Weird tiny black bugs in my soil

[wamilton]

All those tiny black dashes are bugs crawling around my soil.
They come out when I water my plants, I think they have white larva that slowly turn black:
I have tried drowning them out and I see that there are smaller white versions of the bugs floating, I think they are the larvae.

These are indoor cacti under some strong LED lights, temp ranges from 70-95 F throughout the day.
I've quarantined the infected plants for now, but hoping to know what to do about them if they are harmful.

I ordered neem oil and hope the spray will help, but no one seems to know what these bugs are.

[jerrytheplater]

More information needed. Do they jump? Maybe Springtails. If so, they are harmless.

[wamilton]

I think they do jump, but rarely, what would happen if left unchecked? I don't want my whole place crawling with them, even if they are harmless.

I heard they might also be thrips, which do jump as well, any ideas there?

[wamilton]

Also if it helps, some of them crawl up to the actual cactus, not sure if that is a thing springtails do

[jerrytheplater]

Thrips are sucking insects. They would be seen on the cactus, not in the pots. Springtails eat decaying organic matter and are found in the potting mix. Get a magnifying glass to take a better look.

It is unlikely that you'd be over run with Springtails.

One other thing to consider, you may be watering your cactus too much. Not much decay occurs in dry soil. Its the wet soil where decay is seen.

[wamilton]

Thanks, getting a magnifying glass might take me a while, but in the meantime here is a video if that helps.
https://i.imgur.com/0cwQjdX.mp4

Yeah the soil is kind of moldy with algae growing. I only keep my pereskiopsis plants like this since they seem very resilient to the wet, they sometimes start drooping when I don't keep their soil a bit moist (to be fair this is my assumption as to why they droop).

I read that springtails are mostly beneficial. Should I just let them hang out? How would I get rid of them just in case I needed to gift these plants or something?

[jerrytheplater]

I have friends in the aquatic plant hobby that buy Springtails. I really don't know how to get rid of them. Maybe dry the potting mix out some? A 2% soap drench might work. Or use insecticidal soap.

[wamilton]

Thanks for the tips and spending the time to help out! I might give the soap a try eventually