Tiny White Black Striped Bugs?

I've noticed some flying white black striped bugs in my pot tray.

Does an1 have a clue what's that?

They must live in the soil cause everytime i shake a pot they keep coming out.

Also there are a few non flying whitish bugs, even smaller with some yellowish round finishing on they're tails, i can't tell if this is another insect or their larvae.

I sprayed with pest off and got some fungus gnat off on hand if necessary.

I've also put some sticky traps around my grow room.

Please Help

kill them where is your fly swatter

use neem oil

skataman said:

I've noticed some flying white black striped bugs in my pot tray.

Does an1 have a clue what's that?

They must live in the soil cause everytime i shake a pot they keep coming out.

Also there are a few non flying whitish bugs, even smaller with some yellowish round finishing on they're tails, i can't tell if this is another insect or their larvae.

I sprayed with pest off and got some fungus gnat off on hand if necessary.

I've also put some sticky traps around my grow room.

Please Help

Click to expand...

Do the black and white ones look like this? if they do, you have thrips. the none flying ones sound like thrip larvae. Check under the leaves, thats the most common place for them to hang out. Some neem oil should clear them out pretty easily.

I checked under the leaves but there's nothing there.

They are in the soil and they pop out everytime i move a pot, thrips live in soil?

meezy4tw said:

Do the black and white ones look like this? if they do, you have thrips. the none flying ones sound like thrip larvae. Check under the leaves, thats the most common place for them to hang out. Some neem oil should clear them out pretty easily.

Click to expand...

Hopefully i'll get some stuck on my sticky traps and put em under my microscope to check if that's the case.

These things don't just hop around, they can fly.

They're pretty fast too, they get away everytime i'm trying to catch one

fabfun said:

use neem oil

Click to expand...

Some of my plants are in late flowering i can't do that considering the residue neem leaves on buds and the change in taste

Some do... the outdoors thrips tend to be beige... the indoor/greenhouse thrips have the off-white bodies with black/clear striping on the wings. Pretty sure the one pic'd above eat from the underside of the leaves (adults) but they 'drop' their eggs onto the soil where they hatch... adults move back up the plant to the underside of leaves to feed. Depending, they will concentrate near the pots. You should be able to find a few in the plants here & there, but have to spend some time looking. Shake a few branches... the adults will fly off if agitated enough... might see one.

Sound like you have thrips but the other bugs in the soil sound like maybe sprigtails which are completly harmless, these are smaller than thrips and jump about a lot hence the name springtail. You have to find out what bugs they are but if you have sprintails in the soil do not worry as these are benificial but the thrips i would worry about, cover the pots to stop the eggs dropping into the soil is another way of bringing the population down over time and recomended to stop new thrips multyplying. Read up about the springtails as a lot of small soil bugs seem to be these!! Good luck and hope i have helped a bit.

I've been told to add sand on the top of the soil, can you tell me please if this is accurate?

Also where can i get sand?

Is there any alternatives in case i don't?

One of my mates suggested i use a layer perlite in top of the soil . . .

you can get sanitized sand bagged as play sand at Lowes or Home Depot. it'll prevent larvae from being laid in your soil... the silica is also good for the stems.

Ok it sounds like you are describing more than one pest and am slightly confused here! Late in flowering i doubt there is much you can do if you wont spray etc etc but if it is a small garden you yourself could make a dramatic difference by catching and killing (i like to be a pacifist and release them outdoors) them! Use a lot of spare time and concentrate on the bugs that are on the leaves, the flies will be hard to catch yes but keep at em and you'll get it.

My guess is some type of a carpet beetle. small with black and a touch of white stripe. I have these that came from some peat moss i bought. Basically harmless. They may chew on the leaves but the plant is not there focus. I keep a bucket of water in the Veg room and that is where I see them mostly. In the water floating and dead.

I'll get some fungus gnat off tomorrow, this should do the trick for any bug lives in the soil. It's used in every watering as for spraying i do have some pest off but i don't wanna use this on my flowering plants, i'll continue using it on the others.

As for the sand i just couldn't get some, the closest thing i could get is pet sand, like the one cats poop on, should i grab one of these?

Is it sterilized ?

Thank you all for helping me out i really appreciate it, +rep

Serapis said:

you can get sanitized sand bagged as play sand at Lowes or Home Depot. it'll prevent larvae from being laid in your soil... the silica is also good for the stems.

Click to expand...

How do i use silica?