that they may finally become air born. Any way they turn the succulent to mush. There are small, closed, ulcers where they begin to eat the plant. It looks like the plant becomes sunken in. Mostly this occurs at the soil surface, but can start higher up the plant. I hit them with a pesticide/fungicide combo and hope it will work. I am going to change the soil after work tonight. Any idea what these are?
 
sounds like these may be a symptom rather than the cause, may be springtails...mush at soil level is usually overwatering and cold in winter, virtually all succulents should be bone dry with low humidity in winter
 
Springtails and soil mites don't really do any damage to plants, they feed on damp organic matter in the soil so I don't think they are the culprits.

Maybe too damp?

Tom
 
No, they have not been watered over the winter. Maybe it is a fungal infection. I am destroying all of the plants I find it on.
 
I have had even dry plants do this in winter when humidity is too high; I am sure it is your growing conditions
 
I will have to find another section of the house to keep them in next year.  I am hoping to move them outside in Mid-April.

I'm still a little confused though. Is it possible for root rot to start in the upper stem? When I found the shrunken divets on the upper stem of the lithops and barrels I check the roots and they were still looking very healthy. Sometimes it did start at the roots, but the roots were dry and shrunken, not mushy. The barrels roots were still dry, but the enterior of the plant was mush. Same with the lithops, but everything whould dry up, the head last, which would end up like a raisin. This happens very quickly, with in a couple of days. Is this also root rot? Thanks
 
it is some sort of rot...I get rot at root level and on the upper stems of some succulents when I keep them in my humid greenhouse, even when the soil is dry, but they are OK when on a dry sunny windowsill in the house
smile.gif
 
I found it! I know what my problem is. The humidity is also very low here in the winter. I just could not figure it out. Then I happened upon two sights that mention the same problem that I am having. Two lithops sights anyway. They both warn about using peat in the soil mix. It appears that peat promotes root destroying critters, at least succulent root destroying critters. I should have copied their name. I will move my lithops to a different soil mix tomorrow and the rest of the succulents as needed. I have taken a picture of one of the lithophs that is being devasted. You will see no root rot. The succulent portion looks shriveled and dried out, but intact. The small fiborous roots look fine. The cap was all that was left on this one. It is the last to go, shriveling like a raisin and pulling back into the soil. I will try to post the photo tomorrow. There is no odor to this.
 
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