tiny white beasties !

mardatha

I was moving a huge plant in a big heavy pot today, and noticed the base of the pot was swarming with tiny white bugs running around, really hundreds of them. We took the plant outside and attacked it with the hose then left it in the cold to kill them off (hopefully !). Anybody know what these were ? They don't seem to be on any other plants . This one I kept sort of dry because it seems to like that, and the livingroom is dry and hot.

alanobrien

If it was indoors probably whitefly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitefly

I had them on my (indoor) banana plants last year, a good soaking usually gets shot of them.

mardatha

They arent on the leaves , or near them. and they dont fly... they are coming out of the bottom of the pot, from the compost itself. Between the pot and the saucer it sits in.

rhiwfield

How about springtails?

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1200/springtails.asp

alanobrien

ok another possibility is mealy bugs

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0901/mealybug.asp

mardatha

that looks like the wee sods, thank you ! x