FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So i just got a delivery of my 6 new plants 3 of which are venus fly traps and 3 sundews
The problem i have is these worms/ larvae but i dont know what they are? Anyone could help that would be great!


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They look like fungus gnat larvae. They'll gnaw on the plant roots and weaken the plants. The adults are basically harmless except for that whole egg-laying thing. They don't like dryer soil but that not a great option for CP growers. However, indoor growers of other types of plants frequently buy a carnivorous plant or two (pings or drosera) to rid their collection of the bugs by eating the adults. Unless you have a really bad infestation, once your drosera get dewy again, they should take care of them in a few weeks. Of course, you can use it as an excuse to buy more drosera and maybe a ping or two...

evenwind wrote:They look like fungus gnat larvae. They'll gnaw on the plant roots and weaken the plants. The adults are basically harmless except for that whole egg-laying thing. They don't like dryer soil but that not a great option for CP growers. However, indoor growers of other types of plants frequently buy a carnivorous plant or two (pings or drosera) to rid their collection of the bugs by eating the adults. Unless you have a really bad infestation, once your drosera get dewy again, they should take care of them in a few weeks. Of course, you can use it as an excuse to buy more drosera and maybe a ping or two...

Haha thanks for the advice my collection has quite grown again so im happy about that, i currently have 2 adults butterworts and 2 babies and now with the new additions i have 4 sundews and about 9 fly traps


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Buying more CPs isn’t really going to take care of the problem. You would just be adding more wet soil for them to live in. Go get you some mosquito dunks/bits at Walmart or any home improvement store. Crush up about a quarter of one dunk in a gallon of water and mix it up. Then water your plants with that. It is a bacteria that will kill the larva naturally and do absolutely no harm to your plants. Problem solved.

KategoricalKarnivore wrote:Buying more CPs isn’t really going to take care of the problem. You would just be adding more wet soil for them to live in. Go get you some mosquito dunks/bits at Walmart or any home improvement store. Crush up about a quarter of one dunk in a gallon of water and mix it up. Then water your plants with that. It is a bacteria that will kill the larva naturally and do absolutely no harm to your plants. Problem solved.

Wont that harm the plants i know most pesticides cant be used on them ?


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It’s not a pesticide. It a bacteria that kills all forms of larva. Completely harmless to any and every plant. And I use Bayer 3 in 1 all the time in my CPs. There are tons of pesticides you can use on them.

Check this video out for suggestions of pesticides. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbRCdJ8ZNF0

KategoricalKarnivore wrote:Check this video out for suggestions of pesticides. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbRCdJ8ZNF0

Ahh thanks, i normally dilute dish soap with water and remove as i see but things are now wriggling underneath. P.s im in the UK but i will look out for that cause ive started my collection again and i dont want them to spread to every plant.


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UK eh, try this it worked for me 2 year ago and I haven't seen any since. You can't overdo it so just use enough water for you plants, water as normal but just adding these. They do nothing to the plant, I did use a lot of fly paper also in the same room as the infected plants. so just type this into Amazon uk
Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer

93pirks wrote:UK eh, try this it worked for me 2 year ago and I haven't seen any since. You can't overdo it so just use enough water for you plants, water as normal but just adding these. They do nothing to the plant, I did use a lot of fly paper also in the same room as the infected plants. so just type this into Amazon uk
Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer

Just found it thanks, looks like a powder i add to water right ?


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Yes rain water or distilled water etc, supposed to add it to a gallon or so but I never used that much water but still used all the packet just in a lot less water. I didn't need to treat all of my plants just around 6 of them that were in a particular room.
The adults are poor flyers and mainly stay close to the plants so use fly paper also near the plants and use a LOT of them. If you Kill the adults they can't breed, if you kill the larvae they won't grow into adults.

93pirks wrote:Yes rain water or distilled water etc, supposed to add it to a gallon or so but I never used that much as I didn't need to treat all my plants just around 6 of them that were in a particular room. The adults are poor flyers and mainly stay close to the plants so use fly paper also near the plants and use a LOT of them. If you Kill the adults they can't breed, if you kill the larvae they won't grow into adults.

Sound like a plan, must protect the babies, too many have fallen!


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