The things crawling around are light to medium brownish and terribly tiny. Couldn't make out body parts with a magnifying glass. They move very, very, very fast. A search on the net came up with a description of crazy ants. Never personally seen ants that small though. They are quite sensitive to movement and scurry fast to avoid being squished. They don't seem to travel in lines. I purchased Terro last night and they seem to ignore the traps so far. Used orange oil hoping it was a barrier but nothing seems to be coming from the windows. Also heard baby powder was a deterrant; put some on the sills just in case. I will try the good grade DE. As you can see, I'm desperate to get rid of these things and hoping to avoid repotting again so soon! P.S. Rizo - I hear you are an insect genius!

Been a while since I have been able to get back here. So Sorry!! I am down loading that PFD as I am here to see if what we are talking about, could be the same thing. I don't know where they came from but it killed an enormous amount of tubers most of them before they could come up (discusted!!) I have treated the whole yard with Ortho MAX...I hate using pesticides since I have pets. I know I put in this Flower bed about March and it had all new purchased dirt in it, so I thought they might have come from either the tubers (dahlias &/or Hostas) or maybe even the new purchased dirt. ( An unwanted bonus...Yikes!! ) Then in the flower bed that has been established for some years prior to purchasing the house I put in Cyclamen about February, and they were doing wonderful I mean really great, set seed and everything, then 3 of the 4 went what I thought was dormant...so 2 weeks ago I decided to plant other bulbs in there place, as soon as I dig them up they were sitting in these little creepy bugs, the tubers/bulbs were not damaged just the leaves, I washed them off gave them a good inspection sprayed them with a fungiside and replanted the little ones with a good dose of Ortho Max, The leaves are once again starting to come back up slowly but surely. This is why we decided to treat the entire yard...I put in a new flowerbed this weekend with Glads and young strawberry plants, I treated the bed before I put the mulch in, I have never had to put anything other than a bit of dish detergent on my Strawberries but I hope to ward off any creepy crawly root chewing scavengers before flowering season starts, once fowering season starts for my strawberries I won't use any pestisides in that flowerbed ( they better not like dish detergent ) It was a bit amusing though when I showed my husband a handful of dirt with the pesty creepy pests in it, all he said is he would be back in a bit, when he returned and he said with 2-20 pound bags of Ortho Max we will just treat the whole yard, those things are GROSS...Just to give you an idea of the over kill, I live in a Mobile home park my entire lot is 40X70!! He has since calmed down he said he would treat the yard that day ( he did )and then in another 10 days then we would do some digging in a few places to determine if we need to continue treatment or change treatments, but just to let you know my cheep Dahlia tubers that I purchased to replace the exspensive tubers, I planted last week are in fact coming up already and don't seem to be bothered by the Ortho Max or the bugs...the expensive tubers that did survive are not doing well even to this day and are always having to be treated with a fungiside, they weren't a good quality when I recieved them so I shouldn't be surprised. I hope you are doing well in the garden with your Dahlias, for me I am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the information... I'll be back

Cindy thank you very much for the reply. I'm pretty sure these aren't them. For two reasons, one, I've seen nothing like what is shown in those pictures of them on the branches and, secondly, The white cottonly looking thing looks more like the bug is pooping it out. I'm sorry that explains things rather badly, dang I wish I had a camera. It's just that the white stuff is round shaped and looks like it is just barely attached to this insects hind area.

'Tiny flies' are most likely fungus gnats. They like wet and organic conditions- and unless that is resolved, they will be around. I doubt very much they came from outdoors (unless it is very wet around where they were kept? - like a soggy area). You didn't say how long semps were in that plastic container - soil probably styed wet and heaven for fungus gnats. Why are you growing semps indoors? You mentioned outdoors, so it would be best for the to be there and stay there year round. They are very hardy. They are also etiolated, which means they are not getting enough light. Best if you take them outdoors and slowly acclimatize to proper sunlight (otherwise they will get sunburn). They can be grown in ground or containers, but suffer if indoors. It is hard to tell what are bugs on Aeonium; could be mealy bugs - but there would be also a white, cotton-like mass (almost like a web) if that's what they are. Could be some mites (?) or even aphids. Can't see them...try spraying with rubbing alcohol to reach everywhere. Keep out of sunlight while spraying with anything. They would also benefit from outdoors - better light, better air circulation - but watch for sunburn. You didn't say where you are (why don't you add that info to your name???) - temps could make difference...