Indoor Herb Garden With Mites
Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 2:23 pm
Hi there, new gardener here.
I started my organic indoor herb garden about two months ago, using Nature's Care Organic Potting Mix. About two weeks ago, I noticed some tiny white insects crawling around the soil in my chives pot, and after looking for them, I saw they were in my marjoram and basil too (I also have parsley, cilantro, and dill, and they might be in there as well, but those herbs grew so quick and the foliage is a bit too dense for me to really see if the insects are there). I've read that some organic mix can contain soil mites because they eat decaying matter and keep away fungus naturally, so that's what I assumed they were even though I didn't see anything while planting.
But I'm concerned, because they're beginning to crawl onto the plants and leaves, not just in the soil. Though I haven't noticed them causing any damage, obviously I don't want to be worrying about insects when I trim my herbs and cook with them. I also remembered, though I normally water the herbs with a sealed spray bottle, once I did use the outside watering can, and I'm worried there may have been some stagnant water in there that had some eggs or insects in it...maybe?
Unfortunately, I don't have a camera that's capable of capturing an image of these little ones, but this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyrTJPNfuQM actually shows some bugs that look just like the ones in my plants.
I started my organic indoor herb garden about two months ago, using Nature's Care Organic Potting Mix. About two weeks ago, I noticed some tiny white insects crawling around the soil in my chives pot, and after looking for them, I saw they were in my marjoram and basil too (I also have parsley, cilantro, and dill, and they might be in there as well, but those herbs grew so quick and the foliage is a bit too dense for me to really see if the insects are there). I've read that some organic mix can contain soil mites because they eat decaying matter and keep away fungus naturally, so that's what I assumed they were even though I didn't see anything while planting.
But I'm concerned, because they're beginning to crawl onto the plants and leaves, not just in the soil. Though I haven't noticed them causing any damage, obviously I don't want to be worrying about insects when I trim my herbs and cook with them. I also remembered, though I normally water the herbs with a sealed spray bottle, once I did use the outside watering can, and I'm worried there may have been some stagnant water in there that had some eggs or insects in it...maybe?
Unfortunately, I don't have a camera that's capable of capturing an image of these little ones, but this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyrTJPNfuQM actually shows some bugs that look just like the ones in my plants.