Tiny bugs living in soil PLEASE HELP

Anyone know how to get rid of tiny bugs that live in the soil? I have searched around and cannot find any topics or anything in my cannabis bible and magazine stash


Some of the plants have them and some dont.


I dont know what kind of little bugs they are...cannot find anything on the net and to small to take a pic of.


The actual plants look pretty healthy but the ones that have it dont have as much roots as the ones that dont have the bugs



help please

What do they look like? Springtails and soil mites are pretty common and not necessarily bad either. If they are springtails you'll see lil white bugs that flick around like fleas if disturbed. If they are soil mites they can be white or orange. Maybe you have both types?

find some mosquito dunks the rings you throw into ponds ,break them up and soak them in water then add the water to your soil

Hay i had a bad problem with spidermites, do they come out when u water? Either way some neem oil might help. Remember you plant can look healthy for awhile and those little shits can still be eating your roots. Just be careful. Look into preditor bugs also like ladybugs. Good luck to ya man, i fell your pain, no one wants to see bugs on their babies.

Small Bugs? do they fly? are you using organic compost? If so then you might possibly have fungus gnats. And if thats not what they're called then who cares, either way, if the buggers have wings then I know what you're talking about. As for what to do ... good question. I would just switch soil types the next time around. Maybe cover the top few inches with some potting soil, minus compost.

Most often it's fungus gnat larvae which eat your roots and they're an indication that you are watering too often and not letting the plant dry out.

Do you have any tiny black gnats flying around in your grow, getting all in your face sometimes?

There are a couple products just for them which you can put strait into the soil. Gognats which I don't really like so far it's just cedar oil marked up 1000% and there are chemical products like gnatrol and others.

You can also just stop overwatering and they'll die off or you can just cover the top of your soil with an inch or so of cleaned/washed sand. Both work 100%.

No other kind of bugs in grow room...had spider mites about 3 months ago but they have been gone since then (knock on wood)

To be honest the bugs are to small and fast to see what they look like...they run in and out of the soil...either a silver or darker brown color

The bugs don't come up when I water (every other day is usually how long it takes the plants to dry out)...the little bugs just run around in the soil...no flying or comming to the top when I water



Thanks for the replys RIU members




Forgot to add that I am using Foxfarm ocean forest

That's not something I've ever seen, sorry. It might help people if they knew what part of the world you are in since there are completely different bugs in different areas.

pacific north west

Put a one inch covering of perlite on top of the soil. Kills them when they try to crawl through it. Works for several types of soil critters.

I got the recent high times and there is an article called "Buckets of Buds" the author Jefftek writes in a caption on page 98 it talks about sprinkling "diatomaceus earth" to prevent gnats. I have the same issue they come in from outside. Little fruit flies is what I figured. But gnats is probably what they are.

Fossil shell flour. I just googled it "diatomaceous earth" and there is all kinds of info. hope that helps.

man I had spider mites everywhere I bought one of them no pest strips at wal mart and i havent seen one since(3 months).

capture one and mail it to naturescontrol.com and they will ID it for you and recommend a predator bug.

I may have the same bugs you are talking about, root aphids. They do not fly, they live in the rockwool/soil, and totally destroy your yield. I've had them for waaay too many harvests now and have tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them. Yes, diatomaceous does work, but only when they come up to the top. The bugs I've had are white or amber colored and you can see the plants they are really attacking by the lack of roots, the leaves droop, the leaf margins curl under, and the leaves start to die like a phosphorous deficiency. I even tried this systemic thing last harvest where you water the plant with it, it absorbs it, and then when the bugs eat the roots, they supposedly die. It can take up to 30 days for it to work and I didn't have that much time left. It didn't totally work either. These buggers multiply like you wouldn't believe and their eggs can sit dormant for months and then hatch. The only option for you--if they're the same bugs--is to dump your plants, clone them if you need to, but keep the clones far, far away from your grow space, hotbox and fog your grow space and clean everything with dish soap. The root aphids need water to survive. Fungus gnats are totally different. Their larvae are little wormy things that leave honeydew on the top of the rockwool/soil and they do also eat roots. They look clearly different than root aphids. I've had them also and they are easy to get rid of. Root aphids can be identified with the naked eye if you look hard, but usually you need a magnifying glass. Root aphids leave a powerdery mildew type substance on the rockwool/soil. Good luck!

Any guesses as to tiny black thing that crawls around? don't think it has wings. Seen a couple different pests over the past couple months, only 1-3 of each very randomly. havent seen the others since, but seen this one a couple times, almost got a picture but it fell off my hand and couldnt find it lol. anyways slender black crawly...? good, bad...solutions?

A squirt of doom followed by a watering.... just saying. Never had a problem I couldn't solve with insecticide... Oh and I inhale bottles of the stuff in the course of a year, just spraying flies,

Hey Thanks, This might help, I live in Nor cal and in Nor cal we have native predatory soil mites that THRIVE in Fox Farm. When I saw these little tan bugs running in and out of mostly the top of the soil I Panicked!! Like anyone else, I don't want anyone who isn't me in my plants damnit. But I managed to catch one with a pinch of soil and dropped it on a yellow pest strip ($2 for a pack of three any nursery) and it landed perfectly face down. I looked at it through my 60x (I would recommend you get a 60x if you don't have one because it helps you determine when to crop if nothing else) and this is what I saw.
http://www.petsnails.co.uk/documents/hypoaspis-miles.html
If it looks like this your good man, They only eat other bad bugs, or fungus if there starving. I'm using Mycorrhizal fungi, so i believe that helped promote them
If nothing else Thanks, it will help you rule out the bad bugs once you have it I.D.ed!

you can sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of the soil for fungus gnats. You can also use corn meal. I prefer cinnamon.

ive had a bug problem since my plants sprouted..little gnat looking things that fly or crawl away sometimes when i water..i dont think theyve caused much damage but i think they might eventually.. i couldnt find any info about them but im also using foxfarm ocean forest and ive had a feeling for a while now that they came from the dirt. i wasnt sure until i read your post.. looks like were in the same boat good luck