Many of the plants in my balcony have some really tiny insect in their soil. They’re so small I can’t even take a picture of them. The largest are maybe 1/4 the size of an ant or less, while the smallest are barely visible. They don’t fly, they just crawl around and they’re mostly active when the soil is wet. When the soil is drier, I can find them at the bottom of the vase where some humidity may still be present.
Does anyone have an idea of what they may be? I’d like to find out if they harm plants’ roots in any ways, and in that case how to get rid of them.
I have a couple of small house plants and I noticed them as well. I can see them crawling on the trunk of my money tree if I look really closely. It seems they do eventually fly, too. Some sort of tiny fruit flies or something. Unless my plants have a couple different types of bugs/insects/tiny creatures.
Just watch them and see what they do - if they’re eating your plants you’ll know about it because they’ll start disappearing (the plants, not the insects).
Some beetle larvae (grubs) do eat plant roots, but it’s quite unusual. 80% of creepy crawlies are just going about their own inscrutable business and aren’t likely to damage your plants. The 20% that do damage your plants tend to do it in a very rapid and obvious manner.
They’re not doing anything to the leaves, and I don’t really see them climb on the trunk of any of my plants. They don’t seem to have a favorite plant either, they seem to mostly care about the wet soil.
Most of my plants have been growing well for years (well, as well as they can grow in vases), but I wonder wtf are those tiny bugs doing? My fear is they may feed off fresh roots, but not knowing what they are makes it very difficult to make a guess.
If they’re very small and eventually start flying they may be fungus gnats. The bugs in my vases don’t really do so though, so they may be different issues.
Are they super-super tiny and look like worms? Just to hazard a guess from past experience, those are nematodes.
Depending on your soil source, there are also eggs in the soil. These will produce gnats which are more annoying than anything. If you have geckos in your building, they will thank you.
They’re super tiny but don’t look like worms at all. They’re much, much smaller than an ant, even a tiny one. Completely black/dark grey, with no wings. They just crawl around and they’re clearly visible only in areas with wet soil.
Tomorrow I’ll try to use my macro lens to see if I can take a decent pic.
My “friends” don’t look like aphids. Looks like the only way will be to head to the balcony in the afternoon (sun!) with a macro lens ans see if I can shoot some.
You think too much. If your plants aren’t already dead, wilting, or stunted - which they would be if roots were being ‘pruned’ - then whatever-they-are aren’t eating your roots.
A lot of small insects are part of the decomposition cycle. They eat crap, basically, and turn it into plant food.
So far all my plants are doing ok, with the exception of lychees and papaya. Every time we have some fruit, if it’s something I don’t already have in balcony I’ll save the seeds and plant them. I currently have a small mango (first time I have one surviving the winter!), 4 lemons, 2 mandarins, 2 buddha head trees, some sweet potatoes and they’re all growing well.
Papaya and lychees had some issues, though. My two small papaya trees that grew up during winter were recently attacked by some aphids while I was not in Taiwan and lost all the leaves. I’ve tried pruning them, but they’re not growing back yet. They were really small though, so I may try to replace them with some new seeds soon.
Lychees were doing great in Taichung, stopped growing after I moved to Yilan. One of the trees, which was 50cms high and had plenty of leaves, straight out died, and the other one has 4 or 5 leaves showing up. They don’t have any parasites, no mold…they just gave up once we moved to Yilan. Feelsbadman.
Papaya are a bit weird. They usually succumb to some sort of disease after a few years. It’s just the way it is. Best to keep replanting every year, just in case your older ones die for no apparent reason.
only suggestion — use a bit more your smartphone closer to your eyes, watch more TV, play some video games and be on social media allll day ----
U NEED to harm those super EYES bro
The main reason why I join online forums is to reduce my eyesight. Being an ubermensch is too much responsability.
…
(actually, I’m short sighted…things that are far away are a blurry mess, but anything within arm reach is super sharp and I can focus even on really small objects/insects few centimeters away from my eyes).
I’m pretty sure they’re not aphids. They don’t care about the trunk or the leaves of any of my plants. Also, we have so many ants around here, aphid would have a hard time surviving long enough to damage my plants xD
