Please help with insects on my oncidium

[Bunny9129]

Hello guys!
I have two oncidiums purchased couple months ago. After repotting, i have seen tiny little insects coming out and floating on water surface when I soak my oncidium lately. I don’t have much experience with orchids so I cannot identify these guys. They only seem to appear when I soak the roots in water. I don’t see any damage on my orchids yet but the growth seem to be slowed down. What are these things? I think they are appear more in numbers lately. How do i get rid of them before they start to do anymore harm on my orchids?

[Judi]

Do they seem to jump around in the water? It's hard to tell from the picture, but they could be springtails. I don't think they damage the plant, they live on decaying materials and fungus mostly.

[Ray]

I agree with Judi, they are likely critters that feed on decomposing bark.

That said, their presence, like fungus gnats, can be a "canary in the coal mine", suggesting the decomposing potting medium is beginning to damage the roots of the plant, potentially leading to the growth issues you've noticed.

[Bunny9129]

@Judi: yes they do jump around in water but I’ve not seen one on the bulbs or leaves
@Ray: the bark I bought was from Repotme. And I repotted in Jun (bought the plants in May). It was just a couple of months so I don’t think the medium is decomposing now. But maybe when I repotted, I did not complete removing all the dead roots (since I was not sure if they were alive or not, majority of them were in yellow color) . Could that be the case? If so, how should I deal with this? Since every time I water now, I see more and more of these things coming out

[Ray]

Bunny, that could be it. Plus, when you repot, there is often some root loss.

If you want, you can water the plants with a general purpose insecticide a few times. Most products sold for roses work fine.