Anyone know what this pest is?

Cobra50 · February 27, 2019, 4:50am

I was going through photos I took during my dark spell during Nov-Jan. I took a lot of pictures that I didn’t look at, planning on sorting and naming later. I was looking at each one to name it and saw these little bugs or mites on a failed Honeysuckle seedling. I never saw them naked eye, they looked like it could have been feed residue.

I then looked at a photo of a current failed Rogue One seedling and saw the exact same critters.

Does anyone know what they are?

I never saw these pests until I purchased some FoxFarm Happy Frog soil for planting some troublesome seeds in. I can’t believe a premium spoil like that came with them. The 1st seedling was planted exclusively in Happy Frog.

When I looked at the current failed seedling, I realized I had planted it in the same pot as the Honeysuckle seed had been in. When I destroyed the failed Honeysuckle I dumped the top part of of the soil and saved the lower half and added some CocoGro to the pot arranging the soil so it was in the center of the coco. Now I am upset at myself for being too cheap to throw away the whole pot full of Happy Frog. If I hadn’t, the failed Rogue One seedling probably would have been just fine.

I’ll be baking my soil before using it from now on. Does anyone have advice on how hot and how long to cook it?

Thanks my friends.

Undead-Toker · February 27, 2019, 4:58am

Looks like aphids…20

Cobra50 · February 27, 2019, 7:08am

Thank you @Undead-Toker. Identification is 90% of the battle. I searched the internet for images of aphids and I agree completely.

I am very disappointed in FoxFarms! The Honeysuckle seed was the very 1st pot filled out of the bag of Happy Frog. Looking back in the series of photos covering a 3 week period, there had been some growth the first 3 days the Honeysuckle seedling was in the pot. They can be seen already in pics taken on the 4th day. They may have been in earlier pictures, but I didn’t use macro adapters to enlarge the image until the 4th day, when the honeysuckle looked worse than the day before. There is no way they came from anywhere but the Happy Frog.

That’s one thing I never need to worry about when I grow in coco…

toastyjakes · February 27, 2019, 12:38pm

@Cobra50 those are your beneficial mites that are composting plant matter and eating fungus gnat eggs … So yes, they are mites, and when they have nothing to eat will eat the seedlings to the point where you can’t grow them… This type of bug is usually predatory but in this case you are doing so good, you’ve turned a carnivorous mite into a vegetarian lol

I had the same problem 2 grows back… couldn’t start anything over them eating it

Undead-Toker · February 27, 2019, 1:00pm

That is some good information. Same treatment as other similar pests?

toastyjakes · February 27, 2019, 1:05pm

For those yea… Bake your soil before you use it and keep them away from the other solutions til they pop… once they get roots the mites won’t touch them but they love eating the plant out of the seed before it opens… I have a few cool pics of that too

anon98152597 · February 27, 2019, 1:08pm

Yeah same thing happened to but with some brown mites. I start the seeds in rockwool now and once they open up they are safe to go in the ground.

Tinytuttle · February 27, 2019, 2:54pm

At first glance they look like aphids … aphid have a distinct 3 distinct projections coming from their tail end hard to tell in these pics . My second guess would be mites but not the predatory mite type , of the mites I have in my soils they are not the congregating type there always moving around and always fast if these are slow movers cook the soil in maybe in a homeade solar oven id think that 140-150 F 3-4 hours would kill most bugs I believe

ReikoX · February 27, 2019, 7:42pm

There are many kinds of mites, I wouldnt call those predators, they are most likely bulbous mites they are detrituvours that eat decaying organic matter. Not sure if they caused the damping off or are just cleaning up after it.

Start your seeds off in pasteurized soil should do it. You can also use a more sterile medium to start seeds like rapid rooters. A bit of H202 should take care of any pathogens as well…

Cobra50 · February 27, 2019, 9:13pm

@Tinytuttle, I’ll try to get some under my microscope. The photos above are from my Canon EOS T5 using 10x macro lens, The largest photos also had a 30mm macro extension tube for approximately a total of 20x.

I did look up aphids online and this picture looks like them, or would with more magnification.

This is the largest photo I was able to manage with the Canon. It reaches a point where the lens on the Canon blocks any light making it impossible to take a larger image than this one.

@anon98152597 I normally grow seeds in coco. I tried to grow some difficult seeds last year and had no luck at all. I read postings from people that got those seeds to grow. The one thing they had in common is planting in soil. I expected this to be a difficult seed, so I planted it in soil (the first time in more than 2 years). I purchased Happy Frog because it has good reviews.

@ReikoX, ok, now I absolutely need to put them under my scope. Here are pictures of some bulb mites (the name comes from their proclivity to eating bulbs).

They also could be soil mites (same as bulb mites?).

I actually thought Happy Frog was sterilized, but looking at the label, I can’t find it, now. I may have just assumed that a soil that expensive was pasteurized.

I’ll see if I can get a mite or 2 in a dish slide. If successful, I’ll post a photo.

Thanks for all the responses!

ReikoX · February 27, 2019, 10:35pm

See if you can count the legs. Mites have 8, aphids have 6 (plus the tell-tale tail pipes).

Cobra50 · February 27, 2019, 11:36pm

Thanks @ReikoX! This is a good thing to know. I looked in on the failed Rogue One a little while ago. There are none to be seen today. I am not surprised at this because I poured about 2 oz of insecticidal soap on the top of the soil yesterday, then covered it with a dome made from the top 4.5 inches of a clear 2 liter bottle. I left it in the Baby box to see if the soap killed them. It seems it did.

I have a rectangular food storage container that I drilled drain holes in the bottom and filled with Happy Frog (before I discovered these critters) and planted 14 of my 6 year old St. Louis Sleeper seeds that had popped open and grew a tiny sprout.

I will keep trying to see some in there. With 14 cracked seeds, there is quite a bit of food for them. If I do see any, the first thing I’ll do is scoop some up and put them under the scope. I know that they die fairly easy so I am not worried about controlling them, but I would like to make a positive identification for my notes.

Tinytuttle · February 28, 2019, 12:18am

I might also add they may have long sweeping antennae also

Cobra50 · February 28, 2019, 2:31am

I checked in the food container. Two seeds were exposed (probably washed away when watered). Both of the seeds had these. I took one seed and put it on a dish slide. Damn iPhone wants to constantly auto focus, so only a about 1/3 were good. I took a video that clearly showed all eight legs in motion on a mite that was on its back like a turtle and couldn’t right itself.

This still from the video shows all eight legs as well.

While I was doing this, I also spritzed the failed Rogue One seed. When I was done shooting pics and vids, I looked in the Rogue One pot. The mites were back. They apparently didn’t find the dried plant matter to to be appetizing. So, now I wonder how they survived the soaping.

@ReikoX, if I bake the soil I’m going to use, do you think will it kill all the good things listed on the label of the Happy Frog?

You’ll see when I catch up my cradle to grave thread, I grew out 8 of @Scissor-Hanz G13 x Afghani #1 seeds. Three went into straight CocoGro, the remaining 5 went into 4" pots that were filled around a prescription bottle that is 1.5" diameter and 2" long. I pulled the bottle out and filled the resulting pocket with Happy Frog. The seeds started in Happy Frog got big at least a week ahead of the seeds started in coco.

This is typical of what a sprout looks like when I plant it. It must take a more complex root structure to keep the mites off.

Skiball · February 28, 2019, 2:56am

They’re def not aphids, so be thankful. I suggest stocking up on soil in the summer. It’s the easiest time of year to disinfect your soil. Just leave soil in the front seat of your car on a hot day. It’s alot easier then trying to bake it. Or switch to perlite in hempy buckets n you’ll never have to worry again.

Heritagefarms · February 28, 2019, 3:24am

I like to start things in clean coco with some worm castings added , so many different things that wanna destroy and or eat seedlings

ReikoX · February 28, 2019, 5:59pm

Most likely it would kill all of the beneficial bacteria as well.

Ghandisflipflop · February 28, 2019, 6:35pm

They look like mites to me.
I had them in my spider tank nd was eager to get rid, but was curious as there was no way for them to get in they just appeared as did those little springtails.
They’re classed as Bio-cleaning crew as they eat decaying matter. Depending on which kind of mite it is I presume, but they look identical to the ones I had.
I think I still have them to be honest.
You just don’t see them until something has died or is dying.
They’re like Piranha’s in a sense as they strip what ever it is down to the bone or carapace or whatever the fk it is they are eating They go to work on cricket carcasses like @Esrgood4u goes down on his neighbour from across the road
I will put a video up showing what I mean, once I get my new computer.

Ps…Video of the mites not @Esrgood4u

Esrgood4u · February 28, 2019, 6:38pm

At least my neighbor doesn’t constantly scratch

Ghandisflipflop · February 28, 2019, 6:43pm

Tgats in a good way folks