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  • From: Carolyn Ulrich <cultivated@sbcglobal.net>
  • To: gardenwriters-on-gardening <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [gwl-g] Feverfew
  • Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 17:11:34 -0600

I said this would elicit responses. c

On Monday, February 28, 2005, at 04:33 PM, Hamptongar@aol.com wrote:

I'm wondering why the fungus gnats show up every February and where they're coming from.  I guess it's possible that the feverfew is suppressing the gnat population but one key question is if it's effecting their reproduction or if you have some other cultural change that's effecting the gnat population.  Are you watering with something different?  Is the pollen reaching the soil?  The gnats lay their eggs in the soil and that's where the larvae develop.  Have you seen any signs of the tiny, nearly clear larvae at the soil surface?  Do you use yellow sticky traps to monitor?  Are you certain they are fungus gnats and not shore flies?
 

Andrew Messinger
The Hampton Gardener
The Hampton Gardener is a Registered Trade Mark
(Published every Thursday in the Southampton Press)


Well, Andrew, I think the gnats are coming out of my own compost. This particular set of lights is isolated in the basement and I use it to force some of my garden plants and winter over some others. I do a little seed raising down there too but the conditions are not all that clean because of the garden plants.

I have never heard of shore flies and have not made a definitive id, just assumed they were the common fungus gnats. I suspect the gnats are landing on the pollen-laden flowers, but some pollen must reach the soil also.

Whatever the little critters are, they are the same as I have had other years but they have not multiplied this year and may even have died out. I haven't changed anything else and water with plain tap water.

Betty:
 
Without sending you a graphic of both insects there is one easy way to know which is which.  Fungus gnats will congregate around the soil and rarely land on foliage.  Shore flies will rest of the foliage and they will leave tiny black dots behind.  The shore flies won't land on the soil.  The problem with fungus gnats is that the larvae will eat seedlings as they emerge from seeds.  I did work on fungus gnats when I was teaching horticulture and at first they were thought to be benign.  Now we know that they are not only feeders in the larval stage but they can also transmit some diseases as well.
 

Andrew Messinger
The Hampton Gardener
The Hampton Gardener is a Registered Trade Mark
(Published every Thursday in the Southampton Press)

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