Small black insects in old dry perlite.
Any ideas what this is, or how to keep it away?
Is it bad?
There’s no much to eat in there but old nutes…maybe dried kelp or perhaps some little bits of dead roots that get left behind. The black bits are just the cocoa from the rooter cups.
no soil in this at all. the perlite was sitting in a bin in a room indoors. I haven’t had this issue outdoors.
It is volcanic rock so you could heat it and sterilize it. I always start fresh every grow.
it’s glass, but good idea
i ran it through google and it said orietal cock roach. sounds about right. there was some moisture in the perlite and they moved in. they just went for a bake in the oven. and, I fumigate regularly between harvests. maybe they were safe inside this tub with a top.
no, the pic was perlite.
Yes, perlite can be boiled. Boiling perlite, whether by itself or mixed into a soilless blend, is a sterilization technique often employed by gardeners
. This process can help eliminate algae, pests, and pathogens, especially when reusing perlite from previous grows.
My reply was to @CocoaCoir. Vermiculite has volcanic association; not perlite.
Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass. Youre both winners
Glass is just a rock without crystal structure.
Amorphous solid?
Anybody else hear that weird echo in here? 
There both volcanic and mined if I remember right vermiculite is the one you need to watch with more so as it can have asbestos in with it sometimes too
