Super tiny red/black beetle like things in substrate!

[ridethespiral]

I pulled out a skewer out of my one orchid and it was moist and coated with at least a thousand tiny red/black beetle looking things that were the size of the point of a sharpened pencil. They moved around quite slowly, but only took a few seconds to move 1cm.

I already have fungus gnats from over watering a little bit. I repotted one of the orchids into a smaller pot as I managed to kill some roots. I steeped the substrate in boiling hot kettle water for 1 hour to kill off anything that may have taken home. This cleared them out of the one orchid for now, but my other one has two infestations now!

Does anyone know what these super tiny black/red beetle things are? I honestly thought they were eggs until I looked closer and they were moving around

[terra_australis]

Probably some sort of mites.

[ridethespiral]

What is the best course of action?

I was thinking mosquito dunks.

[1joyceh]

mosquito dunks generally work well for larvae, but not sure if they would work on what sounds like mature beetle-like creatures ridethespiral.
I would repot the 'infected' orchid, soaking and inspecting the bare roots for a few minutes to make sure all the creatures were off.
I have not encountered that type of creature, but, as the day progresses, hopefully someone will come along who has, and can identify and help you with more specific information.

[ridethespiral]

Ack. Even though I repotted the one orchid, I never soaked the roots or anything so it's a good chance both have it. =[

If I repot it, I am NOT reusing the substrate LOL.


And I just bought another orchid last night hehe. It's in bloom so I'm not going to repot it, so I still have one smaller orchid pot. I think I will repot the infected on later on. I will spray the roots with phosphate soap as well

[katrina]

There are a lot of insects in the world and not all of them are harmful to the plants they live on or near.

If they were just on the skewer...there's a good chance they weren't doing any damage to the orchid. With that said...not knowing what they are...I'd want to get rid of them. If you're worried about eggs and/or the parents being carried into the new pot set up...I've found the best thing to do is to soak the plant in a soapy water mixture for awhile...wash everything (roots, leaves, leaf crevices) well...and then rinse well before repotting into fresh medium.

I've never come across what you're describing so I can't help w/an ID.

[orchids4me]

Im wondering if they are a mite .... You say beetle but red sounds like spider mites. But you say black and red. Hummmmm......maybe another Canadian can help sounds like something that thrives there. I've never seen anything fitting this description here I'm my area of the states.
I wonder if the dept of agraculture there or something along those lines if you take some in a jar they can I'd what your up against and get the proper treatment for it. But Katrina is right also some things aren't harmful to the plants but always good to find out for sure.