little black flies

I have a bunch of 1 - 2 leaf palm seedlings in my shade house, and recently I have notcied a good amount of little black flies flying and crawling around them. I'm not sure they are a problem, but would like any suggestions on how to get rid of them.

Thank you,

David

Sounds like fungus gnats. Reduce the watering a bit. You can also get biological controls for it. They will damage the roots of the seedlings.

Sta-stuck seems to glue thier body parts together . I use to keep thepowder I use for peach leaf curl on the plant when it rains .

Can across this accidentally by leaving a cup of coffee next to some plants that had these tiny flies. I forgot about the cup and when I came back, it was full of these flies that got it and drown. I don't know which attracted them, the coffee or the milk or sugar I drink it with. Anyway, now if I have a problem with any more flies, I donate the last few drinks of my coffee in a disposible container and set it near the plant/seedlings with the flies and by the next day, they have met their coffee demise.
Jan...

Catching live flying gnats is but one step to eliminating the hungry pests. Once you eliminate the larvae , the life cycle is interrupted.


Fungus gnat will not lay eggs in dry soil.

Only bottom water and keep a good layer of DRY SAND over the entire surface of the pot.

The sand will stay dry and not wick water from beneath therefore presenting an unfriendly surface to the gnats.


- OR -
If you have any mosquito 'Dunks' soak a couple in a gallon of water for a day and water (bottom) with this to kill the larvae.
You can refill this jug using the same 'dunks' for a few times.


- OR -
You could also use scan mask . I suggest this place because they ship FREE
http://www.planetnatural.com/cgi-bin/planetnatural/beneficial-nematodes?prod_group=Natural%20Pet%20Care

These are all organic remedies.

(((*-*))) Shirley

This message was edited Nov 25, 2005 9:48 AM

Thanks - I bookmarked / added to favorites .

Kell in northern CA started a thread about the same little black flys and several others in CA have the same thing no one seems to know what they are. There are several pictures on her thread. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/558053/

IMHO
re: Kells flies ,
Those are not the all to common Fungus Gnats.

No one seems to know what kell flies are so I wouldn't consider them here.



Besides , fungus gnats do not cluster inside flowers like that.

Kells flies seem to be sucking insects seeing as they gather en-mass inside a bloom , whereas flying gnats are more of a nuisance than anything else.

BUT , it's the Fungus Gnat's larvae that do the damage by eating young tender roots.



We all get fungus gnats once in a while, especially in the winter when the plants are growing in the house.

Fungus Gnats live freely in this warm environment .

THAT IS ................

UNLESS we dry up their breeding grounds .... lol

I have noticed that I get fungas gnats from plants that I buy from a nursery that has them shipped in. The soil that is used for shipping seems to be made from Peat Moss which attracts the fungus gnats. So where I work we don't use any peat moss in our soil. We don't have the gnats either. However in the tropical house where I work they use a peat mixture, and we have sticky yellow paper traps up all over but I still see them flying around. Norma

Thanks Norma, makes sense since peat stays damp.

This year my load of potting mix that I get in huge bags, was contaminated with gnats.

Fungus gnats would fly out when I cut a bag open.

So that load gets used outside as soil amendment , meanwhile I changed brands of potting mix.

As I've said many, many times; over and over 'My tried and true recipe' for

Fungus Gnats:

Mix one teaspoon of household strength peroxide to 8 ounces of non-chlorinated water.
Put into a clean spray bottle. Spray liberally onto potted soil and bottom of stems' of the plants. You will hear popping and crackling in the soil as it kills the bacteria. This will not hurt you plants.

~* Robin