Little White Bug?

Have not had a bug problem for YEARS... always used bottled organic nutes. Had a friend talk about this famous living soil and went out and bought some worm castings to start. soon after i noticed little brown spots and thought spider mites eating my leaves and pulled out my jewelers eyepiece and see little white bugs. not flying, no webs. I live in Ohio but think this is more a problem with the earth worm casings as i am senior citizen growing for sick wife. (i do not get out to other grows and nobody visits mine).

I see no bugs in the soil. I used a fatty soap spray on and under leaves. can i spray this in my living soil and if i do, will i have a living soil. i paid like $20 for this bag of worm casings. I have used store bought aloe and coconut water in the soil also. Drinks sold in large grocery chain so i am thinking that did not create problem but both had little chunks of product, (aloe and coconut)? I have no camera to take a pic of these small things. just wondering what they could be, They are NOT beneficial bugs as my plants were getting major damage, (little brown spots on leaves, looked like spider mite damage).

i also see flying bugs now, as i type this, right after spraying. like little gnats. i had those before and soap worked. not sure if they are separate or adults of the little white, aphid LOOKING bugs?

thanks for any help.

white flies? Aphids? look those 2 up...

most common flying bugs are fungus gnats (often comes free with soil) and root aphids but if you have flying root aphids they've been in your soil awhile.

Grojak said:

white flies? Aphids? look those 2 up...

most common flying bugs are fungus gnats (often comes free with soil) and root aphids but if you have flying root aphids they've been in your soil awhile.

Click to expand...

i beleive the last one i seen, (flying) was a fungus gnat. i sprayed my soil tub and have seen these before. i have not seen the little white bug before though. almost wormlike with just a white head and body. i did look closer and seen what looked like a brownish golden husk also. so these little white bugs might be molting. the gnat flew in front of my face when i was writing the original question. I have been bug-free for years with only using Foxfarm organic's in bottles... Thank You for your response!

thrips? compare what you saw to pics online. your explanation sounds like thrips

If it is root aphids, you will see small little reddish larvae the size of a pin head about an inch down in the soil around your stalk and root ball. Fungus gnat larvae will be a very small clear/whitish worm in the soil. Sounds like thrips to me though.

https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/houseplant-pests/thrips-control/