Microarthropods?

[hybridway2]

Looks like I'm gonna stick to hand watering for a while then lol. I have a 24 carrot blumat setup I want to install at some point between my two flowering tents but I'm in no rush. Was meant more for when I travel for work and vacation, but that ain't happening til this damn rona goes away anyway...

Hi! I had issues with root/soil/less bugs last year. Good pic keeping OHD, I lost mine through Smart phone ignorance. Looks to be a species of spring-tail. I too have heard people go as far as calling them beneficial. Personally, I think that only applies to the hard-core organic grower who is happy to have them as part of a natural food chain as @Northwood Said above & maybe another guy.
My plants were taking a beating from them munching on the roots. If there is not much other food options for them, they go chomping on your roots, fishbones first. Plants showed how displeased they were.
@OneHitDone , remember, after adding T-Drops (took care of the majority) i then dried potts more then usual, stopped over-watering & they were gone on most plants. The few that were more difficult wound up getting SNS 203, drench. Neither would i consider Nuclear. Think i avoid that pretty well. Once in my career (lol) have I made that mistake for pm.
Running a multi-strain crop this can happen easily when some girls are hungrier or dryer then others come feed time. I found switching from Saucers to Trays (dtw) helped solve this for me.
You're organic correct? Then rather then DTW, I'd maybe focus on watering less. To irradicate, T-Drops is a good place to start. Expensive Pig lard but it works decent. Spring-tails are not that hard to get rid of.
I began seeing preditor mites naturally after I stopped the T-Drops.. Probably from adding a top-dress of EWC to help green up the damaged plants, another member had suggested to me & I think he's right.

 

[Northwood]

My plants were taking a beating from them munching on the roots. If there is not much other food options for them, they go chomping on your roots, fishbones first. Plants showed how displeased they were.

Springtails were eating your plants healthy living roots? Do you live in Australia by any chance? I know there's one species of the Springtail group (Collembola) that lives there and eats living plant roots and is considered a serious pest in many areas because of the damage they cause to crops. By far most species of springtails are detritivores (eating poop, decaying organic matter, and fungi), but a few are even predators. In general though, they are considered beneficial, devouring pathogenic fungi, while carrying mycorrhizal spores where present to living plants not yet colonized by the fungi.

Very likely the species most of us have is Folsomia candida, just because it's spread around the world through the soil trade for potted house plants and nurseries - the cockroach of springtails. They are harmless to living plant roots and will simply die without other food.

Here's one example of a scientific paper that illustrates the important relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and springtails: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234062271_Collembola_Insecta_disperse_the_arbuscular_mycorrhizal_fungi_in_the_soil_Pot_experiment
Basically, it's like mycorrhizae (and it's helper bacteria) is the pollen, and springtails are the bees

 

[Northwood]

Well I'm glad they shacked up then haha. They must be living underneath the pots as well as within the soil, cause I'm not sure how theyd come through the cloth pots. Id rather not kill them if they're not harming the plants, even more so if they're a sign of good soil and are beneficial. I dont mind a few creepy crawlies as long as they stay in the tent. If they had wings it might've been a different story though haha.

They're definitely beneficial, for all the reasons I've already mentioned here. Plus they're used in greenhouses now in places to control pathogenic fungi, including the one that causes damping off and nasty fungi that kills roots.

A square foot of soil surface in a healthy forest can easily contain 10,000 springtails. A forest without them wouldn't be healthy, and likely dead.

I hear you about the wings and staying in the tent. My wife would predictably say "it's your bugs or me! Choose!" if they ventured outside the tent - especially the worms. LOL

 

[Star Dog]

The common springtail doesn't carry any disease and poses no threat to the plant they only eat dead and decaying matter they're definitely useful they eat old stuff, shit out fertiliser while spreading benificial bacteria, what's not to like?

Eta...
From the link @Northwood provided, a test done with springtails on cabbages reduced damping off by 82/87% that's a big difference!
The link lead me onto wiki where I I'm reading that their hind gut has a pH of 6.0
How could you not love them?

Springtail - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[vitalsine]

 

[Northwood]

View attachment 4703366

Good lord man, even my wife still can't stop laughing when she looks at this again right now. That's really hits the mark. Now watch in the next few days as someone finds it and transforms it into a 1,000 different memes on Reddit and Twitter.

 

[hybridway2]

They're definitely beneficial, for all the reasons I've already mentioned here. Plus they're used in greenhouses now in places to control pathogenic fungi, including the one that causes damping off and nasty fungi that kills roots.

A square foot of soil surface in a healthy forest can easily contain 10,000 springtails. A forest without them wouldn't be healthy, and likely dead.

I hear you about the wings and staying in the tent. My wife would predictably say "it's your bugs or me! Choose!" if they ventured outside the tent - especially the worms. LOL

Agreed in soil, organic growing. Was not bennies in soiless media for me. Plants took a beating.
That was a year of random root bugs. Many were probably beneficial but I didn't & still don't know much about them.
Fabric potts, DTW made a big difference for me,, along with isolating floor fans. That's Pro-Mix for me. Was in CoCo then.

 

[Star Dog]

Agreed in soil, organic growing. Not bennies in a clean, soiless media for me. Plants took a beating.

Yes but it wasn't springtails that beat your plants up, there totally harmless in any growing situation.

 

[Northwood]

Was in CoCo then.

I tried coco for a couple runs. My wife was about to divorce me if I didn't get rid of the fungus gnats. I had yellow cards hanging everywhere on strings like Christmas lights. So embarrassing. It was just a manual flow-through nutrient water solution with coco/perlite in 5 gallon fabric pots.

Thank goodness I've never seen that again. And plus I'm still married. Hahaha

 

[loco41]

They're definitely beneficial, for all the reasons I've already mentioned here. Plus they're used in greenhouses now in places to control pathogenic fungi, including the one that causes damping off and nasty fungi that kills roots.

A square foot of soil surface in a healthy forest can easily contain 10,000 springtails. A forest without them wouldn't be healthy, and likely dead.

I hear you about the wings and staying in the tent. My wife would predictably say "it's your bugs or me! Choose!" if they ventured outside the tent - especially the worms. LOL

Love reading your posts man, you provide some great information to the organics section.

I've had springtails come and go in the worm bins/soils before I started adding some homeade compost (leaves/yardwaste/rock dust only), but since incorporating that compost, the population of springtails has boomed in the worm bins. It's always nice opening the lids to throw some scraps in and seeing a wide variety of life in there. Without actually knowing, makes me think something must be going right in there.

I also noticed a lot of pill bugs since using that compost, any thoughts on those little critters? I read through a couple different articles on them, but I am terrible at retaining information. I know they are harmless to the plants, but curious of this forums opinion on them.

 

[Kaotic]

I posted in the bugs subforum but I am starting to think that these are microarthropods... I know you fellow organic growers must have seen these before. They seem to be eating the grokashi that I topfed about a month ago. Hate double posting but I figure if they aren't bugs and they are indeed microarthropods, this would be the place to discuss. Thanks!

Kind of look like spider mites, the other ones crawling in and out fast are other mites good for breaking down matter in the soil

 

[Kaotic]

I tried coco for a couple runs. My wife was about to divorce me if I didn't get rid of the fungus gnats. I had yellow cards hanging everywhere on strings like Christmas lights. So embarrassing. It was just a manual flow-through nutrient water solution with coco/perlite in 5 gallon fabric pots.

Thank goodness I've never seen that again. And plus I'm still married. Hahaha

You watered too often

 

[Northwood]

You watered too often

Doing the drain-to-waste in the coco medium, it's so absorbent that the bottom of the pot would be as dry as the top and my plants would be long dead if I allowed the top inch to dry out completely. This wasn't treated like "soil". Normally coco/perlite mix is used for a type of manual hydro which is what I was doing. I did other forms of hydro before that, but never experienced such a huge and persistent invasion like that before for after in my life.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

You watered too often

No offense, but I suggest you do more research before giving advice.

 

[WintersBones]

I tried coco for a couple runs. My wife was about to divorce me if I didn't get rid of the fungus gnats. I had yellow cards hanging everywhere on strings like Christmas lights. So embarrassing. It was just a manual flow-through nutrient water solution with coco/perlite in 5 gallon fabric pots.

Thank goodness I've never seen that again. And plus I'm still married. Hahaha

I struggled with gnats while growing in coco as well, i knew that pain, until i discovered mosquito dunks. Haven't seen a gnat since.

 

[Kaotic]

No offense, but I suggest you do more research before giving advice.

What’s your take?

 

[Kaotic]

No offense, but I suggest you do more research before giving advice.

Fungus gnats like constant wet environments right??

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Fungus gnats like constant wet environments right??

So does coco. Get Mosquito Dunks or Bits.

 

[Kaotic]

So does coco. Get Mosquito Dunks or Bits.

Are you saying you need to constantly water your coco lol? Any media with organic matter that gets watered “constantly” develops soil life especially moist lovers like fungus gnats.

 

[Northwood]

No offense, but I suggest you do more research before giving advice.

Well, what @Kaoic says is in a way true however. He just doesn't realize I think with that grow method and medium I didn't leave much choice.
A moist surface with a high carbon source (coco coir) attracts fungi which in turn are the favorite meal of gnat flies. But unfortunately the fact is that the entire grow method of manual flow-through watering of nutes everyday in coco creates this welcoming environment. Hey I gave it a shot for a couple cycles, but it's not for me. That's when I finally said back to organic for indoors too! lol