Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 08:34:39 -0500 From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2299$foo@default> Subject: Re: Pest I.D.
Tierney,
I suspect your guess that they are fungus gnats is correct... the adult
gnats do no harm generally. The larvae chew on roots, which is
usually not a big deal for established adult plants, but it is a huge deal
for little baby seedlings, that have no roots to spare! They are
generally deadly for seedlings. You might want to try changing your
planting media... another good solution is to get a lot of Mexican
butterworts and put them right next to any plants suffering from fungus
gnats... they did wonders for the gnats eating my impatiens seedlings
on the windowsill this past spring!
Good luck! Susan (P.S. It was nice meeting you in San Francisco!)
> Hello,
> I'm hoping someone can identify a potential pest for me. My first
> guess is fungus gnat larvae. They are about 2 mm long, kinda
> translucent maggots with black mouthparts. I've always seen them in
my > pots but they never seemed to do any damage, and my pings
are always > covered with gnats, so I never worried. Now I've found
them in some > seedling trays which never had any germination. Does
anyone know what > they might be, and if they would eat
seeds/seedlings but not bother > adult plants? If they are fungus gnats,
how do you treat them? Thanks > for any help, Tierney San Jose CA
> > >
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402
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