BCSS - Forum

I don't think that spraying would help you very much JST. You need to drench the plants and compost with Provado and do it again in around three months.

Thanks Peter I'll give it a try. I'd forgotten about vine weevil, though it seemed to be more of a problem with geraniums in pots outside than anything in my greenhouse. Hope I'm not tempting fate here!

Tina wrote:3.Scariad fly, I use JI2 & cat litter & still find them around especially in seed trays, even found some lurking in pure cat litter

Tina, what is JI2? And how do you use cat litter against scariad fly?
These nasty buggers are my biggest pest problem. I use yellow sticky tapes all the time and eventhough plenty of flies get caught on them they don't really get any less.
I've also bought some anti gnat stuff for hydro plants, but not sure if I can use it for regular plants. Any experience with this?
Many thanks!

JI2 is John Innes Number 2 compost. Cat litter (Tesco's low dust lightweight) is something many of us add to our mixes to give it a more open, aerated structure. The JI2 contains organic matter (peat) which is what the flies like. Cat litter isn't used to combat them.

My mix, although different, has enough organic matter to cause problems (in theory) but it dries out for sufficiently long that they don't get a foothold, except for in my pots of seedlings. Top dressing with a grit or gravel really helps. It acts as a physical barrier so that the flies can't reach the soil to lay eggs.

I've had Vine Weevil for years and still find them occasionally, even though I use Provado twice a year. They're hard to kill as they hide under and between pots during the day and are active at night. They are slow moving and act dead when disturbed. They walk into the greenhouse from the garden in summer while the door is open. The tell tale signs are nibbles out of the young growth on my Adromischus, but if I can't find them I return with a torch after dark and look for them then. If they get chance to lay eggs in the soil the maggots hatch and eat the roots then into the stems. Crassulaceae are certainly their favourite eats and I recall Echeveria growers reporting problems with them years ago.

1 - People with wooly jumpers near anything hook spined
2 - Geraniums
3 - anything else my partner sneaks in there

'Fowlers mealy bug destroyer' used to work a treat, don't know if you can still get it. Gordon Foster at Oak Dene nurseries in Royston, Barnsley used to make it. I was once told the secret ingredient was chilli powder, he reckoned it made them itch, letting the poison in !

Many thanks for the answer Phil!
For a second I thought JI2 was some powerful pesticide that would be the solution
As I mentioned above - my way is to use the yellow sticky tapes. They do catch quite a lot of them plus seeing all those flies sticking to the tapes rather than laying eggs in my planting pots does make me feel better

4 - People with wooly jumpers anywhere near all the hanging sticky yellow fly trap things

Lithos,

I found what's been nibbling my Lithops this winter I think it is a Hawk Moth caterpillar.