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Little 1/2-a-fleasized white bugs in compost

hello hello,

So, i was doing my weekly plant watering and noticed tiny white/silver 1/2-a-flea-sized bugs in the compost of the neps in one terrarium... Unfortunately, a few days ago i moved a plant from that terrarium into my other one, and noticed today too, that that one has the bugs...(darn it) they will undoubedly spread to the others. urgh.

I guess my questions are:

1. what are they?
2. are they bad?
3. is anyone else housing these little guys? (there are lots of them)
4. How do i get rid of them/should i even bother?

My plants seem fine... so I'm not overly worried. It's just kind of gross... cuz' there are so many.
 
I have them too. I can't manage to grow anything without them. I don't beleive them to be harmful cause I have had them for quite some time in my other plants and they have never had adverse effects that I know of. I have no idea what they are called. I have noticed that they seem to like algae especially.

Joe
 
1. springtails
2. no. they are good little buggers, people LOVE them, because utrics feast on them
3. yea, me
4. dont bother. utrics and sundews love em. They also eat bacteria/mold in the soil, keeping the Nep compost form rotting so fast
 
I had something similar sometime ago. They love to feas on dead leaves or any dead plant material. They are more like scavengers. If you see your plant suffering from them, then remove them by any means you can.

Gus
 
Thanks, it's reassuring knowing that you guys have them too. Kind of like when I was in kindergarten and had head lice...
tounge.gif
 
I thought they are wingless fungus gnats. They are all over the place....I would like to irradicate them but I do not know what is effective against them. I wonder if Orthene/Isotox would work. I tried Gnatrol but thats meant for fungus gnats....don't have them, just these nasty things.
 
Some also believe that they nibble and disturb Nepenthes' roots.

Utrics are effective against them.
smile.gif
 
Hey Pat, unfortunately I want a quick treatment. ;) Only thing I find Utrics useful against are in wetter soil pest infestations.....I think they would die if I put them in a Nepenthes soil, with its moisture content being that much lower than the Drosera bench.
 
I've had some success with Orthenex against these pests. However, it's hard to completely eradicate them, and I've only succeeded in doing so after repeated doses. Fortunately, I've noticed no slowing of growth on the plants I've treated.

Capslock
 
  • #10
Hey, great to hear that Max! Um, what dilution did you use? Did you just spray it on the soil surface or use it as a drench?

Thanks!
 
  • #11
I sprayed the plants completely, but not so much the soil as I only saw them on the plants, and used the dilution listed on the bottle, maybe a touch weaker. I also physically removed as many as I could, but if you have more than a few neps infected, that could be tedious. But the spray seemed to kill them. I think the key was to do a few applications, a few days apart, to kill any stragglers and newly hatched ones. Good luck!

Max
 
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