Name that pest

[xantius]

My beautiful pings have suddenly started having little black flecks on them, and they seem to be increasing in number quite rapidly. Any idea what they are and how to kill them?

 

[Joseph Clemens]

Not pests, food. Those are called springtails. Your plant seems to be killing them just fine.

 

[xantius]

Awesome. That's good to know. Thanks for the heads up Ping Meister Joseph.

 

[CPlantaholic]

Nice-looking ping.
although, next time you use that mix, I'd thoughroughly rinse that peat. I used to get "green goo" algae like that on the surface of my pot until I started pre-rinsing my peat with tap and then distilled water before use. It really does the trick.

 

[Fryster]

I don't know what that surface green goo fungus is called but I wonder if it's more harmful to our plants than we realize.

Well, no direct harm anyway. I think that it tends to permeate the top layer of soil and choke off oxygen and hamper top-watering.

I've learned to combat it with Neem Oil spray.