Comfrey you have to watch. It's invasive and nasty UNLESS you get the Bocking 14 variety. It's sterile and only reproduced by root sections.
Are you sure they are not hypoaspis miles? I know fox farm started putting them into there soil. I have them and never see any gnats, they are good to have around they eat fungas gnat larva and thrips among other things and feed on decomposing plant materail when they don't have bad bugs to go after.and my buddy is using roots organics soil and it came bagged with soil mites..... any suggestions? i know they are carnivorous so they are kinda beneficial? still creepy lol any ideas besides the obvious of dont use roots soil lol? he's stuck on it and i just wanna try to help him get past these bastards.
If his plants look healthy and there is that many running around they are probably Hypoaspis miles. Make sure he doesn't kill them off because they will combat almost any pest that lives in the soil for a period of time. In fact if you wait a few weeks just to make sure they are what I think they are you might want to consider grabbing one of those cups and spreading them around in your garden. Or you could buy some http://www.evergreengrowers.com/stratiolaelaps-scimitus-womersley-hypoaspis.htmlthats probably what they are. i looked up a mite chart and they looked alot like the one called soil mites. alot of places online claim they are beneficial like you said. he's running just the roots original mix no fox farm. he had some seeds in solo cups and i bet you could see 50 at a time on the cups... was pretty gross actually lol made my skin crawl and reminded me so much of spider mites!
I noticed a TON of tiny white worm-looking critters. I wonder if they're the guilty party?I killed mine when I gave them the wrong food. It seems that this
other food better supported a swarm of smaller worms....whether
they actually ate/killed the wigglers, or just beat them to the food
I am not sure.
I can add that the replacement worms are *much* stronger and
healthier than the ones my City's Worm Bin Program provided.
JD
No, I have 3 rubbermaid containers. Each container is separate unto itself. They're just gone. If they would have escaped I think I would have noticed some dried up dead worms on the floor. I'm pretty sure they became a food source for something in that bin. Either way I tossed the bedding from that bin along with whatever critters were in there. Looked to be a ton of springtails and some little white worm'ish things too.The Hypo mites are great and aggressive. Love them.
St0w- predators would surprise me, they didn't move to a different layer in your tray condo? Is that the type of worm bin you use?
I suppose that's possible. Although I have 3 bins that are all on the same schedule/regiment and the other two seem fine. It really threw me for a loop. Either way I ordered more worms from Uncle Jims and they arrived today. I don't want to be buying anymore bagged castings damnit!Might the area have become too wet, St0w?