Tiny white bugs in soil, would sand help?

What up guys, haven’t had to come and ask for advice in some time but I’m thinking I could use a little now. Every time I water my indoor coco plants TONS of very tiny white bugs come out of the coco. I cannot stress how tiny they are as I tried to take a picture for you guys but you can’t really see them.

I’m assuming this is the kind of pest people put sand over the medium for? Do you think that would alleviate my problem? Hopefully so because I’m not sure how the hell else you would get hundreds of insects out of the coco.

Big thanks to the RIU fam

Search springtails on here, I'm sure someone said they were beneficial

Beneficial huh? I was scared they were eating my roots

@spliffendz looks like you nailed it with springtails. I saw joe blow say to top dress with diatomaceous earth so I’ll do that. Any chance that throws my root zone out of whack? Too much silica or something idk maybe that’s dumb to worry about

Make sure they are in fact springtails, and I've never added anything to coco so wait for the proper farmers to arrive, I just wing it

@JoeBlow5823 you’re organic not coco if I remember correctly?

Springtails need worm food to get to you! Got food in the coco? I have them in my wormbin and they re a bit of a pain. If their numbers get high they dont let the worms work at their level of preference in the soil. They re bugging the worms pushing them down in the soil. A few times they were trying to escape even though the food was lush ahhhh i ll try diatomaceous though thanks!!!

Dirk8==D~Diggler said:

@JoeBlow5823 you’re organic not coco if I remember correctly?

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correct.

Dirk8==D~Diggler said:

Beneficial huh? I was scared they were eating my roots

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Springtails are detrivorous feeders. Meaning they feed on decaying matter.

however with this being said I have seen huge colonies cause issues with young plants.

whenever I get them here’s what I do.

I mix up a batch of neem oil, spinosad and dish soap as a surfactant and then root drench.

Seems to work.

unfortunately with coco it’s hard to have wet dry cycles to help reduce the numbers.

Pretty easy to tell if they are springtails, disturb the top layer, they spring they are springtails.

I'm not sure how beneficial spring-tails are with coco grows, but I have literally millions of them in my soil. You can tell they are spring-tails because if you disturb the top layer of soil you'll see them jumping around everywhere, as mentioned above. I'm growing in organic living soil and I consider them a welcome addition. They help break down organic matter and don't mess with the plant at all.

DaFreak said:

Pretty easy to tell if they are springtails, disturb the top layer, they spring they are springtails.

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When I water they come up to the top in frightening proportions it’s kind of creepy looking

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH said:

I'm not sure how beneficial spring-tails are with coco grows, but I have literally millions of them in my soil. You can tell they are spring-tails because if you disturb the top layer of soil you'll see them jumping around everywhere, as mentioned above. I'm growing in organic living soil and I consider them a welcome addition. They help break down organic matter and don't mess with the plant at all.

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I decided to leave some of the old roots from the last grow in the coco, just took out the larger ones then rinsed/charged. Maybe that’s what they’re eating. I left it for the microbes thinking if I added dynamyco it would give the fungus something to eat.

If your growing in straight coco, id defiantly say they are something to be concerned with.

FRICKITYFRICKTYFRESH said:

If your growing in straight coco, id defiantly say they are something to be concerned with.

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Coco decomposes over time aswell and this can serve to feed the springtails among roots that are in a constant flux of die back and regrowth.

I’ve grown full cycles with springtails before in coco. They don’t harm established plants.

they are more unsightly and a nuisance to us rather than the plants.

I personally get rid of them anytime I see them as I fucking hate them and I end up feeling like they’re crawling all over me lol.

H2o2 will also get rid of them with persistent usage.