"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from Des Higgins contains these
words:
On Apr 3, 6:31 pm, ®óñ© © ²°¹°-°² wrote:
So what have I got in my (unheated) greenhouse?

Quite a few little flies, about the size of ants, but with little
silvery wings.

I shall remove the hardening tomatoes and fly-spray the little beggars
fifthwith.

Be careful. Those could be Wart Gnats. They are insecticide resistant
and have been spreading across northern Europe over the past 10
years. They need high temperatures to complete their life cycle and
spend 3/4 of their lives parisitising sawflies which they eat from the
insides out. In England, they have been cropping up in greenhouses
and there are now records from as far north as Rochdale. They are
largely harmless but in extreme cases, they cause warts to break out
in sweaty parts of the body. Vinegar works to keep them at bay (soak
tee shirts and underwear every 3 days) as does Nam Pla Fish Sauce. To
clear them, from the greenhouse, you may have to fumigate with burning
elder twigs. The small size and silvery wings are a dead giveaway.

Des! Behave yourself!!

Oh no, I enjoyed it :-)

Mary

--
AnneJ

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion
now accepted was once eccentric. ~Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)