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Small nearly microscopic bugs in my plant
January 21, 2010
I live in New Hampshire, USA. It’s currently January 21,2010. I have an Ivy plant that was getting unruly and part of it started to die so I cut it back. When I watered the plant, I noticed that there seemed to be thousands of very tiny bugs coming out of the soil in the pot. These little bugs are so small they can barely be seen by the naked eye. Once the water was absorbed by the soil, most of the bugs went back into the soil. There is wood and compost inside the soil that was used to pot the plant. I would like to know what kind of bugs they are? Are they dangerous to my kids and pet? Will they eat my house down? And if they shouldn’t be in the house, how to I get rid of them? I have attached some pictures of the plant and the bugs. You may have to blow t he pics up a little to get a goo look. The pics were taken using a macro lens to get a good look. It was very hard to catch one standing still long enough to get a pic at all. Any help you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks.
Eric Hardy
New Hampshire, USA, indoors

Elongate Bodied Springtails

Hi Eric,
We believe you have benign Elongate Bodied Springtails in the order Entomobryomorpha.  These common primitive insects have a worldwide distribution and they help organic materials in soil to be converted into humus.  You can compare your insects to images on BugGuide.

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