Little crawling thing eating up my plants!

[Tom]

Hi ,

They are here again! After a rough facing in my Sarracenia few years ago (I won that battle with Safer's soap), little mosquitos/ Diptera larvaes are back, eating up my Drosera. These little worms are really nasty pests, can't be remove succesfully by hand, and Safer's insecticide soap on them would kill my precious sundews within a day!

Any advice on how to get rid of them? I threw out most infected plants, but I fear that they will come back. I think it is one of the same species which attack mushroom mycelium, since one of my Pleurotus inoculated log had some problems with them few months ago.

I am thinking about making a homemade insecticide with dish soap, oil and water, or perhaps use rotenone, but I prefer ask: Do any of you have any tricks to kick them out of my pots (the killing possibility is prefered to the repellant one)? Or a homemade insecticide (the less harmful chemical possible is the better) against these pests?

 

[Grim]

iv heard u can totally submerge plants like sundews and the pests will just....er... float away

 

[Tim]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Any advice on how to get rid of them? I threw out most infected plants,[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Bad. Next time send them to me rather than killing them. Go to a hardware store, buy a can of Raid, and spray them.

Yes, just as simple as that. If there's no Raid, then grab anything approved for use in the home, and use it. If you want to be a purist, make sure the active ingredient has "thrin" as the last five letters. But in any case, get a can of bug spray and spray them. Just a little at first, and either more or less one week later, depending on how the plants and bugs look at that time.

Regards
Tim

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Sounds like fungus gnat larvae to me.

Tony

 

[Tom]

Tony: yup it is, they come from a log of oyster mushroom I had in my room... any idea against them? I'll try to ID them, i have a book on this... Better know our enemy well

Tim: I haven't threw good plants to trash yet... The substrate thrown (well, i can call it like that, all what these pests leave are cutted leaves on the substrate). I don't like Raid very much, but it is a possibility in a heavy infestation... The word you were looking for was pyrethrin (well I only the right spelling in french, but it looks somewhat similar). Rotenone has it in too. I am growing the Chrysanthemum holding this chemical in it, hoping to make my own soon, but the flowers aren't ready yet. You tried Raid on Sundew and you had no ill effects?

I haven't had a lot of pests in 7 years of growing CP. The most frequent ones were aphids, and that's almost all, few tiny snails, birds going away with my Sarracenia's sphagnum moss in summer, CATS, and i have few thrips that don't hurt my plants apparently... But these little larvaes are really the worst one I've ever faced... For the moment, the 'spread' is controlled, but I am keeping an eye on them, perhaps a mass repotting will be to plan if there is no 'recipe', in the case of a come back (I am sure i'll have to face them again one day&#33

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