I will be interested to see how well they control your pests, Rick

I have a terrible time with aphids and the fungus gnats indoors.

i purchased several batches of ladybugs this summer to take out the aphids … worked well IMHO

dave

These topical Pinguicula from Mexico work great for fungus gnats and grow well under lights. I brought these two plants in yesterday and put them on my light stand after seeing some fungus gnats flying around my adeniums. Each plant only had 2 or 3 on them when I brought them in look at how many they caught just overnight. These Pings will also color up and compact under the lights and have a beautiful pink bloom.

John

Here are a few pictures I took of the flowers from the plants last year.

That is interesting, John. I actually went out looking for "Sundew's" (Drosera capensis) for the Fungus Knats.

Rick

Yes Rick Drosera capensis might actually do even better than the pings. The capenis are also super easy to grow from seed.

Ehh, carnivorous plants can be a bit of a pain, though. You have to used distilled water, and such for most of them.

They're really cool, but I've never had much luck with them

Well I can report that my "Stratiolaelaps" that I purchased to get rid of the Fungus Knats has worked tremendously and so far the "Persimillis" (spider mite preditor) is has shown good results.

Definitely worth it for myself and way less headaches w these issues.

Rick

Yeah, and then there's a few diseases (admittedly very rare ones) that can be transmitted by dry sphagnum moss. Some kind of skin fungus and a respiratory infection or something. You're supposed to wear gloves and a mask when handling it.

Since they're a pain AND I'm now too much of a coward to deal with the dried long fiber moss, I'm out, LOL.

Ignorance is bliss.

Azomite doubles as diatomaceous earth, which apparently is like putting shattered glass in the soil for the maggots to die on, (that's what I used). There are some microbes ( a specific subspecies of Bacillus thuringiensis?, I think) that will kill them too.

I hate fungus gnats. They form huge snakes of larve to travel too. eww and euuuggg. There is no such thing as too far when it comes to killing them. Biological warfare is always on the table.

Just use one of the active treatments. Carnivorous plants just don't kill enough of them to put a dent in the infestation.

Richard, I'm glad it's working for for you. Predatory mites are great, I've heard they work really well.

I would be cautious about the fungus gnat infestation. You might just be in the calm between broods. The maggots live in the soil and might take a while to emerge. Or maybe you caught them early on. My infestation had hundreds of gnats.

Diatomaceous and a bug zapper worked great for me. Putting a dry top dressing like gravel on the top of the soil also works pretty well.

Use Bt with water.

Pagan

There HAS to be someone among us who can draw a cartoon of Pagans plant patrolling to hunt down baddies.

I'm not sure that a green thumb is compatible with the artistic touch. Not that I'm naturally talented at growing stuff either, or there wouldn't be much point in visiting this website.

Half the reason I grow stuff is to get the sense of artistic accomplishment because I can't draw.

Dunno about the rest of you.