Can Silverfish hop?
First, I’d like to compliment your site – very well done and informative!
My husband and I have a recent infestation in our bathroom of a small bug that we thought could be Silverfish. After reading your page on Silverfish and looking at the photo, however, I’m not certain that this is what we have.
These bugs are about 1/8 of an inch long, have antennae on the front and shorter antennae on the back – as best as I can tell there are only two on the back end. They have lighter colored stripes running horizontally across a very thin body. And these bugs hop, as much as about a foot. We find that they congregate near water – especially under and around wet flip flops worn in the shower. Could these be Silverfish? Or are they another bug?
Thanks for any help you may be able to give,
Julia Bell
Columbia, SC

Hi Julia,
There is a relative of the silverfish known as the Jumping Bristletail, Family Machilidae, but my money is on a type of Springtail, Order Collembola. They like damp areas and can get quite numerous.

Thanks for your quick response! And thanks for what seems to be the right diagnosis. Now we’ll get to work on getting rid of these guys!
My husband and I are very impressed with your website – our new "house and garden field guide."
All the best,
Julia Bell

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Hi, Bugman. I’m writing in regards to an insect problem I have with a few of my houseplants. In two of my larger pots, I have what appear to be extremely small mobile grains of rice crawling through the dirt. I would have attached pictures, but I couldn’t get a decent closeup. After searching around on the net, I suspect they could be mealy bugs, but all of the pages I viewed describe mealy bugs in conjunction with African Violets. Citing a website dedicated to homemade pesticides, I concocted a dish soap/jalapeno juice solution to spray them with, and minutes after using it, I discovered what appear to be miniature white night-crawlers swarming to the surface for air. The plants that are infected with all of these bugs aren’t having any problems growing at all. In fact, my ficus tree is among the most forgiving, as he’s been moved several times, and he doesn’t seem to care where he is, as long as he’s got bright light. I’m not sure what to do about the bugs, however, and if you could help, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Jace

Hi again. I sent you an email earlier about tiny white bugs in the soil of some of my plants. I managed to get a picture of two of them for better i.d. I can’t find my jewelers lupe to magnify them. Let me know.
Thanks again.

Dear Jace,
While it is impossible to be perfectly accurate based on your amusing photograph, I will venture an educated guess. My money is on the maggots of a Black Gnat, Bradysia impatiens. This is a type of root gnat from the Family Sciaridae. The adults are the tiny black gnats that flit in your face while you are watching television and that always seem to get stuck in fresh paint, writes Hogue. He continues “The larva lives in decaying plant material, such as compost, peat, and sphagnum; it also commonly infests the roots and stems of various herbaceous plants. The insects may develop in the media used for potted plants, which explains its mysterious appearance indoors.”

Hmm. That’s a good guess, but I can make out legs on these. I found my lupe at work, so when I get home, I’ll attempt another photo shoot.
Thanks for your time.
Jace

Beetle grubs can often be found in soil and they have tiny legs. Perhaps it is a species of flea beetle or a weevil. It would be nearly impossible to make an exact identification based on a photo.

Thank you so much for the input. They don’t seem to be hurting the plants, but I just wanted to know if I should start a program of mass annihilation. This picture is probably going to be the best I’ll get of one of the little farts. Beetle grubs? Wouldn’t there be adults all over too? These pots have had these bugs for a while, one of them I can remember as far back as March of 2002 having these in it. Oh well, thanks again for all of your time, and keep up the great work on the website; its been severely educational.
Jace

Ed. Note: Before we could even respond to this photo, Jace sent the following proper I.D. from a website.

Bugs: Discovered!

I have scoured the internet for these bugs, and I believe I have identified them! Thanks to you and the Missouri State University Entomology Department, not only have I IDed the first insect, I found out that I have two different species living in my plants. The first one (that I kept sending pictures of) are Onychurius pseudofimetarius. These did not jump and moved slowly so as to be the only ones I could catch.

Awesome sleuthing Jace. Here is some additional information. From Essig: "Springtails inhabit moist localities and are found in rotten logs, wet leaf mold, and in the soil where the immature stages live mostly hidden from the light." Essig call Onychiurus pseudarmatus the Seed Springtail, and writes it "is a shite slender species 3mm. long and with the antennae shorter than the head. It has proven to be a pest by destroying germinating purple vetch seed in Humboldt County, California." Hogue states that these ancient and primitive insects "are among the most numerous of animals found in the soil and are also commonly encountered in compost piles and grass cuttings, in turf, under flower pots, in cellars, or among stored plant bulbs — wherever it is humid and dark.” I have a great book, The Encyclopedia of Natural Insect & Disease Control by Roger B. Yepsen, Jr. that recommends an infusion of garlic in water to help rid the soil of springtails. Try crushing the garlic in water and letting it sit before watering your houseplants.

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