Little white bugs on the water surface?

[THCV]

I have a multi-flow bucket system. When I pull the inner bucket with the plant out, there is always a little standing water left in the bottom of the bucket. For a while now I have seen tiny white "jumping bean" bugs the flit around on the surface of that water (not in res). Presumably they can damage roots, although i haven't had root problems. They aren't fungus gnats; gnatrol, zone and gognats all have done nothing to get rid of the fuckers.

Anyone know what these things might be and how to kill them? Doesn't need to be organic.

Thanks.

THCV

 

[MynameStitch]

Do you have a picture of them? How do you not know they are fungus gnats?
HAve you seen any flying bugs?

I would try to use mosquito dunks... 1 dunk per 2 gallons of water......

 

[THCV]

i have had trouble taking a pic cuz they are very small and always moving. gnatrol is the same thing as those dunks, and it has no effect. Nothing is flying in the room at all, i have had gnats and these ain't them. They are smaller, almost protazoen. They don't appear at the base of the plant or anywhere else, just in the bottom of the buckets.

stitch, i will try again to snap a pic...so annoying...

 

[Core]

could be springtails......google it..I had a link but it does't seem to work anymore....
so i had to google some to...Here's some pics from google...are these the bugs ?

http://images.google.be/images?hl=nl&q=springtails&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[THCV]

core, thank you--I think you have found the answer. it's springtails! anyone have experience getting rid of these in a hydro setup? or is it not really worth worry about? None of the articles i have read yet say that they damage plants.

one comment from growell.co.uk:

"Springtails are another bug we see a lot of in summer wherever there is a lot of water. They are small and white-ish with a small hooked tail they use to spring and jump with. You often see them in the top of a pot or on the water surface in Aquafarms and other hydro systems. You know that these small white wriggly things aren’t a form of scarid fly lava because there are no flies around and they spring and jump. You can get natural predators to get rid of them but as they tend to come and go and do no real harm to the plant over a three month cycle, I won’t worry about them, they’ll probably just be gone one day. You can flush them away to a certain extent, and they don’t like Oxyplus."

oxyplus huh....

 

[Core]

NP, gladd you found out what they are.....but i'd like to differ on what you wrote above....i've had them for many months now..and there is a very big diffrence on affected or non affected plants....harvest will drop severly ....but mine is in a soil setup....thats the diffrence
also some plants medium will get ph issues when the plant is affected..realy strange...but that my xp on the matter....
pyrethrums helps me to get them under control..

 

[THCV]

well, i would like to kill them if i can but it seems pretty difficult. is there a pyrethrum i can add to my hydro res, or is that going to hurt the plants?

i have had them for a few cycles. last cycle i def had some ph issues, but i don't think it was these guys that did it. still, i would prefer a sterile environment free of springtails if it is achievable.

 

[Pseudo]

ive got thousands of these little bastards, how do i kill them?

 

[Blunted22]

you got symphilids had them for years they are evil i just asked stitch in a different thread how to get rid of them...

 

[Pseudo]

actually ive got springtails, they dont look anything like symphilids, but i appreciate the help either way

 

[THCV]

isn't there anyone here on IC that knows how to kill these springtail fuckers? I am now worried that they are doing real damage to my larger rootball plants, and i must get rid of them. So far, none of these have worked:

-flushing with 2ml Zone and 5ml H2O2 (consumer strength)
-bombing the room with Dr. Doom
-No Pest strips in the room
-Azatrol in the res (yuck!)

Any other ideas? Help!

THCV

 

[HeadyPete]

I would be more concerned with the chemical warfare you have waged than these controversial "pests"...

Springtails are cryptozoa frequently found in leaf litter and other decaying material[6], where they are primarily detritivores and microbivores, and one of the main biological agents responsible for the control and the dissemination of soil microorganisms[7].
A species of Sminthurinae (Symphypleona: Sminthuridoidea: Sminthuridae)

In sheer numbers, they are reputed to be one of the most abundant of all macroscopic animals, with estimates of 100,000 individuals per cubic meter of topsoil, essentially everywhere on Earth where soil and related habitats (moss cushions, fallen wood, grass tufts, ant nests) occur; only nematodes, crustaceans, and mites are likely to have global populations of similar magnitude, and each of those groups except mites is more inclusive: though taxonomic rank cannot be used for absolute comparisons, it is notable that nematodes are a phylum and crustaceans a subphylum.

More serious and better documented than parasitoses on humans are the records of springtails as pests for some agricultural crops. Sminthurus viridis, the 'lucerne flea', has been shown to cause severe damage to agricultural crops[20] and is considered as a pest in Australia[21]. Also Onychiuridae are known to feed on tubers and to damage them to some extent[22]. However, by their capacity to carry spores of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria on their tegument, soil springtails play a positive role in the establishment of plant-fungal symbioses and thus are beneficial to agriculture[23]. They also contribute to control plant fungal diseases through their active consumption of mycelia and spores of damping-off and pathogenic fungi[24]. It has been suggested that they could be reared to be used for the control of pathogenic fungi in greenhouses and other indoor cultures

 

[HeadyPete]

However, by their capacity to carry spores of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria on their tegument, soil springtails play a positive role in the establishment of plant-fungal symbioses and thus are beneficial to agriculture

People pay grow companies big bucks for these things in a bottle.....

 

[THCV]

ok, i'll let them live then, hehe. But i only hear about how good they are in soil, nothing about hydro rocks! They still worry me, i'll be keeping a close eye on them. But i guess they aren't the source of my problems. thanks headypete.

 

[Fresh Start]

I just posted another thread in the infirmary about these little fuckers. I don't like them at all. I have other house plants that not doing so well, and after I dug around in the soil I found those little guys. My mother plant it also not doing so well.. I think its because I feed her organically through teas, and these spring tails might be eating all the micro heard up! I'm about to neem these fuckers to see if that helps.. I'm also seeking an organic alternitive to kill them..

 

[Pseudo]

must.... kill....springtails......must......eradicate.......colony......please.....help........

 

[THCV]

well, pyrethrum should kill them. so how about spraying the roots with pyrethrum? is that going to kill the plant, or do nothing (like foliar pyrethrum)? i could pull my inner pots out and just spray it onto the surface of the water in the bottom of the outer pot, but i still want to know what it would do to the roots. Pseudo, feeling experimental?

 

[Core]

how far are you in?

 

[THCV]

i'm in week 2 of flower, week 3 on monday.

 

[Core]

mmmh then a neemdrench should be doable.....mixed with some plain pyrethrum......that should be availeble in a gardenstore.....mix that up and ive it as a watering....that should get most of'm....to totally wipe'm out.....you should take more drastic measures

could be the inviroment around you...they live practically everywhere...


ohw yea they also hate insectsoap