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Possible root aphids

Recently transplanted 6 plants outdoors into fabric containers with potting soil from Lowes. Within a few days, these were jumping around the dirt. They just look like tiny little beads to the naked eye.

Is there any chance of saving these plants? Did they come from the bagged potting soil?

I have sprayed with neem oil a few times which is maybe helping a little but not getting rid of them. Tomatoes are deteriorating.

A couple more photos:

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pic3

They were only in the soil until recently. Seeing a few on the foliage the last day or two.

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    Can you add a picture of the tomato plants? I don't recognize that pest, though! It doesn't look or sound like an aphid, to me (aphids can sometimes fly, but they don't jump). What part of the world are you in?
    – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 22:11
  • @Brōtsyorfuzthrāx We ended up cutting our losses with the tomato plants as their leaves/branches were inexplicably dying out, similar to damage caused by root aphids. We ultimately ended up drenching the remaining soil with neem oil / insecticidal soap, letting it dry, and planting new plants. So far so good, and the bugs are gone. (Now we just have regular soil mites, which seems fine.)
    – John M.
    Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 15:19

3 Answers 3

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That is a springtail of the order Symphypleona, and is most likely harmless. Springtails are small hexapods (though not insects) that usually live in soil and litter, either as predators or detrivores. There are some very few that feed by gnawing on the surface of leaves, but them you you mostly find on the leaves of the plant, not in the soil.

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    Agreed. Springtails can actually be indicators of high-quality soil (see Abstract of "Soil-dwelling springtails as indicators of the efficiency of No-till technologies with different amounts of mineral fertilizers in the crop rotation on chernozem soils" Bokova et al.). I think your tomatoes likely suffered from a different pest/disease altogether, though you could only see the springtails living alongside them. Sorry to hear they didn't pull through.
    – OllieVet
    Commented Aug 14 at 16:00
  • Hi! Thanks for the reply! Looking at this photo again and comparing it against photos of springtails and a root aphid or two, I have to admit it still looks more like a root aphid to me based on its shape. Could you share how you've identified it as a springtail?
    – John M.
    Commented Aug 16 at 12:48
  • @JohnM.: You're looking at the wrong kind of springtails, the ones in your photos are Symphypleona. Big round abdomen with a bulge at the rear, associated with the tail that folds underneath and forward. They're often bright yellow-orange and has small black eyes. Of course you might have had root lice as well, but those little fellas in your photos are not the reason why your plants were suffering.
    – AkselA
    Commented Aug 16 at 15:59
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I can not tell from the pictures what you are asking about. If the leaves are not getting holes in them or otherwise showing signs of damage it may not be a problem at all. There are many bugs in the soil and in the environment which will crawl on plants but will not significantly damage them. And then there are some bugs which do slight damage but the plant will survive if left alone as long as the rest of the conditions are acceptable.

Neem may be doing damage to the plant too.

So my advice is to just make sure the plants are getting enough sunlight and water and see how they do. Tomatoes are normally pretty strong growers once they get going so just give them some time and see what happens.

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  • Dead center of the image, the only thing in focus, yellow with black eyes. The plant was seeing damage similar to that caused by root aphids. We used a neem oil drench to get rid of the bugs.
    – John M.
    Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 15:17
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I've never heard of root aphids attacking tomato plants. I did check and see that there are reports of rice root aphids on tomatoes. However I have not found examples of them causing plant death, at least quickly. They are most often found indoors. If they truly were in the purchased soil or the plants (if bought at a nursery), this is a problem that should be reported to the local County Extension agency (if in US). The photos are too small to ID the insects. As stated before, aphids don't jump.

I actually am wondering if this is a matter of not hardening off the tomatoes. You have to acclimate the young plants slowly to outdoor conditions, especially direct sunlight. Even if grown in full sun indoors, the light is much less intense than outdoors. Glass or plastic filter out much of the light and we can't detect this with our eyes. Plants can wither and dies within a few days if not hardened off. It's a real problem where I live at elevation with nearly no clouds.

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  • I'm not totally sure how this question bubbled back up after 3 years, but we did gradually introduce our tomato plants outdoors. We're familiar with hardening them to wind and sunlight.
    – John M.
    Commented Aug 16 at 12:52
  • @JohnM.: This site has a community bot that will regularly "bump" questions with a positive rating that don't have an accepted answer.
    – AkselA
    Commented Aug 16 at 16:04

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