White stuff growing in my pots

[ginoberde]

I have some plants in 5 Gal pots and some in 10 Gal pots
Lately I have noticed some white things on the soil
I am posting some pics, when I water the plants the water does not mix with the soil but I seems these critters have some sort of water reppellent, the water runs right off and does not soak the soil
But what scares me is that plant has lost almost all its leafes these last two days
Anyways look at the pics, anybody knows what this is and how to kill them please let me know
This foorum is a pain in the a.. to post pics
I have been trying for half hour and the pics do not show up

I will try once more...

 

[ginoberde]

These are the pics, first one the white stuff on the soil


Next one, they have like crawled onto the plant itself



The affected plant compared to one that stayed healthy

Damn now I have to wait for 5 mins...

 

[SpacedCWBY]

I'd like to know what this is too. Thanks for posting, hopefully you'll get some replies...

 

[Core]

seems like bugs 2 me?..take a loupe and examine them...might be something you find here...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688 and go 2 post #6

also there's notthing about springtails inthere could be them 2...

if not..something i did't encounter yet...so tagged...

 

[SpacedCWBY]

Looked through the nice tool that was put together there, but still haven't been able to find anything... Any other takers?

 

[Guest]

they look like bugs.. I had similiar white things like that on the underside of my leaves, and on my soil top but not as bad as that, look at them under a microscope if you can. I had no idea what the stuff was on mine until i saw it under a microscope with the eyes and legs.

 

[SpacedCWBY]

Did a little more checking around (if anyone still cares). Found this thread on some legal gardening website.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg111311201671.html

I noticed it when using a lot of peat moss.