I Found Very Small Bugs In My Soil

  • Thread starter Zepher
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Z

Zepher

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I'm new to this and when I was planning I found these supper little bugs in my soil mix any idea what they are?
 
I found very small bugs in my soil
G

Gorilla Mike

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I'm new to this and when I was planning I found these supper little bugs in my soil mix any idea what they are?
Zepher dude, its soil. There’s supposed to be bugs in it! Just joking brother! You might have a major problem or you might not, as some “super tiny” bugs are good to have as they can eat the bugs that are pests that will eat your plants.

But we need to back up here. Even though your post was short and precise and you left us a nice big picture, there’s lots you left out. First, I would never trust people on these forums to tell you how to solve your bug problems unless you ask one of the administrators directly. They should know but if they don’t they’ll know a member, a cannabis “Bug expert” who can help you.

I see as of today Aug. 17 2018 no one has come to your rescue so I’ll help get you started. I said “help” because I’m not a bug expert myself but have been a soil grower for over 20 years. Now I have 5000 plants growing in soil. I’ve never had bug problems on my plants. But I have seen bugs in my soil. And so I was only partly joking above when I said, “its soil, there’s supposed to be bugs in it”. What I meant is, I’ve never worried about them unless they’re munching up on the plants and they never have. And after every harvest, as we’re pulling plants, separating the roots from the soil so we can reuse the soil again, we check our roots for “Bad Bug” infestations but we’ve never had that problem either.

Every summer I collect Lady Bugs and put them in my garden, and we usually find lots of them in late summer. We bring them into out greenhouses and they EAT any bad bugs hiding out and after our final light dep greenhouse harvest in late fall we collect our gang of Lady Bugs and put them in our indoor operation which is a converted old mine shaft and they’re happy in there until the next spring when we shut down our indoor and move back into our greenhouses. They must be eating something, right? They wouldn’t have lived that long otherwise, but the big mystery is, before we learned how to collect Lady Bugs, we never had a bug problem either! That’s why I say its always best to ask a trusted bug expert about your bug problems.

But you say you were “planning” which implies you hadn’t even started your grow yet, right? That’s a good thing. Way back when I was just getting started after a few years of growing in hydroponics and switching over to soil I read the “Marijuana Bible” by Jorge Cervantes and he recommended to “cook” your soil in an oven for 10 min. At a certain temperature (look it up) for that long and you’ll kill off any pests, bugs or otherwise, lurking in your store-bought soil mix. When I was only growing 4 plants back them this was practical but as I expanded into commercial and my “I” became a “We”, with dozens, then hundreds of potted plants in soil, there was just no way and we were using Virgin beautiful BC wild mountain soil so it didn’t matter to cook the tons of soil we were using and we turned out fine.

When your, and IF your grow ever gets that big, you start having all kinds of new problems. Hand-trimming got to be a real drag time waster and we starting buying the latest auto-trimmers that came onto the market to save time and money. They did, but we got fed up with all the blades from those machines stripping trichomes until we found Tom’s Tumble Trimmer. I doesn’t use blades and tumbles Buds gently in a food/medical grade mesh material and does a perfect trimming job without stripping our Buds. They come out looking hand’trimmed and 99% pure. But no one told us until we were visiting in SC how great these machines really are and that was only 4 years ago. We got 5 now and they’re all running like brand new at trimming 60lbs of Bud an hour and they never need cleaning or maintenance!

We wouldn’t have solved our trimming problems until we talked to our grower friends. So you’re taking the first smart step by reaching out and asking people here. But ask for a Bug Expert first and they’ll help you. There is a big problem with your picture for starters. Its a great clear picture but the next time you take a picture to show your bug expert, get something little, like a pair of dice to put beside it so you can show the relative size of it. Alone, your bug looks like a lot other kinds of Bugs!

I hope you stopped in the planning stage to post this. While you’re waiting to find a bug expert and you’re probably just a new small hobby grower, I recommend “treating” your few pots worth of soil in your oven for about 10min at 400F to kill off any pests before you pot it and plant your sprouted seeds. Then get some Lady Bugs for extra protection once your plants start to grow and you should be good until you find your bug expert! You can call Heather Smith if its a real emergency. She runs a business specializing in getting rid of pests naturally. Her number is, 1-707-806-4184 and her business website is, “Lost Coast Plant Therapy”. Once you talk to her, you’ll be able to be prepared for the next time (hopefully, there’ll be no next time) and nip your pest problems in, “The Bug”!
 
Z

Zepher

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So running my dirt outside and bleaching the entire area wasn't needed lol.. I'm a little too new for all this lol thanx guys.
 
1stGHgrow

1stGHgrow

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That's hypoaspis miles, good bugs
Hopefully that's the case for you.
I have those "dirt mites" in my soil; using heavy organics. Every time i water those little guys come rushing to the surface, lots of activity. They should help process (eat/shit) the organics to make nutrients more available to your plants; a much larger version of your beneficial microbes. I leave them alone and worry about the bastards in my canopy.
 
stickyfing3rs

stickyfing3rs

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This sounds like wishful thinking
nope, personal experience. People see bugs and automatically just blame every yellow leaf or shitty looking buds on something. When 99% of the time it's all the bullshit the industry says they need to saturate their medium with. Kiss
 
stickyfing3rs

stickyfing3rs

943
143
Hopefully that's the case for you.
I have those "dirt mites" in my soil; using heavy organics. Every time i water those little guys come rushing to the surface, lots of activity. They should help process (eat/shit) the organics to make nutrients more available to your plants; a much larger version of your beneficial microbes. I leave them alone and worry about the bastards in my canopy.
What to the "dirt mites" look like? If they are springtails (look it up) they are harmless. Sounds like springtails, they always float and "spring" around in standing water
 
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