Beginner Gardening: How do I get rid of this plague of compost flies?, 0 by MrYossu

MrYossu wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for the reply. I just had a look at the bag of potting mixture I used, and it says that it has high water retention "to reduce the time spent watering" which sounds like it could be the problem. I assumed (obviously wrongly) that if I made sure to empty out any ater that drained through into the dish below the pot, then I would be OK. I never thought about how much water stayed in the sol itself.

Is there anything I can do, other than repot all the plants, presumably removing ALL the old soil in the process? Apart from the time this would take, I'm worried about damaging the plants and their roots.

Thanks again

P.S. I managed to get a few pics of the flies, which I'll upload in case it helps.