first day of bugs please help

so this morning when i watered my plants the water that drained out there were little bugs they looked like lice on top of the water moving around they looked just like lice and i can not see them on the top of the soil or on the plant i think they are in the dirt what should i do thanks

sounds like fungus gnat larvae. any permethrin or pyrethrum based chemical pesticide will work, mix 1/2 strength and drench the soil with it. You won't see any more of those little buggers after. Also. Make sure you aren't letting water sit around, and make sure there's plenty of airflow.

LakeO said:

so this morning when i watered my plants the water that drained out there were little bugs they looked like lice on top of the water moving around they looked just like lice and i can not see them on the top of the soil or on the plant i think they are in the dirt what should i do thanks

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i would change the soil, just to be safe

IN812 said:

i would change the soil, just to be safe

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....... I don't think that would help any...

IN812 said:

i would change the soil, just to be safe

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yeah listen to the person with 3 posts that says something totally unreasonable...

what kind of soil are u using?? ProMix, Fox Farm Soil???

Are you sure the lil things were moving and not just peat moss? any way to get pics?

They came out with the water that drained out the bottom? If so, that sort of leads me to think that they are not fungus gnat larvae. I could be wrong, but I thought that their larvae lived in the top inch or so of soil. Also, their larvae are like little maggots (no legs). Did your bugs have legs? If so, they may be soil lice (pic below). They tend to live at the bottom of your soil. I've had soil lice - no problems with them. As far as I could find out, they don't hurt anything - they eat decaying matter in the soil; nothing living (like roots).