Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am constantly bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost, I read somewhere that the fly does little harm but that has not been my experience as I have found that any plant that has got these maggots in the compost do not thrive and in a number of cases they are positively sickly, the ideal solution (If there is one) would be something along organic lines for obvious reasons but I would consider a chemical method for my long standing specimen plants that I overwinter,
Help would be greatly appreciated ,
Tom2

In article , Tom2 Tom2.1ii0bm@news
..gardenbanter.co.uk writes

Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am constantly
bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost, I
read somewhere that the fly does little harm but that has not been my
experience as I have found that any plant that has got these maggots in
the compost do not thrive and in a number of cases they are positively
sickly, the ideal solution (If there is one) would be something along
organic lines for obvious reasons but I would consider a chemical
method for my long standing specimen plants that I overwinter,
Help would be greatly appreciated ,

Could you say a bit about your management of both the pots and the
compost. That kind of pest is more easy to prevent by good hygiene
mostly than to get rid of once it has taken hold.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

Tom2 wrote:
Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am constantly
bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost, I

Hi Tom,

I suffer similar problems occassionaly with lots of small grey flies
coming from the compost. I've tried the following successfully (all
methods are organic):-

1) Move all plants etc to the bathroom, CLEAN thouroughly their normal
locations - windows, window cills, containers etc., so all traces of fly
removed. In the meantime fill the bath with water and plunge the pots in
to over the top of the compost and leave for a few hours. This totally
sorted out the plant I had that was suffering this problem.

2) When watering, add a drop or 2 of washing up liquid to the water -
this should help keep numbers down, not so successful as the flooding
method though.

In order to prevent the problem (organically), I have read the following
are useful methods:

a) Always watering from the bottom rather than the top

b) Using a layer of gravel on top.

HTH,

Sarah

cover the surface of the containers with a 1 cm layer of 5-10mm sharp grit...adults can't access the compost surface they need to lay eggs into...hey presto...!!! life cycle broken, problem eliminated.

Tom2 wrote:
Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am
constantly
bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost, I
read somewhere that the fly does little harm but that has not been
my
experience as I have found that any plant that has got these maggots
in the compost do not thrive and in a number of cases they are
positively sickly, the ideal solution (If there is one) would be
something along organic lines for obvious reasons but I would
consider a chemical method for my long standing specimen plants that
I overwinter,
Help would be greatly appreciated ,

'Some time since I had this problem but am I not right in thinking
that it is all down to the compost. The scariad larvae thrive in peat
(type) composts living off decaying vegetable matter. Once established
they will attack new fine root growth which leads to more decaying
vegetable matter.
Using a loam based compost is the solution - I think.

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 30.12.2004

On 1/7/05 3:36 PM, in article , "ned"
wrote:

Tom2 wrote:
Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am
constantly
bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost, I
read somewhere that the fly does little harm but that has not been
my
experience as I have found that any plant that has got these maggots
in the compost do not thrive and in a number of cases they are
positively sickly, the ideal solution (If there is one) would be
something along organic lines for obvious reasons but I would
consider a chemical method for my long standing specimen plants that
I overwinter,
Help would be greatly appreciated ,

'Some time since I had this problem but am I not right in thinking
that it is all down to the compost. The scariad larvae thrive in peat
(type) composts living off decaying vegetable matter. Once established
they will attack new fine root growth which leads to more decaying
vegetable matter.
Using a loam based compost is the solution - I think.
I think Eyebright has the right solution in the post just before yours. You
see by eliminating the opportunity for the adult fly to lay their eggs on
any type of compost will solve the problem. Eyebright's suggestion of
putting what I call a fine gravel on the surface of the pots does not allow
the adults to lay their eggs in a medium that allows the eggs to grow and
flourish. Their eggs will dry up and as Eyebright suggests-end of problem.
Where to get this 'gravel'? At the beach of course...with a spaghetti
sieve...perfect gravel. Never done it but it seems to me it might work...the
sieve I mean.
Bill

Hello again Allen,
I try to be clean with my growing methods cleaning my pots with Jeyes and using fresh compost for every new seedling,
Cheers,
Tom2

Hello again Allen,
I try to be clean with my pots I use jeyes for cleaning and fresh compost for every seedling,
Cheers,
Tom2

Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your suggestions I will certainly try these out,
Tom2

Thanks eyebright,
I am going to try this gravel business if the life cycle CAN be broken then this is the obviouse route,
Tom2

Thanks for the suggestion Ned,
But I have grown plants in soil based composts and I think they have a down side the pots are invariably heavier and the compost always seems to be colder until of course we get into the season of higher temperatures
Thanks again,
Tom2

Yes Bill,
I am going to try this gravel lark.
Many thanks,
Tom2

"bill" wrote in message
...
On 1/7/05 3:36 PM, in article , "ned"
wrote:

Tom2 wrote:
Hello folks,
HELP PLEASE, I grow vegatables and salads in pots but I am
constantly
bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty larva in the compost,
I
read somewhere that the fly does little harm but that has not
been
my
experience as I have found that any plant that has got these
maggots
in the compost do not thrive and in a number of cases they are
positively sickly, the ideal solution (If there is one) would be
something along organic lines for obvious reasons but I would
consider a chemical method for my long standing specimen plants
that
I overwinter,
Help would be greatly appreciated ,

'Some time since I had this problem but am I not right in thinking
that it is all down to the compost. The scariad larvae thrive in
peat
(type) composts living off decaying vegetable matter. Once
established
they will attack new fine root growth which leads to more decaying
vegetable matter.
Using a loam based compost is the solution - I think.
I think Eyebright has the right solution in the post just before
yours. You
see by eliminating the opportunity for the adult fly to lay their
eggs on
any type of compost will solve the problem. Eyebright's suggestion
of
putting what I call a fine gravel on the surface of the pots does
not allow
the adults to lay their eggs in a medium that allows the eggs to
grow and
flourish. Their eggs will dry up and as Eyebright suggests-end of
problem.
Where to get this 'gravel'? At the beach of course...with a
spaghetti
sieve...perfect gravel. Never done it but it seems to me it might
work...the
sieve I mean.

No argument from me. Sure, a layer of coarse (well washed seaside!)
sand over the compost will do precisely as you say. But using the loam
based compost removes the danger at source. I'd prefer not to attract
the flies (Fungus Gnats) into the greenhouse in the first place,
rather than fight rear guard action against them breeding. :-))

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 30.12.2004

In article , Tom2 Tom2.1ijuzm@news
..gardenbanter.co.uk writes

Hello again Allen,
I try to be clean with my growing methods cleaning my pots with Jeyes
and using fresh compost for every new seedling,
Cheers,

That's good management. You have had a number of very useful suggestions
to try, so the only thing I will add is to isolate any infected used
compost on disposal. It can be brought back into your system later on.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 23:32:16 +0000, Eyebright
wrote:

~
~Tom2 Wrote:
~ Hello folks,
~ HELP PLEASE, constantly bothered with scariad flies and the maggoty
~ larva in the compost
~
~cover the surface of the containers with a 1 cm layer of 5-10mm sharp
~grit...adults can't access the compost surface they need to lay eggs
~into...hey presto...!!! life cycle broken, problem eliminated.
~
~

And in the meantime, get some yellow sticky traps, the mini ones that
come with wire stands. Stick them amongst the pots and they will catch
the adults.

I hardly have a sciarid problem now, and all I really did was put up
traps.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!