Springtails

Well, I've got em. I lay my sticky traps about an inch above the soil supported by the lip of the pot, and a plant tag stake. I didn't really notice them at first, they are really fucking tiny!... looks like dust on the trap. I guess they jumped and got caught in the traps.. Never had them before. Anybody know if they're a problem? Best pic I could take... really tiny. I just started a regimen of taking mosquito dunks (cheaper than Gnatrol), and grinding them up in a food processor, then sprinkle it on top of the soil. They seem to be working, as I've seen alot of dead ones, and also dead fungus gnat larvae.
I was putting a dunk in my mix tank, but it made my tank all funky smelling after a while.

I got them real bad about this time last year. They were all in my greenhouse and all over my yard. Supposedly they're harmless but they were way too annoying for me. They would go apeshit every time I water and I kept worrying about being desensitized to bugs in my soil. I used Hypoaspis Miles to remedy the problem.

GreenhouseGreen said:

I got them real bad about this time last year. They were all in my greenhouse and all over my yard. Supposedly they're harmless but they were way too annoying for me. They would go apeshit every time I water and I kept worrying about being desensitized to bugs in my soil. I used Hypoaspis Miles to remedy the problem.

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I have Hypoaspis mites in my soil too... just dont know if they can eat that many. I think most of them got caught in the traps. I use the 5x9 inch traps, and have one on every plant... prob need to refresh them tho.

springtails are harmless and a sign of healthy soil.
Springtails feed on fungus and dead plant matter. For that reason I've always considered them to be somewhat beneficial. They do no harm to the plants and rely on moisture for them to survive. Capecod is right, best way to rid yourself of them is to just let the soil dry out a little more than normal between watering

DoubleAtotheRON said:

I have Hypoaspis mites in my soil too... just dont know if they can eat that many. I think most of them got caught in the traps. I use the 5x9 inch traps, and have one on every plant... prob need to refresh them tho.

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Interesting. I don't want to give you any bad information. I'm far from a pro. It was easy for me to identify them in person (their name is very fitting) and the H. Miles worked for me. It also helped with Fungus Gnats which was great.

Personally, if I had the traps, H. Miles, dunks, and your additional IPM.. I wouldn't worry about it too much. So long as they are definitely Springtails and not root aphids.

GreenhouseGreen said:

Interesting. I don't want to give you any bad information. I'm far from a pro. It was easy for me to identify them in person (their name is very fitting) and the H. Miles worked for me. It also helped with Fungus Gnats which was great.

Personally, if I had the traps, H. Miles, dunks, and your additional IPM.. I wouldn't worry about it too much. So long as they are definitely Springtails and not root aphids.

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Def not Root Aphids ... they are super tiny, and look like this....taken from the web.

go go kid said:

springtails are harmless and a sign of healthy soil.
Springtails feed on fungus and dead plant matter. For that reason I've always considered them to be somewhat beneficial. They do no harm to the plants and rely on moisture for them to survive. Capecod is right, best way to rid yourself of them is to just let the soil dry out a little more than normal between watering

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Only problem I have with that is I have 87 plants. They don't all need water/feed at the same time. My last 4 days have been 29, 29,11, and 40 today. So, I've always got a good amount of wet plants in there, and the pots are inches from each other. So they can just bounce to the next one.

I suppose the good news is that Im about 3 weeks from the finish, then we're taking a break and just keeping some clones going while we go visit Alaska for about 2 weeks. Need a break...... tired. Then we'll fire back up in early July and try to get a crop out before Croptober hits.

OG biowar are used to get rid of the,it may br worth a try sometime

Use Of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth
To help to get rid of springtails, spider mites, and other insects sprinkle DE on your potted plants. If the infestation persists, try using as a non-toxic and biodegradable soil drench to repel or kill the bugs.

go go kid said:

Use Of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth
To help to get rid of springtails, spider mites, and other insects sprinkle DE on your potted plants. If the infestation persists, try using as a non-toxic and biodegradable soil drench to repel or kill the bugs.

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The only thing about DE, is once you wet it down a couple of times, it becomes ineffective. If I had a small home grow, I'd prob do it and just replace it more often, but doesn't make sense on this scale... appreciate your input tho brother.

no problem, i forget the size of your grow. err forrest

Dude... this may be a 3 year record for us as far as yield. Im excited to see the final weight.

Got some good moms from these seeds... so the next round will be a little more organized as far as the canopy goes.

heres hoping for you to have a bumper crop

go go kid said:

heres hoping for you to have a bumper crop

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Thanks man!

A little late to the party but I posted a question earlier, initially believing I had thrips, I would discover days later they were springtails but not until after I had pursued treatment. Unfortunately, I had them show up pretty late into flower and didn't want to use dunks or any other chems so I found an article taking abut a hot water bath for the roots (I was growing DWC but the article suggested the same for watering in soil) Anyhow, a dip of the roots in 120F water fried them almost immediately and with authority, this didn't harm the plant in any manner. The article said keep it to the roots and soil only, don't get hot water on anything green. I'll admit, if I had known they were harmless springtails I probably wouldn't have taken the risk but I initially thought i had a bigger problem, it is nice to have this trick in the bag now though.