# clear soil mites



## sunakard2000 (Oct 6, 2013)

so i seem to have hit the wall of bugs, seems like iv seen everything i can now... spider mites, thripes, fungus gnats, and even non-jumping springtails... now i was getting some pots ready for some transplants soon and i noticed some little mite looking bugs in my soil, i use a mix of Roots Organic and Happy Frog, im guessing one of those is infected, leaning towards the roots organic being the badguy here. also the soil is from the bags, mixed in a bucket and potted up. everything i use is clean... and from what iv gathered online they seem to be beneficial preditory mites who kill the bad bugs like thripes and fungus gnats, i dont particularly like the idea of bugs in my soil around my plants im going to be smoking at some point. what should i do? leave them as they seem to be good guys, or kill them and if so how? iv tried sns 203 and didnt see a difference in my other plant currently in flower that has fungus gnat larvae and springtails... honestly im tired of these bugs, good or bad, i just dont know what to do now.
anyone else using Roots Organic or Happy Frog notice these tiny clear mites in their soil?


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## sunakard2000 (Oct 7, 2013)

just an update, after hours of combing through all my bags of soil i found that these small clear mites seem to have come from the happy frog soil, go fig i change it up and get happy frog instead of oceanforest cuz of the added micros and i get friken bugs,,, BAAAH!!!! so yeah looks as if the roots organic is clear of bugs and the happy frog is semi loaded, after watering the next day the lil guys population explodes... any ideas or just let them be? ooh and i also found a handful of these little guys inside a partialy cracked dud seed, stuck it in a rapid rooter and put inside a cup with a mix of my roots and happy frog, befire i knew of these bugs, after 10 days without sprouting i pulled the seed out to look and like 4 of these lil clear mites came crawling out.... *** someone please help here im getting irritated with insects. i dont really have the money for a 10k ppm Co2 flood to kill them or any insecticides for that matter... iv read that some bugs actually die when temps get too low, would sticking the soil in a fridge or freezer basically kill them all? any ideas people? know theres lots of organic growers out here using either or both of the soils i use, need advice >_<


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## ozzydiodude (Oct 7, 2013)

Get some DE(diatomieous(?) Earth) and coat the top of the soil with a 1/8 to 1/4 layer of it the bugs will crawl thru it cutting their bodies up causing death.


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## sunakard2000 (Oct 7, 2013)

can i water through the DE or will that harm my plants? havnt used DE before and it would pry take a while before i can get my hands on some... also as a test i put the x-plant pot that had the most bugs in it and stuck it in my fridge, after about 2 hours i see no movement even at halfway down, granted cold slows bugs before it kills them, guess ill see if it works after 12-24 hours in the fridge ill take it out and put it back where it was to warm up to room temp, see if anything starts moving again, if nothing moves i can say its a safe assumption they died.


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## sunakard2000 (Oct 7, 2013)

so doing more reading most insects are immune to a degree to prolonged cold temps, they hibernate, however i also read while looking up if freezing the soil would kill them, boiling water can be used to basically scuald the lil suckers and eggs, since they are small and weak the boiling water liquifies their bodies, looks like ill be boiling alot of water and rinsing the crap outta my soil, upon thinking more, i could mix my soils as i planned to, fill the buckets and soak with boiling water... should work...


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## Rosebud (Oct 7, 2013)

Sounds like a plan! I had the a bug problem with roots organics twice so i didn't use it again. Although if it is stored outside at a nursery they could all have bugs, but i have never had any in fox farm.

Boiling water or freezing, i like it, no chemicals!


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## ozzydiodude (Oct 7, 2013)

Dont pour boiling water on your plants it will cook the roots killing then


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## Rosebud (Oct 7, 2013)

He isn't ozzy, he is treating the soil before he plants silly... hugs


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## ozzydiodude (Oct 7, 2013)

in that case set the oven to 300 and bake the soil til it gets to about 200 this will kill everything in the soil


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 7, 2013)

Be aware that baking soil is a very very smelly process.  I think I would try pouring boiling water through the soil before baking it....or just go get some uncontaminated soil.


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## sunakard2000 (Oct 7, 2013)

yar hence why i didnt even mention baking/microwaving it... the smell is so bad, last time my dad did that many years ago i could smell it like 3 houses away, just smells aweful. as for the soil i get mine from an HTG shop here near me, its all kept inside and i havnt had issues before, but things walkin around in the soil still inside the bag i JUST opened tell me it defently was contaminated, i had 3 pots ready for xplants and a pot full of topping soil for after xplant to top em off, i boiled wated and poured that though about an hour or 2 ago, let them sit and checked it all, didnt see anything, so i think that takes care of that. ill keep yall posted over the next few days, see if anything pops up... >_< /crosses fingers and knocks on wood


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## sunakard2000 (Oct 8, 2013)

so far so good, all pots of soil treated were left to cool compleatly after ~12 hours of sitting i did a through inspection of the soil, nothing at all moving around, looks good thus far, *knocks on wood* ill post tomorrow or in a few days if there are or arnt any changes.


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