Help Me ID This Insect Please

Sick Plants & Problems
#1

Hello!

I have a new insect in my living soil bed and it concerns me that I can’t figure out what they are and what their role in the soil is. I don’t have a camera that can capture them because they very small and fast. 1mm as a small white version of the adult capable of moving very quickly. They mature to a 2mm flightless form and turn pure black no other colors. They seem to live for a while and get to about a maximum of 3mm at which point they can fly. They are very fast, have 6 legs (I think hard to see), oblong, small antennae. I observed some in a jar and noticed they like to arch their thorax over there head like a scorpion when agitated. I first noticed them living in my worm bin they seem to do well in moist subterranean environments. No noticeable effects to the plants or worms yet but they are increasing in number and I’m not sure what they are eating. They are not a fungus gnat for sure. In the pacific northwest definitely a native bug. I do have springtails pillbugs and worms in the bed as well.

Thank you for your knowledge!

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#2

:thinking: Fungus gnats? They like moist conditions with readily-available organic matter, aka your worm bin. In small numbers, they’re mostly annoying. In large numbers, they can do some serious root damage.

This thread is a good discussion about how you might deal with them, and there’s a GrowFAQ entry about biological controls as well.

Not a lot of pictures in this FAQ entry, but there is a pic of an adult fungus gnat.

Assuming they are fungus gnats, they’re not the end of the world, and won’t ruin your plants overnight (or even in weeks). I managed to purge them last winter without immense difficulty.

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#3

…Sounds like possibly thrips.

#4

Without a picture we its hard to ID the pest using order or class keys.

Draw what you see, but guessing its the Diptera class of insects.

Granular forms of Bacillius Thurgenesis, can be used to control BT, in my opinion its one of more effective controls for diptera class insects. Its especially effective because it targets the larva stage of dipetra where they ingest BT.

Worm bins are great breeding grounds for fungus gnats, I used to run a small worm farm, and clouds of them would come out when I opened the hatch…

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#5

Not gnats or thrips I am experienced with most common pests/insects. Thank you though!
My first guess was a species of rove beetle but I am second guessing getting that lucky and can’t ID species. Has a ant like head and kinda looks like a beetle.

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#6

That evolution sounds like Diptera class…

MCE3134d3_gnatlife.jpg800×499 18.9 KB

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