# Small white "egg" looking things on my leaves? (emersed setup)



## BriDroid (Oct 2, 2012)

Long story short, I had to change the dirt in my emersed setup. I was using Miracle Grow Organic Garden Soil. It had WAY to much poop in it, the smell was horrible! Now I got a bag of Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil, much better; it just smells like wet dirt.

Anyway, i noticed a tiny white bug that is crawling around on the wet dirt. And now I have these tiny white "eggs" on my leaves. They are stuck on there pretty good too. Any idea what they are and any idea what I can use to kill the white bug and his eggs?

You can see the "eggs" on the outside edges of the Bacopa salzmannii in the bottom center of the pic.


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## Adam C (Feb 7, 2013)

Not sure what they are, but you can try a couple different routes. The first would be to temporarily flood the tray. This can be tricky because you want the water back out once its done its job. Note, this works effectively for powdery mildew and some molds/fungus as well.

Another option (that will do nothing for the eggs), is to use the yellow sticky traps. Just hang them inside or lay them on the soil and watch the buggies get stuck.

Finally, you can use something like neem oil or dish soap and hope that the eggs suffocate. 

Depending on what they actually are, a biocide like Bacillus thuringiensis can be effective as well. You will find Bt at Home Depot etc under the name "Mosquito Dunks." 

~ Adam


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## Fishfur (Oct 17, 2013)

Not seeing any adult insect pests, it's hard to say, but they look a little bit like white fly to me. If so, you'll soon find out, when they hatch and begin flying. Springtails are one insect that's very common to find in very moist growing conditions too, but so far as I know they lay eggs in the soil, not on leaves.

A bit of rubbing alcohol should remove them. Rubbing alcohol will kill most pests and their eggs and doesn't harm the leaves, even at 98% strength. Usual drugstore version of rubbing [aka isopropyl] alcohol is much less concentrated than that. Can be sprayed, just don't breathe it.


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## Fishfur (Oct 17, 2013)

I think you may have springtails. Do you notice the little crawly things jumping around at all ? if so, that's probably what they are. Very common, reproduce very fast, often cultured as food for some critters including fish, and they don't damage plants. Mainly consume mildews and molds. Females will lay eggs on any moist available surface though more commonly they do it in soil. Damp is what they need, if you reduce the humidity enough they'll mostly die out or try to migrate somewhere the moisture will support them.

Edit. Rubbing alcohol would remove [ and kill] those eggs from the leaves, does no harm to healthy leaves.


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