CLOSED: houseplant dirt bug, too tiny for pic

907gardensoup Anchorage, AK Oct 16, 2007

I have little micro bugs in some of my houseplants' dirt, almost 1/16" long, kind of an elongated oval shape and silvery in color. If you stare at the dirt, you can see them moving around. They can also jump about 20 times their size. After a while, if you move the dirt around, you can see what looks like white sand particals, possibly their eggs (?). They seem to feed on the dirt or possibly the roots. I never see them on the leaves of the plants but the plants never seem to grow and take on an unhealthy look. Alot of my friends have them in their plants too but no one seems to know what they are. One greenhouse fellow thought they might be called dirt fleas but I can't seem to find the bug doing a search with that name. They are also impossible to kill, have tried systemic powder and various other uckys since they flourish in a more damp soil. Are they aliens from another planet? ugh

Post #4087212

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claypa West Pottsgrove, PA(Zone 6b) Oct 16, 2007

I always heard them called 'snow fleas'. In late winter up north (from here...), you can see what looks like dirty snow, as if a truck's exhaust blackened the snow or something - but when you get up close you can see the tiny insects jumping around.

Look at these springtails:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/14526

I never heard of them being indoors until a week or two ago, when someone from Arizona posted about them in his basement. I always thought they were strictly a boreal forest phenomenon.

typo+

This message was edited Oct 15, 2007 10:11 PM