Little White Bugs in Houseplant Soil

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sonalav Boston, MA Apr 16, 2013

I noticed a swarm of tiny white yellowish bugs walking around the outside surface of one of my houseplant pots. I looked more carefully and found them walking in the soil of a few of my plants. They have tiny little antenna on their head. Last night when I noticed this, I wiped the outside of the pots with lysol wipes, and I don't see any bugs on the outside of the pots this morning, but I do notice a few in the soil, especially when I disturb the soil surface. They are pretty tiny and when I tried taking a picture, my camera was not powerful enough to zoom in on them. They don't seem to attack the foliage, but I just find it creepy that these are just crawling around even they may be harmless. I want to get rid of them and prevent them from spreading to my other plants. I have had a gnat issue before, but these are definitely not gnat larvae. Please help!

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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Apr 16, 2013

If you cannot obtain a clear image, take a sample of them to your nearest office of Massachusetts' Cooperative Extension Service for assistance in identification and any necessary control recommendations. See http://ag.umass.edu/about/extension-field-offices for contact information.

Post #9485788
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sonalav Boston, MA Apr 16, 2013

They will charge me $50 just to identify the bug. I am wondering if it is worth it?

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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Apr 16, 2013

I was unaware that they charged for identification services. When I worked for the North Dakota extension service many years ago, we certainly did not charge anything for that. The only creature as small as you describe that I would worry about would be spider mites, and if that were the case, you should see delicate webbing on the leaves as well as obvious signs of damage.

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sonalav Boston, MA Apr 16, 2013

I don't think it is a spider mite because they are staying in soil and don't look like the pictures of spider mites I found on google. If I get a chance, I might ask someone to take a picture under a microscope.

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