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Gardeners’ Forum: “unwanted flies”

• unwanted flies

  Posted by Cammy Tibbo on Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:01 pm AST

  My husband and I bought a house somewhat in the country a little more than a year ago so all types of gardening is new to me. I just loved planting last summer and watching everything grow. I've also planted things inside and my problem is these annoying tiny little flies that like to linger around my plants and flowers. Does anyone know how to get rid of them?

  • re: unwanted flies

    Posted by Ron Poppa on Sunday, January 27, 2008 8:11 pm AST

    These flies are White Fly and can be a serious pest on house plants! There are a few methods that can be us safely indoors One is yellow stickly tape called Safer's Sticky Strips and another for house plants called Safer's Sticky Stiks that work well to control these pests. The are attracted to the yellow color of the strips and stick to it and die. It will take a few weeks to kill them all since these White Fly lay eggs which need to go through a larval period on the plants before they turn into flying adults. Any of the liquid Safer's insecticides work great, but you will need to reapply the insecticide over a period of time to kill off all the larval and adult stages of the White Fly.

  • re: unwanted flies

    Posted by Roseanne Blades on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 12:29 pm AST

    I also had this problem and found the insecticide either did not work or took too long. I found this idea on another forum. Pour white sand, you can get bags of it from building supply places,all over the top of the plant. It does not allow the larvae to hatch and to become flies. After a period of time I take out the sand and top up with soil.