Basil plant and flies

curiousb

I have a lovely basil plant in the kitchen which is unfortunately attracting loads is tiny flies. I am continually killing them off but they keep coming back.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of them, non-chemically?

HeidiHeidi

I had one on my (very sunny) kitchen windowsill last summer, and had to throw it out in the end, it was revolting. From what I gather this just happens some of them, not sure there's much you can do about it.

Ditch it, and grow another one?

That's my highly unscientific, and probably not very helpful, suggestion

looksee

You could make up a bowl of cold water with a tiny drop of washing up liquid well swished into it, then dunk the leaves into it (hold the pot with your fingers over the compost) and give it a good wash. It will take a few minutes as the water will initially tend to form bubbles over the flies, rather than washing them off.

If that doesn't work then I think HeidiHeidi's suggestion is as good as any, but leave a few days between disposing of the old one and introducing a new one.

curiousb

THanks for the suggestions! I'll try washing, and failing that, replacing.

él statutorio

make sure you scrub everything afterwards. i had these bugs before and it was only by putting everything outside in the severe winter 2 years ago that i finally killed them off.

curiousb

The basil is too delicate unfortunately for that, it'd get killed off along with the bugs!

I'll try the washing first! I seem to remember someone suggesting using a water sprayer to spray the leaves with the mixture.

Cardinal Richelieu

curiousb wrote: »

The basil is too delicate unfortunately for that, it'd get killed off along with the bugs!

I'll try the washing first! I seem to remember someone suggesting using a water sprayer to spray the leaves with the mixture.

Yeah I use one of these with diluted washing up liquid

henryporter

Try boiling a few cloves of garlic in water for 15 minutes, let the water cool and then use than instead of water with washing up liquid in it - much better to use a garlic based spray than eating washing up liquid

planetX

Sound like mushroom flies, they are coming from little grubs in the compost. They're a notorious pest of peaty composts and eat seedlings. They often come with supermarket plants, and there isn't really a way to get rid of them. You could try washing all the compost off the roots, and planting in a non-peat compost - keep the plant in another room away from the flies.
Or just use up all the basil leaves and start again with a new plant, you might be luckier next time.