tiny flies in compost

is that because i need to bury the veggies deeper in the brown leaves i put over them?

They're just part of the process. But more leaves will keep them from finding what they're looking for.

ok -thanks

planolinda - I read your post on May 31st but couldn't remember the name of those little flies - today it came to me! (The brain works slower when you get to my age) They are probably fungus gnats. The flies themselves are harmless, but their grubs can chew up the finer roots of plants. Mostly the grubs eat decaying matter. When I raised African Violets they were a problem - so I switched from peat to coir in my pots - no more fungus gnats! For some reason the gnat grubs don't like coir.

uh oh!! don't want grubs that's for sure

Actually...the grubs do a great job on really tough stuff in the compost.

guess i always hear they destroy the lawn--of course nature has a good use for all its creations!

I am told that gnatrol works well....

thanks

And you may slow down your composting process.....

Any product containing imdacloprid will do it too. This chemical can be found by various names one of which is for lawn grubs and another labeled Merit 75 WP. Very small amounts of this chemical like 0.25 tsp in two and a half gallons of water does the trick.

I had one pot crawling with fungus knats and Foliar Mealybugs both the dickens to control. I treated that pot one week ago and repotted it this weekend....one week later. I saw no crawling critters and know that the chemical is effective much longer than the life cycle of either of my critters. If a few eggs stuck to the roots the chemical will be awaiting their arrivial and finish the job. Folks on this site led me to imdacloprid in the form of Merit 75 WP. I had previous experience with it in my giant pumpkin patches not realizing it was labeled for fungus knats and both kinds of Mealybugs.

I am in the watching stage for another week or so to be sure my violets are not going to dislike the treatment we gave them. Due to the amount of infestation we had I think an all pot treatment may be in order although we do not see other infected pots yet.

I feel absolutely certain but can not prove both critters came in to us in a bag of organic potting medium. My repotting medium will now be Pro Mix amended for texture and certainly some coir.

A drink of BT drenched into your compost pile will also help if not cure. They are a natural part of the decomposition process but get pretty bad sometimes. We have a so called compost plastic container a bit close to our kitchen door. Having it handy is nice but the gnats sometimes have huge hatches. Sometimes I control them with charcoal ashes. A little of this goes a long way. Don't over do the ashes. A little bit will do 'ya. Controls mentioned here are all good. As long as you keep adding new waste I doubt they will ever not be in the process. Once the compost is absolutely converted to finished compost they seem to die off in the process. The hottest weather is when they are the worst. That is also when the whole composting process is moving the fastest toward the words finished compost.

The Bt worked for me on the fungus gnats in my seedlings when they were in the 2-4" pots stage. Got the liquid and just added a tiny bit with the watering. Probably would at least help on a larger scale. I may toss a few mosquito granules (same stuff) in my new little compost tumbler before the neighbors can complain about gnats on my patio.

Fungus gnats like wet soil. Maybe your compost is too wet.

Karen

Actually....Bt and BtI (b t i) are slightly different. The Bti is a Bt developed in Israel (Israelensis) to eat the moquito larvae.