"Aaron Hicks" wrote in message
...
Don't know if ladybugs will eat fungus gnats (sorry), but I
purchased a Drosera dichotoma 'Giant' from California Carnivores
(http://www.californiacarnivores.com/) for $15. VERY easy to grow- sit it
in a bowl of clean water (distilled or reverse osmosis- no salts, no
fertilizer, please), give it as much light as you reasonably can, keep the
humidity up, and watch it grow.

This plant should be sold as a control for fungus gnats. I
originally purchased it for whitefly control in a research greenhouse, but
the whitefly were on their way out thanks to Marathon, so I just sat it on
a bench in a pan of water. WOW. A fungus gnat magnet, that species. One
grower reports that he used it to get rid of whitefly by shaking the
afflicted plant, and then waving the drosera around so it would pick up
the whitefly in mid-air. I can believe it.

Its ironic that you mentioned this at this time since, after I responded, it
occured to me that there were a wide range of carnivorous plants that, if
you can keep them happy (I haven't had much luck with venus fly trap yet),
would be a very useful tool in your pest control arsenal. But you beat me
to it WRT pointing this out. ;-) It is too bad there aren't carnivorous
plants that will make a meal of mammalian pests! But then I am sure animal
lovers would be outraged at the notion of a plant making a meal of stray
cats and puppies. I do love such critters, I realy do, as long as they
aren't in my garden or in my home.

Now all I need to do is find an effective way to deal with the damned
critters that made off with my irises, thankfully ignored my crocus, lilies
and hyacynths, and used the one end of my garden as a latrine! :-( There
may be several species involved since the droppings are the size that would
be left by an animal the size of a cat or small dog. Maybe I'll see if I
can manage it by building something like a cold frame around the bed, or
perhaps a wire cage that can be assembled and put in place in the late
automn and then removed and stored just after the spring thaw.

I just ordered some bletilla and cypripedium for use in that bed, and I am
tempted to put them into large clay pots which I'd just place in holes in
the ground so they'd be easy to remove and put inside (perhaps keeping them
in the cold and dark by putting them in a spare refrigerator) once hit by
frost, so as to protect them against critters; unless there is an effective
way to keep herbivores out of my garden. I wonder how effective
fritillaries are at keeping mammalian pests away. A colleague of mine, at
work, told me that nothing he has tried in his garden has been effective.

Cheers,

Ted