Bugs pop up after watering?

After I water I've noticed bugs like to come up from the medium and seem displeased about the flooding I've just caused. I'm having trouble identifying them and not sure what to do. They are very small and have antennae I think.

Also, it seems like these bugs prefer my flowering plants a lot more (maybe the only ones they like). I saw these bugs during my last grow and the flowering plants had the bugs and the ones in veg did not seem to be affected. The plants are divided by a door so not sure why only the flower plants are affected.

Some tips on what to do would be great.

Are they winged? Do they fly? Without seeing pics, I'd still bet on them being fungus gnats.
I use microbe- lift for gnats when i havent mixed in mosquito dunks in my soil prior to planting and had issues. You can mix in mosquito dunks or gnatrol into your soil and I believe @curious2garden has had success with a product but I dont recall what.

natureboygrower said:

Are they winged? Do they fly? Without seeing pics, I'd still bet on them being fungus gnats.
I use microbe- lift for gnats when i havent mixed in mosquito dunks in my soil prior to planting and had issues. You can mix in mosquito dunks or gnatrol into your soil and I believe @curious2garden has had success with a product but I dont recall what.

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No, they don't fly and they are smaller than gnats. After watering they come up for about 10 minutes and then disappear again. I'll try to get a photo but its going to be tough.

Springtails?

natureboygrower said:

Are they winged? Do they fly? Without seeing pics, I'd still bet on them being fungus gnats.
I use microbe- lift for gnats when i havent mixed in mosquito dunks in my soil prior to planting and had issues. You can mix in mosquito dunks or gnatrol into your soil and I believe @curious2garden has had success with a product but I dont recall what.

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Spinosad (15-30cc/gallon) water with it.

Without images of them I don't know if it will work. If it doesn't I'd move to Permethrin 36% (2oz/gallon), one of those should fix it.

If you flip the pictures back and fourth you can see the stuff moving. It appears I have multiple infestations. I see a worm like creature and then the small bugs also.

I cant tell. What kind of soil is that?

Here is a little bit clearer picture. I still think there are multiple bugs, these ones are the most populous.

natureboygrower said:

I cant tell. What kind of soil is that?

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I'm using Coco and dry organic amendments with water only. I top dressed recently.

Here is a gif.

Pubic crabs...

Teag said:

Here is a little bit clearer picture. I still think there are multiple bugs, these ones are the most populous.

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The antenna resembles springtails like @Skuxx mentioned. But its really hard to tell over a pic. Springtails arent the end of the world and actually might take care of some other unwanted pests or potential soil issues. Image search springtails, do they look the same?

Top the soil with food-grade diatomaceous earth powder.
When the soil has dried, make a mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide and water at a 1:4 ratio.

natureboygrower said:

The antenna resembles springtails like @Skuxx mentioned. But its really hard to tell over a pic. Springtails arent the end of the world and actually might take care of some other unwanted pests or potential soil issues. Image search springtails, do they look the same?

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The springtails look the closest so far. Not a 100% sure though. I'll look up some info on them.

tslonige said:

Top the soil with food-grade diatomaceous earth powder.
When the soil has dried, make a mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide and water at a 1:4 ratio.

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I've tried DE powder but they are under the coco and it didn't seem effective. On the peroxide I'm not sure I can use it since it will kill all my microbes breaking down my organic fertilizers?

Teag said:

The springtails look the closest so far. Not a 100% sure though. I'll look up some info on them.



I've tried DE powder but they are under the coco and it didn't seem effective. On the peroxide I'm not sure I can use it since it will kill all my microbes breaking down my organic fertilizers?

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Neem oil? lol just running down the list. ha
I just don't like putting pesticides on something I am going to ingest later, even though I know it is used on commercial foods.

Like everybody else is saying, springtails. Overwatering and dead plant material is what they love.

Looks like the bug!

If they are Springtails you should know it. They should be poppin and springing all over the place.

tslonige said:

Top the soil with food-grade diatomaceous earth powder.
When the soil has dried, make a mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide and water at a 1:4 ratio.

Click to expand...

EDIT: another user pointed out that I'm wrong about the ineffectiveness of DE after it dries. It won't work only when wet. Thanks for the correction.

Diatomaceous earth is great against bugs (a little of it is better than a lot). Be sure to keep the surface dry and not let it get wet, though, or it loses the properties that make it effective.

Once wet, it won't damage the exoskeleton anymore even after it dries.

If you use spinosad like the other guy was saying it will weaken the exoskeletons.. then combined with the DE should shred them up good

I haven't had to combat these though, and maybe there is a deeper issue here like moisture infrequency if they feast on decaying organic material.. the roots get to die from underwatering then rot from watering then carry on.. the fix IMO would be to figure out why your watering infrequency is happening be it too much air flow, not enough water, too much heat, low humidity and so on