pests What kind of bugs/potential pests are these?

[HwyBill]

Sorry I don't have pics.. they are pretty small and I don't have a very high quality camera.

They are pretty small, black bugs with wings that resemble gnats, but are about twice the size and length.

They are certainly capable of flight, but this is not their escape response. Their typical escape response is just to scurry rapidly across the top of the soil and hide.

I'm not sure what their effect on the plants are, but I rarely see them on the plants themselves. To the best I can figure, they aren't damaging the plants directly... they are mostly just hanging around the surface of the potting soil (or sometimes flying in the air). Especially concentrated around some of the germ beds/young plants/damp soil.

Any ideas? This is currently an indoor grow. Is this something I should be concerned about?

 

[Vegas_Chili]

Even if you say they're longer than gnats or different in a way, you still describe fungus gnat behavior/characteristics.

So I say gnats.

What's your watering method? Do you have a fan on them?

Even so, try to get sticky fly traps and put them on a safe distance from your seedlings, that should take care of the adult population.

The larvae is what you want to get at... They chew the seedlings roots, they wither and die...

Millman will probably, tell you to treat them with mosquito dunks. Good luck.

, Vegas

 

[RPM55]

+1 to what Vegas_Chili says. I had a heavy infestation and sticky traps and fly strips captured almost all of the adults and like he said the mosquito dunks should take care of the larvae.

 

[sicman]

could be male ants starting new colionies. harvesting aphids as they fly back and forth. maybe its termites?

 

[geeme]

Here's a link to a site that sells beneficial insects (such as ladybugs.) The link takes you to a page with pictures of several of the pest insects their beneficials work against (including a pic of fungus gnats.) Can you see something similar or the same in that list of pics?

 

[RPM55]

Hey geeme, that is a Great link. Lots of very informative reading there!!