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Help! Hundreds of flies on my first attempt at growing my own veg
ymcas
Posts: 91 Forumite
I decided to try growing my own veg, so have various little shoots now popping up in anything from yogurt pots to galvanised buckets. These are in my utility room and also on my kitchen window sill. I used a combination of compost from the heap and some bought stuff left over from when I rented the house out. Anyway there are hundreds and hundreds of flies on the top of the compost. How can I get rid of these without polluting my vegetables with something nasty,.... and will the flies eat the plants?
Ta
Ta
0
Comments
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Depends on the flies. Are we talking about those tiny fruit/vinegar flies, or bluebottle style (I hope for your sake the former) or something else (whiteflies)?
Jennifer0 -
Thanks for the quick reply... they are small and black... does this help?0
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Well it helps a bit, but there are something like 6000 fly species in the U.K. so you can see the potential problem. I'm going to assume that they're coming from the compost, either due to inadequate rotting, or because it's holding the moisture. If they're black they aren't fruit flies (pity, 'cause a jar of vinegar, covered with plastic wrap, with small holes poked in it will deal with those). They could be fungus gnats (aka Sciarid flies). They like moist conditions and can be controlled to a certain extent by letting the compost dry out a bit (o.k. with an adult plant, problematic with seedlings). Unfortunately, the larvae will eat your plants. Would you describe as 2-3mm long, crawling on the soil surface, or flying when disturbed? If so, you have fungus gnats, and this isn't good news, I'm sorry to say. Various product will control the adults that you see, from yellow sticky traps up to heavy duty "evacuate the house" chemical bombs, but thy're not the ones really doing the damage - it's the larvae. Here's an organic gardening fact sheet. Even if you wanted to use a chemical on the larvae I do not believe that any are available that are safe to use on food crops. If this information and the fact sheet doesn't seem to apply post agin and we'll see if we can track them down.
Jennifer0 -
Hi Jenniferpa,
You sound very well informed. Could I just ask you what fruit flies do look like?
Ta ever soTess x
Underground, overground, wombling free...
Old Style weight loss so far...2 stone and 7 pounds0 -
Fruit flies are brownish tan 1-2mm in length and hang around fruit, vinegar and things like that. Bananas are their favourite, at least in my experience. Not particularly harmful, but indicitive that something is going "off" and irritating to deal with.
Jennifer0 -
So they were fruit flies! I was bady invaded with them last year when I tried to have a worm composter on my balcony. Had to stop buying bananas for a while
I found the best solution was to wait until dusk when they settled, then zap the little blighters with the vac. It did the trick!My first reply was witty and intellectual but I lost it so you got this one instead
Proud to be a chic shopper
:cool:0 -
hmmm, just inspected closer... definitely black and about 3mm long. Oooh noooo doesn't sound like good news, but the little seedlings seem to be doing ok so far. Don't really want to spend money on "biological controls" as the total cost of my experiment so far is £2!! Then again definitely don't want to give up as I can hear the "I told you that you'd kill them" from my boyfriend all ready. So I guess just don't overwater them and fingers crossed? and find some of this yellow sticky stuff?0
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Make your own sticky traps! Yellow paper or card covered with petroleum jelly. Put them where the flies are (as close as possible - maybe stick them in the pots) Replace as needed. Why yellow? I have no idea! Try to let the surface of the compost dry out - that's where the larave are most active - water from the bottom if you can (which is better anyway, because that encourages them to grow down). The plants may well survive - it depends on their age. If you decide to do anymore planting sterilize the potting menium before planting by baking it in a 250 oven. Smells foul, try to remove any worms before you do it, but will kill the eggs of these things, plus pathogens.
Jennifer0
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