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how to get rid of compost midges?

sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

i have 2 x aloe vera plants and an advacado on a north facing windowsill indoors and there is a what are like beer flies/compost midges? flying around the plants, i have re-potted them taking off the top of the soil and replacing and have toppped it off with gravel now but they are still appearing. Apart from clapping like a loon trying to catch them what else can be done to keep them at bay?

thanks in advance 

Posts

  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,336

    Hoover?image

    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    redwing that's a possibility image but i would like them gone or know what i am doing to encourage them, it's an advacado plant btw not just a random advacado on the window sill.

  • If you've covered the surface with gravel, you are probably just seeing the flies hatching from the larvae which were already in the soil.  If the flies can't lay eggs in the soil they will disappear soon.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    thank you bob, i did scrape off the top couple of inches of previous soil and replace with fresh before putting on gravel

    do you know why they appear in the first place, they must originate from somewhere, like compost/fruit/bar/ flys where do they come from, they are all the same size maybe they are all the same thing??

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    thank you aym :)

  • You know that gravel you use in fish tanks? I use it for all sorts of pot plants and it stops most everything except spike moss....

    Everyone likes butterflies. Nobody likes caterpillars.
  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    thank you, i have now covered all the houseplants in gravel, i reckon it must have been in the b&q compost to start with as everything i have recently potted up with it now has a little midge collection of flying blighters above it 

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    mmmmm.... so do i just put it in a bowl, uncovered or covered? and for how long in the microwave and what power setting please, i wouldn't normally buy b&q but was it was only place i could feasibly get to on that day :( won't be doing that again, 

  • sanjy67sanjy67 Posts: 1,007

    hahaha my houseplants will look rather strange though image

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