A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems What is this and how to get rid of!

Found these crawling around my two plants..

The picture is 400x to the naked eye they look like tiny dots.

They are not on the leaves but in the soil. Find them crawling outside of the plant about a foot diameter around plant.

Bug Picture

Welcome, Lawrence.
I do not know what it is but a cure is fairly easy. If you get neem oil and spray the soil every couple of days, that should cure this problem.
If you want a quick fix until the neem oil is purchased, you can use about a teblespoon full of liquid dish detergent with about a quart of water and spray the soil surface also.
Good luck.

Thank you I will give that a try.

It can be soil Mealy bugs, sometimes it is called "Blind Mealy Bugs" it measure about 1/16 inch. Because they are white or light gray in color, they often resemble small grains of rice. Soil Mealy Bugs feed on the roots of African Violets, particularly the new feeder roots in the upper layer of the soil. The resulting damage stifles the ability of roots to absorb water and nutrients. First, isolate the affected plants, especially if they share a common watering tray with other, healthy plants. Although Soil Mealy Bugs do not spread easily, they will travel over moist surfaces. To treat for Soil Mealy Bugs, you will have to repot your African Violet in a soil that has been mixed with Diatomaceous Earth. Use about 1 tablespoon per one liter of soil. Pasteurize soil before repotting. To make soil uninhabitable for future Mealy Bug infestations, mix about 1/4 tablespoon of Diatomaceous Earth with every liter of soil.