Flies

I went to do my regular 3 day water and noticed tiny flies in the soil, none are on the plants and they dont seem to be damaged in anyway. I got some insectiside to spray the leaves just in case, is there anything I can put in the soil that will kill them and not the plant.

Ok so I got up this morning and my plants are getting yellow tips on lower leaves and some have little brown patches.

Any help would be great.

the flies arent harmful, but they come from larvae in the earth and they eat the roots........ im not sure how to get rid of them......

I read about neem oil, ordered some today, hopefully this will kill them.

Hmmm.. I have seen these also. Looking at one my younger plants today I noticed a small slit in on an upper leaf. Let me know how the neem oil works out. I didn't know that they eat the roots.

i had mites a week ago and i def recommend the neem oil spray....it works really well....and if you see them in the soil i suggest transplanting it soon....it can get pretty bad pretty fast...since the spray my plant has started to grow ad now its about to get its next node

DocGreenThumb said:

Hmmm.. I have seen these also. Looking at one my younger plants today I noticed a small slit in on an upper leaf. Let me know how the neem oil works out. I didn't know that they eat the roots.

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I actually noticed a couple of flies a couple of weeks ago but getting them here all the time I thought nothing of it, you need to get some insecticide ASAP, kill the flies so they don't lay any more eggs, I took one of the plants out of its soil to transplant and there were grubs all over the place, I think the blood n bone mix attacted them, the roots are still big and bushy though, the plants are still pointing up to the light, even after a transpalnt.

the flies are bad. buy some proper stuff before they start eating buds.
you can also mix dish soap with water spray all over the plants even under the leafs, then whipe, untill clear, do this every 2 days till they are gone, but if your going to be growing, then get some stuff, cos if you have flies now, how many will you have in the summer. have you any pics, but it sound like white fly. bad. bad. kill kill now now.

mobby420 said:

the flies arent harmful, but they come from larvae in the earth and they eat the roots........ im not sure how to get rid of them......

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who told you that flies arnt bad for plants.
they turn the plants a diff shade. bad
they ruin the plants leafs ect
then start to get in the buds and eat them. oh and eat the roots like you said.
if that isnt bad, then i dont know what.
read up b4 you go making statments that could kill of fuck up a newbys grow.

Please be careful about what you put on your plants!!! I almost killed all of mine by spraying some "organic" crap on them. Pick up one of these or some simple fly paper strips. I had a gnat problem and hung one of them up and it's covered with gnats and none in my cabinet. I've been told not to breathe the vapors from the no pest strip so be careful not to keep your head in your grow room too long if you use this:

little black flies also known as fruit flies live for less than 24 hours and do not eat the buds or leaves... we are not talking about mites. the only thing thats bad is the larvae they lay in the earth and those eat the roots until they fly up out of the soil.

crazy-mental said:

who told you that flies arnt bad for plants.
they turn the plants a diff shade. bad
they ruin the plants leafs ect
then start to get in the buds and eat them. oh and eat the roots like you said.
if that isnt bad, then i dont know what.
read up b4 you go making statments that could kill of fuck up a newbys grow.

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Are they white or black flies?

My understanding with white flies is that the damage is already done once you see the flies as the damage is done by the larvae they come from. Not sure about a cure.

You might try hydrogen peroxide in the soil? Thats a tough one.

Someone on here surely has some experience.

Thats what I was hoping, The transplant did them good, I baked the soil in the oven for 40mins at high heat and as soon as it cooled swapped them over then watered them with a 17.5% N food combined with a bit of molasses and some plant vitamins, they actually grew overnight about 3cm and I had to move one as it burned its new leaf tip on the light bulb (I have them in sunlight during the day then 200w of flouro's overnight)

I think they were barflys/fruitflys, they started off kinda light brown but turned black, still got some neem oil on order for future use, this time of year in Brisbane, Australia is very humid and stormy so we get alot of insects making their way inside.

I'm going to go out and catch a couple of these babies off the plants next door, benficial little spider that eats anything that comes near the plant.

That little spider freaks me out!!

haha, the girlfriend won't even water them now unitl I get rid of "the demon creatures from hell"

they are only 2.5cm long!!

If those are fungus gnats, you can use a mosquito dunk. I bought them at a hardware store. It is used to treat standing water so that no mosquitos can breed. I have a five gallon bucket filled up and I placed a dunk in it. Everytime I water, I fill my jug half way with the dunk water and halh with normal water. I simply just fill the 5 gal bucket again. One dunk will last a month. It contains a substance that starts with a B. I can't think of the name. It is safe for the plants and it won't hurt your animals if the get into it. If you use it frequently, the substance builds up in the soil. It kills the Larvea before they can eat the roots. Get some sticky traps to catch the adults.
An adult fungus gnat can lay 200 eggs in the soil. So count the gnats you see and multiply. Scary. This is not a quick fix. It took me three weeks but the results were great. Also very cheap. 10 bucks for sticky traps and mosquito dunk.

The adults can suck on the leaves too.