Hi fella's just been to feed the girls and noticed some small black jumping insect things in the run off tray on one or two of the plants . At first i thought it was just some bits of crap fallen from the soil, but on further inspection a few started to jump around.
I've had a look through the pest bit of the forum and can't see any similar post . I'm 8 week into 12/12 and would like to know what they are as i see it beeing at least 2 week to harvest and don't want to chop them just yet unless necessary. Any help would be much appreciated thanks. P.S They have legs ie. not a larvae of some kind.

sounds like soil gnats, fungus gnats. cover the top of the soil in a 1/4 inch of washed sand to drive the eggs out and use cyder vinegar traps for the flying ones

Thanks for the reply but not actually noticed any flying about as yet. Still think there gnats?

are they bettle like?

The fungas gnats don't really fly much so it's a good chance you got those,see my post on the gnats i had and now got completely got rid of them!
Here you go.Fungus gnats

I might put a half potato in tomorrow and check for larvae as i've not seen any yet. Looks like sand and sticky traps it is then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL_g03Qmm8g

cyder vinegar, gnats are attracted to smell they can not see so sticky traps dont attract them

If it's fungus gnats you'll see them floating when you feed - little yellowy buggers. They live in the soil/coco and if left unchecked will damage roots. They lay eggs in the medium, so if you do as the other poster suggests and add sand (or diahydro) as a top dressing you'll break the cycle. ALternatively use a product like Gnat Off for a week or two and that works.

The cheapest and easiest is to just let the tops dry out on a wet dry cycle - maybe blast them with SBPI or Blockout to kill the adults.

GN

Cheers for the link NJD. Not noticed any yellow things floating when i feed as yet. I am going to try the potato method to id them then if any larvae are found i will go about the methods mentioned. cheers guys

Thought i'd post a pic or two to be sure. The largest are about 2mm long and only say one out of ten seem to jump the rest are static.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Bump

from what I can see they do look like fungus gnats. the ones that arent jumping will be laying eggs. I have never seen the larve myself in my time dealing with them only the flies. So I wouldnt hold your hopes on seeing the larve, mind you I havent looked for them.

They dont take long in multipling they lay hundreds of eggs each and can be very annoying ver quickly. The sand cost £4 a bag and the cyder vinegar is £1.50 for enough to do three traps. If it is not fungus gnats that you have the measures you would have took with the sand and the vinegar will not change the Crop any. So £5.50 for trying to get rid of them isnt much.

Cheers pal. All i needed to know. Thanks

Upon further research i think they are springtails. Though not very harmful so i've read, is there a good way to get rid? Perhaps spraying the trays with an insecticide or something?

You should really look at them through a magnifier to properly identify them,are those larvae or the adults?
Springtails are normally white and don't fly,they just hop and move around the medium.
This is a Springtail anywayClick to view attachment
I hope you sort it soon,looks like you got a few there.

Not seen any flying just jumping around run off tray. Although normally white a quick search tells me that there are lots of types and i dont think all are white. I've got a 10x magnifying lens so will look closer at lights on.