I've had a pretty bad fungus gnat infestation in ALL of my indoor plants. I've been unsuccessfully battling them for almost a year (neem oil, neem cake, Castile soap, hydrogen peroxide, gnat nix, withholding water, etc) These tiny grain of sand insects have overrun my soil. Are they fungus gnats or do I have a second type of infestation?
Tiny grain of sand size insects don't sound like fungus gnats. Can you post a picture? Fungus gnat adults are tiny flies that flit around the plants and sometimes land on the soil surface to lay their eggs. The larvae that hatch from the eggs are whitish "worms" with shiny black heads that go into the potting mix.
They're not on the leaves. That's just the gnat nix top dressing. I've showered them off dozens of times. Every day they come back on the pots and throughout the soil.
I added a picture of a snake plant in my original post.
I definitely have little adult flies in the soil. They come flying out when I water or move the pots. They're not attracted to vinegar. I've served them many gourmet varieties :)
It's hard to know what's going on in the soil lately since I spread the gnat nix. But I've got yellowing leaves on an infected peace lily and some money plants. So I suspect whatever they are they're munching the roots. I keep removing these from the pot with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. But it's not putting a dent in the problem.
It's hard to tell what they are without a close-up. One thing you could do is capture some in a plastic baggie and take them to your local Extension office for ID. Perhaps the conditions that suit the bugs are also contributing to the yellowing, or the yellowing could also be from all the different remedies. If you can get them ID'd you should be able to target them more effectively. If you have a camera that can get any kind of a close-up to post here, that would help. Even taking a picture through a magnifying glass can work
Thanks to everybody helping to narrow this down. I've been googling this for months but now with the magnified pictures I think I might be dealing with root aphids. (?) Does anybody have any experience with root aphids?
Finally found a decent picture root aphids. https://commons.wikimedia.org/...
My only problem with id'ing your bugs as root aphids is that they're all over the outside of your container. Are they also on the roots? Then that would make more sense.
Dragonfli said:Thanks to everybody helping to narrow this down. I've been googling this for months but now with the magnified pictures I think I might be dealing with root aphids. (?) Does anybody have any experience with root aphids?
Yes, I've seen root aphids. These aren't root aphids, they are mites.
As to being predatory mites, there seem to be rather a lot to be feeding on fungus gnat larvae so I'd be surprised if that's what they are. They look different too:
I see - not root aphids. I read an article on root aphids where it sounds like they fit the bill but it looks like the author mistakenly used a fungus gnat photo. (Photo: my dead bug up top and fungus gnat internet photo below.)
