Sciarra fly & mites.

[Tina]

bug tape.jpg (28.08 KiB) Viewed 2120 times

I have used the really sticky ribbon tapes to successfully kill the adults, I attached to small sticks with a stapler, nasty job but very effective. Will trap all bugs so ideal to check whats lurking in greenhouse

[Chez2]

You can avoid sciara fly by using a purely mineral compost. In my experience, the larvae are present in commercial composts.

In my experience that has only happened once to us and we buy lots of compost for indoor and outdoor plants. I tipped the suspect bag on the garden. It had been opened a few weeks while so I can't be totally sure the bag was contaminated when we bought it but they level of problem with a couple of house plants leads me to suspect it was contaminated when we bought it.

[Herts Mike]

I switched to John Innes and vermiculite 50/50 some years ago. No flies!

[ralphrmartin]

Hi Tony

yes, I water my seedlings with weak feed (Ericaceous Miracle grow) at every watering, right from when they are planted. I water them every day,

My seed mix is equal parts
sand
fine grit
seed grade vermiculite
seed grade hortag (or cat litter)
seed grade perlite (although I sometimes leave that out).

All the best

Ralph

[agavemad]

Fly spray kills the adults

[mary44]

I had an infestation of sciarid flies in a lot of pots earlier in the year and used this:-

http://www.supernemos.com/what-is-supernemos/

The pots contained tree seedlings and so the compost was soil based.
To my surprise it did work, especially when combined with yellow sticky traps to catch the adults. Before they were swarming every time I watered.

I imagine this would work for lithops seedlings as well in conjunction with sticky traps.

[tonyironscacti]

I switched to John Innes and vermiculite 50/50 some years ago. No flies!

Exactly the same mix I have used for 10+ years, strangely enough !

[tonyironscacti]

Hi Tony

yes, I water my seedlings with weak feed (Ericaceous Miracle grow) at every watering, right from when they are planted. I water them every day,

My seed mix is equal parts
sand
fine grit
seed grade vermiculite
seed grade hortag (or cat litter)
seed grade perlite (although I sometimes leave that out).

All the best

Ralph

Quite a mixture.

My trays are on capillary matting and I use tap water which my trays take up.

Ericaceous Miracle grow sounds interesting, might well try that.

[Tina]

Is there any truth that moth balls acts as a deterrent to some bugs ??

[Eric Williams]

I think you are correct Tina. When. I started growing cacti many many years ago lol, I was informed that you could buy a product in a chemist called , wait for it Paradichlorobenzene lol They were actually white crystals that were put into the bottom of the pot before adding the compost. It's used to make mothballs. Must be the smell that puts them off I think. Cheers Thanks for jogging the old grey matter Tina.