I have a pestilence of small (up to 6mm long) silvery white worms and tiny
brown flying thingies in a bag of potting compost. Any idea what these
might be please? I suspect they might be fungus gnats according to what
I've read.

More importantly, any suggestions on how to be rid of the wretched things.
Problem is that I potted up a few seedlings a while back and the compost is
wriggling with the little blighters.

Many thanks

Sunbeam.

Use Neem oil - it works. As it's not a chemical insecticde they don't die overnight so you need to use it regularly. Drench the compost weekly or fortnightly and they will normally be dead after the second drench. Ditto sciarid fly. A couple more treatments will also wipe out your populations of Chafer grub, Leatherjacket, Wireworm and Vine weevil larvae. Any oil left over spray on foliage; it kills everything except beneficial insects and hard scale insects.

Just to confirm what lammas wrote; it works but dont expect the magic bullet. You need to use it regularly but on the plus side it's totally safe. When I lived in India the gardeners would use it for everything and insects out there are like on steroids! When I moved back to the UK nobody seemed to have heard of it but I've just found it on a site called www.gardenknowledge.co.uk so hope this is of help to anybody reading this post.
Peter Black

"PeterBlack" wrote in message
...

lammas Wrote:
Use Neem oil - it works. As it's not a chemical insecticde they don't
die overnight so you need to use it regularly. Drench the compost
weekly or fortnightly and they will normally be dead after the second
drench. Ditto sciarid fly. A couple more treatments will also wipe out
your populations of Chafer grub, Leatherjacket, Wireworm and Vine
weevil larvae. Any oil left over spray on foliage; it kills everything
except beneficial insects and hard scale insects.
Just to confirm what lammas wrote; it works but dont expect the magic
bullet. You need to use it regularly but on the plus side it's totally
safe. When I lived in India the gardeners would use it for everything
and insects out there are like on steroids! When I moved back to the UK
nobody seemed to have heard of it but I've just found it on a site
called www.gardenknowledge.co.uk so hope this is of help to anybody
reading this post.

yeh right, thats the site that states that neem oil is
"The alternative to chemicals"

So its not a chemical? hmmmmmmm...


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