Fruit flies in my herbs

annie123

the soil is too wet, and or not enough air flow around them.
let the soil dry on the surface before you water them.
Most likely fungus gnats.

Forgetful

the houseplants in question are the Yucca and the money plants..

olly300

Forgetful wrote: »

the houseplants in question are the Yucca and the money plants..

As Anne123 said your soil is too wet.

You have a choice you can either:
1. change the soil again, making sure you completely get rid of the soil around the plant roots and water your plants less
2. water your plants less then eventually the fungus gnats will die out. It may take a year for this to happen.

BTW watering your plants less means water the soil when it is dry and then don't let the plant sit in any water that runs out.

Gardening-girl_5

Water the plants from the bottom keeping the top of the soil dry..flies breed in moist or damp compost!

Forgetful

thanks for the advice
I will try again
thats if my plants are gonna survive the repotting process again!!!

ceridwen

According to the indoor gardener blog I have just found - whereby she is experimenting trying to grow enough veg for 3 indoors - she seems to be using a combination of slices of garlic clove left on the soil and spraying with water several times per week to deal with thrips as she calls them.

noonesperfect

This happened to me as well. Little black flies, ewwwww!

I didn't know if it happened because I was trying to root a pineapple top in some potting compost (I let it dry for 2 days first). It seemed to be doing OK but these flies tuned my stomach over and I slung the plant in the end.

arkonite_babe

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one-non-blonde

sarah wrote: »

I've recently started to grow my own herbs inside in 3 seperate tubs- basil, parsley and chives. However in the last week or 2, I've noticed a few fruit flies that are permanently in and around it- does that mean they've layed eggs somewhere on the plants? And is there anything I can do to get rid of them? Not very nice to have in the kitchen! Thanks x:A

We have a tank of giant african snails and have always had a problem with fruit flies as we're a bit lax about removing rotten vegetable matter from the surface of the soil. Last week I invested in a cape sundew (carnivorous plant) which I've put next to the tank and it's definitely made a difference to the fly population.

The other suggestion from a snail-keeping site was to use chiffon as a barrier as the flies can't get through the fine mesh of the fabric. Maybe after repotting in clean compost you could fashion some kind of fly screen with an old scarf to put over the plants (though I'm not sure if would provide sufficient light or air)? I have a shop bought one that opens like an umbrella to keep flies off food but I can't remember how fine the fabric is and it probably wouldn't be tall enough to cover a plant.