Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Yikes! Get 'em off my plant!! =(, 1 by Vaelor

Vaelor wrote:
Somebody help me! I've got horrid tiny little thingies all over my plant! =/

I woke up this morning, much, much earlier than I normally do, and went outside to check on my plants. I was mystified to find that one of them, the one I'm giving most of my attention to, was covered in tiny little critters!! There were none on the plant or foliage anywhere at all, just on the soil, and only around the edges of the pot, nothing near the center at all. Also, I have several dozen plants, some directly adjacent to that pot, but there aren't any in any other pot, just this one. I have no idea what they are or why they're in my pot, but I want 'em out! =P

As you can see from the photo (ignore the big fella, I think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time! =P), they are microscopic things, whitish in color, and there are literally thousands if not tens of thousands of them in this one pot. The photo was taken with a 5MP camera on supermacro, and the big guy is a common household earwig, for size comparison. The little critters really are literally about the size of dust. If they hadn't been so prolific, and bouncing around everywhere like bedbugs in a cartoon, I wouldn't have even seen them with the naked eye at all.

So, my questions three:-

1) What on Earth are they??
2) Are they harmful to my plants?
3) How do I get rid of them?

Any help or advice would be great - this particular plant is a real pet project of mine, and I don't want to see it devoured by a zillion hungry bedbugs! =(