Does anyone use/add beneficial Insects/ Organisms?

[Cymbaline]

I apologize if this should be in the Pest / Disease board. I wasn't sure if qualified.

I am curious however if anyone adds beneficial insects or organisms to your plants or greenhouses?

I was trying to find more info about springtails and I read that they eat disease causing fungi? I thought that maybe a good thing for my orchids and house plants perhaps.

I also know some people add ladybugs and lace wings to their plants.

So I am curious what if anything do you guys add and why? Also if they are used indoors or in a greenhouse .. does the population get out of control if measures aren't taken?

[Ray]

I have used beneficial insects in the greenhouse twice. One was some purchased ladybugs, the other was praying mantis egg cases I relocated from the woods in my back yard.

Both were highly effective at eradicating pests. Both populations died out rapidly once that was effectively gone as a food source.

On a personal note, have you ever reacted when running into an unseen spider web? Just image what it's like when thousands of newly-hatched mantids jump on you all at once...

I do introduce beneficial microbes (Quantum-Total Plant Probiotics) into all of my plants on a regular basis.

[Cymbaline]

Originally Posted by Ray

On a personal note, have you ever reacted when running into an unseen spider web? Just image what it's like when thousands of newly-hatched mantids jump on you all at once...

LOL!! Funny .. not funny I'm sure. I love mantids but yea that would scare me.

I was looking into the idea of introducing LaceWings or Springtails into my indoor greenhouse. LOL

I read springtails can eat bad fungus and spread good? Lacewings for scale .
But I worry about the idea that if they get out of hand and now I have a bunch of bugs in my house.

[Ray]

I don't know how an insect can reliably select beneficial versus pathogenic fungi, only predating one.

[SADE2020]

I asked the same question in an other post I am working with a terrarium project and was wandering about Springtails and the answer was positive... I even went to get a colony but I don't like me insect ..I am considering pros and cons as well

[estación seca]

Many taxonomists no longer consider springtails to be insects, so you should be OK with them.

[SADE2020]

Thank you

[Orchidtinkerer]

Nothing wrong with using some beneficial insects but I just want to point out the people that don't probably won't bother to say so.

Similar to online reviews, if all goes well people just carry on with their day, if something goes wrong they will quickly leave a bad review.

So I will just state that I don't.

I'll also add I saw someone try to use woodlice thinking they eat decaying matter which they do but they also start eating live roots once they run out of decaying matter lol.

Springtails, whether they are called insects, aliens, soilbugs or jumping beans is kind of irrelevant, what is relevant is whether they do damage or not. If their numbers are left to build up and they run out of food their colony will quickly collapse, where are all those jumping bean bodies going to go? They will end up rotting in the substrate.
That is why I have never bothered. There should also never be so much decaying matter to actually cause a problem which would acidify the substrate so springtails would tackle half the problem but still leave the plants stressed in such a case.

So are they in the worm family then or what are they if they aren't insects?

[aliceinwl]

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

So are they in the worm family then or what are they if they aren't insects?

Under the current taxonomic scheme both insects and springtails are in their own classes (Insecta and Collembola) in subphylum Hexapoda. Springtails and insects are related, but distinct. Formerly, springtails comprised an order within Insecta.

[hypostatic]

I've been using and culturing springtails for years -- they are certainly fascinating and beautiful organisms!

There are lots of vendors trying to sell springtails these days. There is this new "bioactive" craze that's going around, which is mostly a scam to take your money. Springtails 100% do NOT eat "bad" or pathogenic microorganisms. So don't add them to your orchids, hoping that they will "cure" any diseases.

That said, springtails will eat some microbial biofilms such as yeasts and algaes, depending on the species. All the STs you'll find available for purchase will be soil dwelling species, and they'll most likely be eating harmless bacteria and fungi.

I have both added STs, and had species "spontaneously" appear in my orchid substrates. When I've added them purposelessly, it has been in the hopes that they would slow the rate at which the media decomposes. I don't know if they have any real positive effect, however.

Originally Posted by estación seca

Wikipedia says that based on DNA some taxonomists believe they should not be grouped with insects.

I sort of skimmed through the comments, so I don't know the whole convo behind this. For the last few decades, as far as I'm aware, collembola have not been considered "true insects".