What are these bugs crawling on my top soil

Soil mites eat gnat larvae and pest species of mites. I throw a little party when I see them in my planters.

A little dawn soap mixed in water and give the top soil a light spray. It will kill mites on contact. Repeat as eggs hatch.

High Happy91, personally I want my growing environment to be as clean and sterile as possible, because you smoke it and its supoosed to be healthy or medical. Of course... nature brings all kinds of things with it and I just don't think flies or vermin are sterile. I add my own bacteria and fungi to the soil, so the effect of flies and other insects is unnecessary because they live on your soil or plant. What you can try against flies are fly adhesive strips and when all the flies are dead try nematodes to kill all the larvae in the earth. nematodes are not bad for your plant but they feed on the larvae and then starve as compost. Good Luck!

Then your done, reapply when it gets wet or you water. Will only affect the mites that come in contact with it on the surface level. Happy Growing

DE was applied as a dry top layer above soil.

your DE won't work if it gets wet, they are also only there for the decaying organic matter not the cannabis. You can ignore them if you want, they are not going anywhere. Or teat the top layer with an miticide or some neem to help lower the population. They will not go away completely as their eggs will survive most of what you toss at them. unless you do multiple runs at them. Don't nuke them with some strong chemicals, may affect the roots. Cheers,

I have also used Diatomaceous Earth also.

Looks like soil mites. They won't attack the plant. Can try and treat with some neem or diatomaceous earth. Just realize when DE gets wet it is useless and will not kill till it becomes dried out again. snip-it from online about the soil mite: Soil mites are scavengers that usually make their home in potting soil or compost heaps because they are attracted to organic, rotting matter such as leaves, moss, wood, etc. ... Since soil mites feed on decaying organic matter, once they run out of food, they will leave and find another home on their own Good Luck