Flower midges or sciarids are unwanted inhabitants of flower containers with houseplants. They appear in humid conditions, when the soil mixture, due to excessive flooding, constantly remains sufficiently moist. Most often this happens in the autumn-winter period. Flower midges do not harm indoor crops, except for the loss of their aesthetic appearance, but their larvae can destroy the root part. With a large accumulation of larvae on the surface of the substrate, it is recommended to urgently transplant into a new soil mixture.
Prevention of the appearance of flower midges
To prevent the flower midge from settling in pots with indoor plants, you must follow a few simple rules of care:
- The volume and frequency of watering must meet the requirements of the plant; excess moisture in the soil and constant waterlogging must not be allowed;
- The next watering should be carried out only after the top layer of the substrate has dried by about one and a half centimeters;
- It is recommended to regularly loosen the soil in the container;
- Use ordinary settled or purified water for irrigation, experiments with coffee or tea liquid will quickly attract the pest to the plant;
- To soften the irrigation water, it is recommended to boil or freeze it; you can add a small amount of peat;
- Flowers should be inspected regularly for signs of pests;
- When diseased leaves appear, they urgently need to be pruned.
How to deal with flower midges
When these intruders appear, you can use one of the proven methods of struggle.
Flower flies cannot tolerate the presence of sulfur, which is used on matches. For a medium-sized pot, it is enough to stick four matches (with sulfur heads down) into the soil in different places and water it a little. During daily inspection, it is important to replace matches on time when there is no sulfur, and there should be at least four such replacements. This method allows you to deal with midges for almost free.
It is recommended to use a weak manganese solution for watering. If the concentration of manganese is exceeded, the root part of the plant can be destroyed, so you need to be very careful when making the solution.
As irrigation water, you can take a weak solution based on liquid toilet or laundry soap.
A solution for watering the soil and spraying a flower is prepared from 1 liter of water (boiling water) and 3 heads of garlic. The solution infused for 4 hours is filtered and used as directed. It should be noted that the room will be filled with garlic aroma for a long time.
The crushed orange peel pieces must be pushed into the soil in different parts of the flower container.
Garlic cloves, cut in half, can be spread on the surface of the soil with the cut pieces down. The garlic aroma will be very strong, so this method is only suitable for those who are tolerant of this spice.
Some growers recommend using Raptor to combat the pest.
All kinds of chemical preparations for fighting a large number of harmful insects in the form of a pencil (for example, "Mashenka" or "Volcano") are also recommended to be used to destroy flower midges. With a pencil, it is necessary to draw lines on the walls of the flower pot, in powder form (or in the form of small shavings) it is scattered over the entire soil surface.
For those who do not really trust folk recipes for fighting midges, it is necessary to purchase special preparations - "Mukhoed", "Thunder 2" and "Bazudin".
