Forked leaf sundew (pink flower)

A while ago, I said that ‘There is life in my plants. Some of this life is even wanted.’ I didn’t tell you what the unwanted life was.

Every now and again, I buy pots of herbs from Tesco thinking that I’ll grow them and have lots of lovely fresh herbs. However, I always end up chucking them out because of all the little flies that appear round the plants. This time has been no exception, and, annoyingly, they’re also crawling round my repotted peace lilies and another plant that I put with the herbs in the back porch. This time, I decided I’d do something about it.

I discovered that they’re fungus gnats (aka sciarid flies). The larvae eat plant roots; healthy plants will be ok, but seedlings and weak plants can be damaged. Given what I did to my poor peace lily, I dread to think what damage the larvae might do.

There are several ways to get rid of fungus gnats:
1. reduce the amount of water you give the plants
2. put a good layer of gravel on the top of the soil
3. use flypaper
4. use anti-sciarid-fly nematodes
5. put a sundew plant next to them.

I outline below how I got on with each one.

1. Reduced watering. The basil is very unhappy and the rosemary is quite unhappy. The coriander has flowered. There seem to be fewer flies around, though.

2. Somehow I missed the gravel, so didn’t get any. Something to put on the shopping list.

3. The flypaper doesn’t seem to be very vegan, and it’s disgusting.

4. The idea of nematodes (roundworms) revolts not only me, but also Mr Pandammonium. The reviews online claim they’re effective, but the smallest packet is to cover twelve square metres, which is excessive. Also, what happens to them once they’ve eaten all the larvae – do they die?

5. I ordered a sundew plant (Drosera binata var multifida) and it arrived today. What have I done?!

The sundew wants to be kept wet at this time of year with rain water or distilled water. Alas, I have none of the former to hand, so I wondered how I could acquire/make some distilled water without lab equipment. I had a half-baked idea that involved the kettle, a pan and maybe a carafe or a jug.

When I went to retrieve the pan, I noticed my moka pot collection. A light bulb went off: moka pots work by distilling water!

I put the moka pot on, and it distilled some water for me. The water is cooling down now, then I’ll see about watering this sundew and putting it amongst the affected plants.