A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum strange soil bugs

Hi, I'm new to the board, but I really need help with a problem. I have recently noticed small black bugs in the soil of my only house plant. The plant does not appear to be suffering because of the bugs, in fact, recently it started sprouting new life. Also, they are no where near the leaves, they are simply crawling around in the soil. Some of them look like tiny grayish/blackish gnats without wings and some look similiar to symphylids only they are black without long antennae. I'm assuming these are different life stages for the same bug. I have been hounding the internet for a few days in search of an answer to what they are, but every website I find only talks about the normal bugs that eat leaves and as I said, these appear to only be living in the soil and not at all affecting the plant's growth. Has anyone ever seen or heard of pest like this? They don't appear to be hurting my plant now, but they may in the future and I need to identify the problem quickly so I can fix it! I'm not sure how long they've been there, my husband just noticed them a few days ago. They are so small you literally have to stare at the soil for a few minutes before you can even see them. I would really appreciate any and all feedback you have!

I think they might be fungus gnats. They will feed at the plant at the soil line, can can kill young seedlings. Older plants with stronger stems may be alright, but get them away if you can. May I suggest repotting or putting up some sticky traps around the plant to catch the flying ones

Well the thing is, there are no flying ones.. they resemble gnats, but there are no wings and seem grow longer with age (unless of course I have 2 different types of bugs in my plant which would be even worse!)
Also, this plant is very large, I'm not sure what type of plant it is, but it has leaves similiar in size to elephant ears but not as wide and it is about 3 feet from soil to tip and about 3', across. There are 3 sections each having 3- 6 large leaves (each one being about 1'-1.5' in length) and I'm nervous to repot it. I have moved it once but it was much smaller and I kept the dirt with it, just moved it to a larger pot, this will not fix the situation I'm having because the bugs are in the dirt. How do you repot a plant of such size without hurting it but getting rid of the soil its currently in?

Repotting or changing the soil is unnecessary and may even harm your plant. An effective method of ridding your plant of crawling pests from soil is to submerge the pot in water for about half hour. The insects will find their way to the surface seeking air and to escape drowning.

thank you! i will try this when i get a day off

cindy, do you need more oxalis?

I've found that mixing up a solution of a little dish soap in water and thoroughly washing my plants has taken care of many insect and leaf eater problems; don't know if this is ok for your plant, but it has saved several of mine. After the washing I usually try to remove as much soap as I can, soaking the soil with clean water and letting it drain a few times. If it is bad to be doing this, I hope one of the more knowledgeable posters will correct me.

i've done this and it does work, if you rinse well.