No picture but what are these?
 

I notice these every time I water my chids. I usually water by placing the pot in a bowl and watering so that the medium/pot is almost totally submerged and I notice these bugs that the best way to describe them is they look like round black pepper. They don't jump and they're about the size of a pinhead with antennae that stick straight out the side of their heads. Anyone have any ideas? I'm especially hoping that someone else from my area might have noticed these if they water this way; like Oscar or Smartie. Thanks for the help.

An invasion from Mars? :coverlaugh:

Sorry I know that's not very helpful at all... I just couldn't help myself :blushing:

hmmm...I am unsure at the moment. They might not be dangerous to the plant. Are they a bug that likes to hang out in the media?

I would ask an entemologist at a University nearby to identify the culprit.

Thats close Tin but these that i see have definate separation between their head and the rest of the body. BTW, what are those?

From the photos and your description it kinda looks like some type of snail. Have you picked one up, turned it over and checked to see if its a shell with a snail inside?

Do they crawl, jump or just hang around and make you wonder what the heck they are?

I remember having some sort of critter, teeny tiny guys, used soapy water to rid the infestation...but for the life of me can not remember what critter it was...but the way I look at it, I hate to injest soap so I figured it wont hurt them to injest it...rid the buggers:biggrin:

I think i have the same thing in some of mine. Im convinced they are a type of mite. I do not find them on the plants, and root health is OK. they seem to be living in the bark mix, and are probably eating decaying wood matter. Ive sprayed the pots and mix at times with a general purpose orchid pest spray i got from Lowes. They will disappear for a while after spraying, but return after a time.

I tried researching the web to find out what species they might be, but never found an exact match.

Good that you are observant to things like that.

If they keep coming back with the formula you have been using could be the hatching of the eggs or the formula is not for that particular critter. I would use Neem Oil an see if this does the trick. Use according to directions and I always make it a point to go back after 14 days to re-treat an infested area and wouldn't harm to treat the area around the infestation. Preventative thereafter with a weaker formula. Personally I have not had the need to use Neem Oil but a very popular product and works wonders from what I am told.

You might want to check this out...Insect and Arthropod Pest Identi

I've seen these little miniture bowling balls in 1 of my frog terrariums, not sure why there are in 1 of not the other - 'cept the moisture level is higher with the one that has mites, since both houses have wood.

There is a spray you can buy at the pet shops to rid of these little critters. It's animal friendly since this is what they use to clean the (reptiles and such), dunno if indeed it's orchid friendly - But I don't see why it wouldn't be :hmm