Springtails; Friend of Foe?

zeroninja84

zeroninja84

Active Member
Ive noticed I have a springtail infestation. For those who dont know they are tingy little bugs the size of mites or so but are their own species and are not mites nor insects. Ive heard that they can damage agricultural crops but I have not found ANY at all on my plants so they seem to be acting more in tune with the other part of their nature which is eacting bacteria known to be harmful to plants, and decomposing dead plant material, which i unfortunately have a good bit of from a bunch of my leaves dying and being clipped due to my learning an inexperience in growing not the little guys killing them. So for the moment it seems as though I should keep them around, but is there anyone here that has had any experience with them that could let me know?
 
thelastpirate

thelastpirate

Well-Known Member
Actually, they're pretty inoffensive. I googled them the other day when a guy posted about them. I'd never heard of them before. It would appear that they can be beneficial. I read today that they will in all probability take up residence in my worm bin. (among other kinds of crawlies)

Just 'cuz it's a bug doesn't make it a bad thing. Ladybugs eat mites & aphids, Mantises eat alot of other destructive bugs.
 
zeroninja84

zeroninja84

Active Member
thelastpirate said:
Actually, they're pretty inoffensive. I googled them the other day when a guy posted about them. I'd never heard of them before. It would appear that they can be beneficial. I read today that they will in all probability take up residence in my worm bin. (among other kinds of crawlies)

Just 'cuz it's a bug doesn't make it a bad thing. Ladybugs eat mites & aphids, Mantises eat alot of other destructive bugs.
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Thanks brotha, ya that is what I thought but I wasnt entirely sure then all of a sudden their population size exploded so I got a lil worried.
 
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outofbodyspecial

Active Member
I'm in 8 weeks of flowering and just learned today that I have springtails in my medium.

I sort of panicked coz I thought it would harm my plants. I wanted to use pesticide, but I'm very close to harvest and it would be too dangerous to smoke. I also thought of using diatomaceous earth (a natural pesticide), but it might spike up the PH and cause nute lockout.

I reckon I've had springtails for a long time already coz some of them are fully grown, yet my plants seem to be doing great. So I decided to just leave them there, and just lessen watering, since they thrive on damp medium. Besides, "why fix it if it ain't broke"?

On a positive note, my plants with springtails lost the white molds that grew on the medium, while the ones without springtails still have white molds on the medium.
 
luciferateme

luciferateme

Active Member
had them on two grows and never seemed to cause any damage, they do freak you out though when you first see them, only thing i would say is make sure they are springtails and not some other bug which could do damage.
 
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