Black pest in my orchid pot

[KC Kam]

Greetings,

I have these black color shiny thingie that was moving around my orchid's root in the night. Ive been trying to kill it with pesticides but some how one or 2 escapes and they reproduce again. Any idea what is this?

[Roberta]

Hard to see in the photo, but might be fungus gnats. They don't hurt anything, but are an indication that there's broken-down media and rotting roots. I strongly suspect that this plant would benefit by repotting into fresh media (and in your humid environment, I suggest bark or other media that drains better than sphagnum)

[PaphMadMan]

Compare your pest to pictures of springtails. They are a very diverse group so look at many pictures before your rule it out. The size and location are what I would expect. They are present in almost any soil or plant environment with organic matter and moisture, so they keep coming back.

They are usually not any direct harm to orchids, but can be an indication that it is time to repot, and may spread bacterial or fungal diseases.

[KC Kam]

Hi All,

Noted. I will try to identify it and apply pesticides weekly.

Thanks

[katrina]

It's worthless (and some would argue irresponsible) to apply pesticides unless you know what you're treating. There are many insects in the world and most will never harm the plant so it's not a good idea to indiscriminately throw pesticides at something that might not even be a problem.

Figure out what you're dealing with and then take the appropriate measures.

Look up soil mites and see if that matches your problem. Soil mites and springtails are nearly impossible to completely eradicate but a heavy population of either can be an indicator of medium breaking down. Repot into fresh media and you won't see too many of them.

[estación seca]

I can't emphasize enough what Katrina said. Those bugs might not damage plants at all. They might actually eat bugs that damage plants, and maybe you want more of these black bugs in your collection.

Don't use strong poisons unless you have a problem with bugs known to harm your plants, the bugs are sensitive to those poisons, and less dangerous methods don't work.

Take the bugs to a local university with an entomology department. Or, maybe your government has an office of agriculture to advise farmers. See whether they can identify the bugs.

Different parts of the world have different kinds of bugs. There is a good possibility people living in the Americas or Europe have never seen bugs like this.