When I did my routine inspection of my house plants I noticed small grey bugs bustling around in the root and lower stem zone.

This seems to affect a big portion of my ~50 plants. I didn’t inspect every pot yet, but they are hard to notice, because they only swarm out when I shake the container or flood it.

I believe those are thrips or springtails, but I also believe it doesn’t matter much anyway, because I want to get rid of them ASAP. But I can attach some microscope pictures if somebody is interested :)

I already treated a few plants over the last few days by filling up the pots with lukewarm water, a drop of very mild surfactant (Coco glucoside) and a splash of hydrogen peroxide. I let it soak for half an hour or so and then flushed it out in the shower.

This seemed to help, but would be a huge pain to do for every plant I own, and if there’s one bug or egg left, I can do it again in a few weeks.

Therefore, I need some kind of insecticide. Neem oil is the old classic, but I don’t want it to be in the substrate itself, because if it decomposes, it might leave a big mess.

Are there any more potent or common alternatives out there? Can you recommend something?

Any ideas what I should do next?

Edit: These seem to be springtails. Here are a few pictures under the microscope:

  • Donk@slrpnk.net
    1·
    8 days ago

    I’m a big fan of using bugs against bugs.

    You can buy lacewing eggs that will hatch and eat those thrips for you, they’re at garden stores or online. There’s also diatomaceous earth or neem oil but it seems to me the lacewings would be less necessary to repeat over and over if you can keep them around.[https://www.gardenia.net/guide/lacewing](Info about Lacewings)

    there’s also introducing ladybugs, for different pests like aphids - but don’t do both at once I don’t think they get along.