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Small Black Bugs in Water Tray

  • Thread starter Nkop13
  • Start date
Hi All,

I am new to VFTs, I have had this one for about two months. It has seemed to grow well up to this point (wish there was a little more sun in San Francisco) and I have not had issues.

The other week, I noticed these very small, black bugs in the water tray. They are so small I cannot identify them and was hoping for some help to determine if they are dangerous and what I should do about them. This is my first post so I am hoping these pictures post correctly below. The first is my plant, the second is a high level picture with the small bugs circled, and the third is up close. They tend to ball up like they are in the third picture.

I have yet to find these small bugs in the actual plant, they are always in the water. I let the water dry out for a weekend and I didn't see the bugs anymore. Once I filled the tray back up today, they started appearing so I would think they are in the plant somewhere.

Thanks for any tips!
Nick
 

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Welcome to the forum!

I doubt the bugs will cause any harm to the plant. I can't ID them from the photos. Is there any way you can get better close up photos of the bugs? Maybe even use a magnifying glass between the bugs and the camera?

Good Luck!
 
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Let's see if these pictures help at all. They have black, almost caterpillar-like bodies with antennas. Looks like there are 10-15 in this cluster this morning.
 

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Springtails I believe. They feed on decaying plant matter, fungus, bacteria and stuff like that. Your living plant should be just fine, if a little cleaner.

Look up photos and compare, see if my ID is right.

:D
 
Ahhh great call that has to be it thank you! I had looked up springtails before, but the first pictures I saw didn't look very similar. Now that I am scrolling through I see the similiarities.

I just can't let them get as big as they are in some of these pictures!!
 
Ahhh great call that has to be it thank you! I had looked up springtails before, but the first pictures I saw didn't look very similar. Now that I am scrolling through I see the similiarities.
I just can't let them get as big as they are in some of these pictures!!

Springtails, for the most part, always stay tiny. If they look big in photos, its just a close up/zoomed/magnified photo.

Good Luck with your plant! :D
 
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