Weird TINYYYY bugs in my run off... WTF are they?

J

JustAnotherHead

New Member
I probably would not have noticed this had I not watered the plant on top of a white 5 gallon bucket top. After I watered till I get like 15-20% run off. I noticed some tiny and i mean TINY little bugs moving. Pretty much the size of a dust spec but longer. Like if you chopped up 1 piece of hair into 12 pieces small. They seem to "jump" but were suspended in water. I even had a hard time finding it under the scope. Using a 100x scope they are definitely some kind of worm looking larvae possibly with a black head. Weird part is, I poured straight 3% hydrogen peroxide right on the bugs figuring it would kill them. But they appear to be happily swimming in it!!!! I do remember seeing two flies flying around the other day and wondered where they came from. I'm assuming fungus gnats from the cheap Home Depot Jungle Grow soil I used for a couple of plants (stupid). Can I just water this plant with 50% solution of 3% h202/water? Mosquito dunks.

Are they even fungus gnats? I thought fungus gnats would be on the top of the soil. Could it be something else?
 
benign

benign

Active Member
Fungus gnat larvae will live in the soil until it is time to emerge and royally piss you off. I had the same issue using FFOF, I now treat all my plants with SNS203 http://www.sierranaturalscience.com/SNS203.html as a preventative because I hate working with fungus gnats everywhere, you can also use predatory nematodes, but I prefer the SNS, it is mostly clove and rosemary so your grow area will smell pretty damn good when you use it as a soil drench. It costs a little (a pint is about 20 bucks) but it works really well and I also believe that it is organic which is why I went with it.

You got a picture of these things?
 
J

JustAnotherHead

New Member
Theophagy said:
If they are seeming to "jump" they are more than likely springtails. From what I have read they are not harmful.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig124
Click to expand...
That's what I originally thought, but under the scope they don't look anything like those pics from University of Florida, but that could be because they are larvae. God damn bugs. I quarantined the plant in question for now. It's my only Sensi Seeds Jack Herer plant and it's so healthy right now I don't want it to get fucked up.

I wish I could get pics but they are so small you'd need a digital microscope 200x minimum to get a picture.
 
cowboylogic

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
If they seem to 'jump' as you mentioned in water then most like they are Springtails which are your friends. They help keep your root zone policed up while doing no harm.....

EDIT:just saw your pics of them, nice! And yes they are Springtails, no worries......
 
J

JustAnotherHead

New Member
cowboylogic said:
If they seem to 'jump' as you mentioned in water then most like they are Springtails which are your friends. They help keep your root zone policed up while doing no harm.....

EDIT:just saw your pics of them, nice! And yes they are Springtails, no worries......
Click to expand...

That would explain why I don't have any gnats flying around. I assume with the amound of larvae coming out just in the run off if they were gnats I'd have bazillions of them flying around?
 
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