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Bugs in the soil

Not a Number

Hello, I must be going...
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Last night I was top watering my D. aliciae (just around the rim of the pot, not actually over the plants) and I noticed a few tiny insects come scurrying out of the soil mix and run back under cover as soon as the water level dropped. Maybe 3 or 4 tiny white bugs 1 to 1.5mm long. One of them had green stuff in its gut (translucent white body). I couldn't get a close look at 'em - I wear bifocals and getting a close look at anything means using a lens or taking off my glasses and getting in real close. They could have been termites but again I couldn't get a close look.

Since the plants are in a terrarium I guess I'll try the flea collar method of pest control.

Any thoughts?
 
They are probably fungus gnats, pretty much harmless- they turn into fruit-fly like things that the plants will eat

Supposedly they can eat seedling plants but I've never had that happen
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Fungus Gnat larvae are apparently legless:
I-DP-BRAD-LV.004.jpg


The bugs I have scurry around as if they have legs and are maybe 2 - 3 times as long as wide
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The adults also often scurry around the pot, they could also be springtails, which I think are also harmless. There's a bunch of 'em on my pings.

-Ben
 
Springtails are cute
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ Nov. 30 2006,2:38)]Springtails are cute
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Springtails I think is what I gots! Thanks!

Img0001.jpg

springtails_wade.jpg
 
Oh Yeah! They Be Springtails!
 
Some fun stuff on Springtails

The ones I have are similar to the ones in the group photo. From the above site:

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]
springtail_8xmag.jpg


Ed. Note: Before we could even respond to this photo, Jace sent the following proper I.D. from a website.

(12/26/2003) Bugs: Discovered!
I have scoured the internet for these bugs, and I believe I have identified them! Thanks to you and the Missouri State University Entomology Department, not only have I IDed the first insect, I found out that I have two different species living in my plants. The first one (that I kept sending pictures of) are Onychurius pseudofimetarius. These did not jump and moved slowly so as to be the only ones I could catch.

onychurius.jpg

Onychurius pseudofimetarius
Onychiurus pseudofimetarius is eyeless, and has an unpigmented, translucent white body. The body shape is fusiform, or torpedo like, the antenna are not longer than the head, and there is no apparent furcula. It lacks spines on the tip of the abdomen, a feature which distinguishes this species from Onychiurus ramosus #362. (Family: Onychiruidae)
 
are they long and skinny or squat? i have them too on my pots and my P. primuliflora has them dotted all over! i had an S. purpurea in the terrarium and apparently they all wanted to commit suicide cause the pitchers were dry and when i filled them up.... there were hundreds!...in every single pitcher!!
Alex
 
  • #10
Springtails are a good source of nutrition, sort of like an automatic feeding system. They never did any harm to my plants.
 
  • #11
Hopefully the springtails are happy as I've left them alone. Had they been termites that would be a different matter.

So now in my D. capillaris x rotundifolia I find a tiny snail and maybe a few of the seedlings are chewed up! I got it to crawl onto a toothpick and I put it in a sample dish for my crappy QX3+ toy microscope.

Where'd it come from? Plant is in a terrarium, partially open top. It must have come with the plant!

Some pix:

snail2.jpg

snail3.jpg

snail4.jpg


Moves pretty darn fast for a "snail"
 
  • #12
They're everywhere!

but don't worry, if you want to keep them away for good just put some snail bait on a plate and kida stick it in your terrarium.

The really bad ones are caterpillars!
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