Okay, if they were fungus gnats you would probably know it because you would have adult fungus gnats (little flies) all over the place. Fungus gnat larva look like little white worms with black heads.
Hydrogen peroxide will kill pretty much
everything in the soil; it may very well even damage the fine root hairs.
Hot Shot Pest Strips?!!
NO!! These things emit toxic vapors which at the very least could potentially cause birth defects in pregnant woman. They contain Dichlorvos, a volatile organophosphate and acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Did you even read the product labeling?! These are not to be used\stored near food or water.
Warnings and disclaimers up the yazoo:
- KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.
- WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer.
- Hazards to Humans and Domestic Animals
- For use in unoccupied areas; not for use in homes except garages, attics, crawl spaces and sheds occupied by people for less than 4 hours per day.
As for the bugs in thesoil, well most bugs are harmless and many are beneficial for various reasons. Before doing anything drastic carefully examine the plant; foliage and roots for any signs of damage. If everything looks fine, the bugs are most likely harmless especially if there are high populations and the plant is thriving.
Next you should try to get a really good description of them and search the web for common soil organisms. Perhaps some kind of mite and mites come in many sizes and varieties. We make use of predator mites (Hypoaspis) which are little organge-yellow-brownish, shiny, bulbous, smaller than 1 mm in size, fast moving and they live mostly in the top couple inches where they graze on the eggs\pupal stages of other insects (including gnat eggs) as well as microbes.
A very common micro-arthropod which lives in detritus (including decaying leaves) and soil are the Collembola or spring-tails. Spring-tails can be quite small, slender, and come in various colors from white to gray or black; they might actually resemble little flecks of ash, but they move. In fact a lot of spring-tails (not all) possess a furcula which allows them to 'jump' into the air, like fleas.
ID can be tougher for the really small bugs as they can be more difficult to collect specimens of and examine closely. The USDA Entomology Lab offers insect identification as a free service to anybody who will collect the specimens as they instruct, fill out a form, mail these in and wait for a response. There might be some academic institutions in your area with Entomology labs.
