Flies on Chilli Plants

[maytreefrannie]

I've got some chilli plants (plenty of leaves but no flowers yet) in pots - the problem is, there seem to be loads of little black flies around them. Has anyone got ideas on how to get rid of them? I tried my one and only fly idea - washup liquid and water, but no joy.

If anyone knows how to get rid of them, I'd really appreciate your help.

This may have been raised before, but I tried searching to no result. I seem to be rubbish at using Search.

Thanks.

[Leeds_lad]

I had this problem a few weeks back. I tackled it by growing a nasturtium a bit away from the plant. This seems to now attract all the flies to it instead of my important cropping plants, and i simply just throw away leaves if they become heavily infected.

[Vagetarian]

Are they blackfly as in aphids? They don't seem too bothered by my peppers, they'd rather have my sweet peas.

The fairy liquid should work. You could also try squashing them by hand, pyrethrum based sprays should work and are organic.

As for me, I have decided that I don't have enough time to spray with fairy liquid/pyrethrum all the time (both must be repeated) so instead I am trying to attract aphid predators which obviously won't like insecticides themselves. Ladybird and hoverfly numbers are increasing and I bought 250 lacewing larvae to release into the garden, not sure if they're actually still alive or not however.

[Two_Sheds]

there seem to be loads of little black flies around them.

Probably fungus gnats, you might be overwatering

[Two_Sheds]

I seem to be rubbish at using Search.

Try fungus + gnat (titles only)

although tbh, the search function isn't as good as it used to be. "Titles only" doesn't seem to work right: you now get any posts at all with "fungus" or "gnat" in them, instead of only posts about fungus gnats

here's one I made earlier: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ats_30151.html

[Flummery]

There's something in me water that tells me that flies pollinate chillies? Or did I dream that?

[maytreefrannie]

Thanks everyone, I've learned quite a bit from this thread alone.

I frequently wonder at how little I know.

[Vagetarian]

There's something in me water that tells me that flies pollinate chillies? Or did I dream that?

I don't know how specifically you mean "flies" but there are fairly standard looking black flies (which could be mistaken for other, less friendly flies) that are pollinators, but I think these are much less common than the blackfly and fungus gnat.

I've witnessed all 3, if they're hanging about the leaves they're probably aphids, if they're hanging about on the surface of the pot (give it a tap and watch them fly off - they look similar to fruit flies) they're fungus gnats and if they're in the flowers, they're probably the good guys!