Tiny silver bugs on Cym roots

[bbs]

Hi everyone ...

I have discovered unwanted visitors on my orchid roots. What I know so far:

1) there's about 10 I can see at all times, in different sizes, which means there's probably 10 000 of them in the media
2) they don't jump, seem to have 6 legs and very short antennae, all silver-white and under 1 mm, they hide when I get really close, but not as fast as I would expect
3) there's none on the leaves and no damage I could see anywhere (no white stuff, no marks..)
4) I repotted it about a month and a half ago, so mostly fresh media, only a little was stuck to the roots, which i did not remove
5) none seen on the other orchids, but they have been separated for a long time

There's problems as well. There are 4 spikes on it, so I really don't want to do anything too drastic to it, but I would hate to lose the spikes to the little guys, even though they don't seem interested in the plant itself right now. Also, living in a small country, in the EU, we don't get much of a variety in pesticides or poisons, none that I have seen I would use on my orchids...

I would really love, if someone could identify the little guys and also recommend a household remedy I could use to wipe them out without killing the plant

Thank you

[DelawareJim]

They're probably springtails. Totally harmless. They eat decaying organic matter like algae and your potting medium.

Here's an interesting clip from Wikipedia:
"However, by their capacity to carry spores of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria on their tegument, soil springtails play a positive role in the establishment of plant-fungal symbioses and thus are beneficial to agriculture.[31] They also contribute to controlling plant fungal diseases through their active consumption of mycelia and spores of damping-off and pathogenic fungi.[32][33] It has been suggested that they could be reared to be used for the control of pathogenic fungi in greenhouses and other indoor cultures."

Cheers.
Jim

[bbs]

Thanks for that! I was afraid they'd be something worse, since they didn't "spring", when i tried to scare them... oh well, maybe they're just lazy

[jreidsma]

I think they are springtails also

These make great clean up crews for those of us keeping tarantulas, scorpions, roaches, and other invertebrates

I would love some to start a colony with

I am surprised they did not jump, maybe try poking one with a pair of tweezers or something?

[Hedge]

If you want rid, try washing the roots with Methylated spirits/ methanol/denatured alcohol (I use the various names as it is known by all three)

[jreidsma]

Rubbing alcohol mixed with water works wonders for me.

If you are going to kill them send some to me first though I can pay shipping