I am in need of some advice regarding my houseplants. Me and my husband have been seeing these little white-wing nat looking flies around my apartment. At first I thought they were friut flies until I was watering my plants today and found a bunch of them in one of my plants and lurking around my other ones. In addition to that I see these very small white bugs that hop, crawling through some of my plants as well. I don't know what to do. I had this same problem last year and I had to throw out a lot of my plants because my Mom told me to buy some plant spray to try and get rid of them and it did not work because they were so infested so my mom told me to throw the plants and the pots out because they would spread to my other plants so I did. That was very hard and I do not want to have to go threw that again. Is there any advice you can give me that might help.

Thank you,
Taahirah

It sounds like the flying insects you are seeing are fungus gnats. Go to "Search" were you should see some good advice on how to get rid of or, at least control the numbers.

The other smaller white bugs your seeing in the soil that run around and sometimes hop when the soil is disturbed like watering sounds like Springtails. They eat the decaying material in "moist soil" but won't hurt the plants.Let the soil dry out more if you can between waterings.

You can try one of these methods for controlling Springtails.

1. Dump out the top couple inches or so while holding the plants in their pots not disturbing the roots and replace with new drier soil, water less
2.Water with some slightly soapy water next time.
3.Flush the soil really well so it spills out over the sides next watering time to help control their numbers and water less. If you still ar seeing some, you can change the entire soil in the warmer months.
As far as throwing away pots, they didn't need to be, it's in the "soil" where they breed.