I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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Mooly
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Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Northern England

I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by Mooly »

I've spotted these (in single numbers) over the last week or so. Typically they always seem to be under the pot and they are very very tiny... less than the size of a full stop on a newspaper page. They can also move very quickly indeed.

Initially these were observed on one plant that lives in a room on its own. I wasn't to concerned at this point thinking they might be something from outside that had made it through a crack around a window frame etc, but now I've spotted just one under another pot that is in a different location in the house. So I guess the first question is to know what it is.
Bug.jpg
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iann
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Re: I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by iann »

Not any of the typical succulent pests.
--ian
Mooly
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Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Northern England

Re: I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by Mooly »

Thanks Iann. Good to hear that it doesn't immediately ring any alarm bells.
Mooly
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Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Northern England

Re: I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by Mooly »

A bit more info. I got curious and tried to ID this thing on-line but drew a blank. An on-line page of the Royal Entomological Society had a link to ID any such critters and so I sent the image to them at 8:00 this morning. By 9:15 I had my answer. Its a springtail or collembolan and apparently harmless to plants. It was suggested it was probably in the compost.
iann
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Location: England

Re: I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by iann »

Doesn't really look like a springtail to me, but they are very common under plant pots. They like dark humid places. If they are under a succulent pot then its a sign that the soil is too wet. Poke it, see if you can get it to jump. Collembola is just the latin name for springtails. Strangely enough, they aren't actually considered to be insects any more.
--ian
Mooly
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Northern England

Re: I.D. please. Is this a bug or pest (picture attached) ?

Post by Mooly »

Next one I see and I will :) (try and make it jump that is)

You may well be right actually, and the chap at the RES said
They possess furcae underneath which allow them to jump/spring.
The pot that got me wondering in the first place was damp (its an experimental cutting of the top of an echinopsis that had corked and twisted badly). The second pot in the other room of the house is actually very dry at the moment. That was the pot that had the single visitor in the picture. Both pots used the same compost a few weeks ago when repotting, maybe that is the source.
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