The things crawling all over my seedlings look exactly like the first pics on this thread. They are too fast moving for aphids. The two front legs move about wildly as the scurry about. I am assuming they are hypoaspis miles bugs or some other predatory mite by their speed.

Are they quick like this?


If so, the only two things I know of are mentioned in the comments. You already mentioned the hypoaspis.

Predatory or not I really don't want them crawling all over my stuff. They laugh when I spray with azamax. Is there not a home remedy for mites such as diluted peroxide water or something? I really don't know if they are eating my plants or not and would rather them just be gone. They are fast just like those.

I believe that this is what I have after looking at them under magnification. Thrip predators

Amblyseius Cucumeris

Even if they are predatory won't they die and stay on the flowers after drying? How do I get them to leave before harvest?

Search thrips, you'll find stuff. I have no experience with them.

Here are the RA shots I promised. This is a cut & paste from another thread I posted the pics in

You can see in the first pic, in the two lower left boxes what two flyers look like (when they have died drowning in sticky sap)

The rest of them are various things, including other possibly flyers, but you can pick out the crawlers. Above ground they tend to be dark. Below ground, I usually see white or yellow.

So the life cycle of an aphid (very generally, there are many different kinds) is that they are born crawlers. Males will always stay crawlers (I think) When they have exhausted a food source, a or some females will grow wings, to transport to another food source. They reproduce more crawlers, usually above ground now. & they will stay crawlers unless they run out of food or there is a danger of that. Then a/some females sprout wings & it starts all over again.

So, if you have a flyer, it has either left it's colony & trying to establish a new one on your stuff. Or, you had them on your stuff, underground, & it's gotten out of hand. So a lady has become a flyer looking for more food & a place to procreate. Aphids aren't the end of the world, but they aren't good. If you are seeing flyers...it's usually in the "not good" category (vs. "It's not the end of the world")

The picture scale also looks funny. Those bugs look huge. But that is just a regular, thin, bamboo stake in the foreground. The pics make everything look much bigger than it really is.

If you can possibly zoom in close enough, a flying aphid will have straight veins on it's wings (I just learned that) not junction point veins.

The bugs on mine almost exclusively run in circles around the outside edge of the flower pot that my seedling is growing in. If I wasnt paranoid I could tape a bug derby video with my phone and upload it.

Junk said:

Yikes. Any personal help you can get with it would be beneficial. What soil are these in?

Click to expand...

Dr earth potting soil

the one with the bugs that people say look like predators, does it look like mite damage?