I love violets and saw some at Lowe's today that had just freshly arrived, but upon getting violets I seem to always end up throwing them out. Within 3 to 4 months I will begin to see the plants starting to shrivel and look so pitiful. I will begin to notice ever so tiny little black flying insects and upon stirring around in the soil of the violets will see these nasty little creatures within the soil. I could have cried one time with this infestation and had to toss out about 20 of those once beautiful plants. I would love to try once more to grow these pretty indoor plants but just a little skeptic to try again. What are these little bugs and can I treat the soil in way to either prevent them or get rid of them to save the plant?
Need help on bug, bugging my violets?
Hi seedy
Those little bugs are fungus gnats. IMO they are more of a nuisance than harmful. I'm sure some will disagree. The best thing to do is repot your violets into good potting soil. I let my plants dry out a little between waterings. The gnats like a wet environment and peaty soil. As far as getting rid of them, I don't know. I don't get them too often and when I do I just put up with them until they go away.
I had them in several plants over the winter, from where I brought stuff in from on the balcony last fall. I agree that they are more of a nuisance than anything. Drove my hubby nuts throughout the winter. Not sure what you use to get rid of them... Someone will post an answer to that question I'm sure.
Karen
if you look around DG, you will find tons of posts on how to get rid of fungus gnats. They have two life stages that are important for control - one is the flying stage and the other is the larval stage. The flying aged ones are harder to control, but yellow sticky traps work, as does growing carnivorous plants (like butterwort/pinguicula - we had a thread on this in this forum too). Yellow sticky traps are also good for monitoring - makes it easier to notice that you have some flying around.
For an infestation, though, it is faster and more effective to control them at the larval stage. Various things will work. Imidacloprid - a systemic most commonly used for mealies - will work. If you have a supply of Marathon (one form of imidacloprid), you can use that in the soil. If you like to use Bayer Advanced' rose and flower or tree and shrub as a drench, you can do that. (Same thing, different formula.) Yesterday I found that Bayer Advanced has a new product of the same thing (different formula) in granular form with a mild fertilizer (2-1-1) - since I've run out of Marathon and don't have a source for it, i will be giving this a go. Good thing about this is that it's systemic. Bad thing is that it's not good for some living things like fish. Imidacloprid is not available in Canada (from what I hear) partly because the residual imidacloprid water will have bad effects if it runs into the ground water.
If you like drenching your pots with water with added bleach, that will work. (I've never done it though.) The bacillus t. that is used to control mosquito larvae will also work - some people water with Mosquito Dunk water (it didn't work for me) or with Knock Out Gnats from gardensalive.com (works like a charm). I use a solution of OrangePlus household cleaner as a drench - this isn't formulated for plants but it works fine and smells ok and is safe for using in the kitchen.
These kinds of non-residual drenches should be applied once a week until at least one week after you see the last of the flying adults.
If you want to go even safer, there is the "trap" method. Put slices of raw potatoes on the soil surface and replace every morning. The larvae find it a better source of food than plant roots and will usually eat their way into it.
Whatever you do, continue the treatment until at least a week after the last of the flying ones are seen.
And a note about them liking wet conditions. This is true, but it is also true that I've had them multiply in pots that I keep very very dry.
Thanks so much for all the info.. I just might buy some more. I really had to throw away about 20 plants one time. Not so much from the infestation, but they literally were killing the plants. Just made me sick to think of the time and pleasure I had gotten out of them, I had been told by a neighbor that you should quarantine a new plant, as you could sometimes bring those pesky litle gnats in with a new plant. Does this stand to reason? I know I cannot stand to have those gnats flying in my face at the computer, drives my DH nuts. So will give these methods of eradication a try. Wish me luck!!!