Discontinued Bio Sprayday

Hi,
My indoor orchids are infested with little black flies.

Years ago, if I had this problem I diluted Bio Sprayday in a bucket and submerged each plant for a few minutes. Then this product was discontinued.

The advice I then found was to repot plants after washing off all the old compost. I have done this a few times but it doesn't get rid of the flies completely.

Bio Sprayday came in a concentrated form but I can only find ready-to-use sprays that I don't really want to use indoors. Does anyone know if there is anything like the old Bio Sprayday?

 

Hi,

Probably best to use some Provado Ultimate Bug Killer Concentrate and dilute that and make up a Dench like you have done before.
Suggest you use rubber gloves when handling it.

Sounds like you are troubled by the Scarid Fly aka Peat Fly, so the drench will kill the flies and their larve but you might have to repeat the application a few weeks later in case any eggs hatch out.

Just a question, you say "compost" do you mean a peat type of compost or more the typical orchid bark chip types which we use, though rarely have much trouble with those Scarid flies, they tend to stick to the pots with the peat type of compost.

 

Hi wildside, another tip for getting rid of sciarid flies is to stick some matches head-side down in the compost. It really works, although you need to renew them after a few weeks.

 

Thanks for your reply ricky101. I should have said orchid bark chips rather than compost as that is what I use. I will check out your suggestion.

Matches are interesting. I thought I had accidentally found a remedy with soda crystals.

I had a jar of diluted soda crystals to soak stained tea-spoons and found a couple of dead flies floating on the top. So it stayed in front of the window and seemed to keep working. So I put a second jar beside one of the plants that seems to be badly infected and not a single fly after several days.

I suspect it is the reflection of the outside on the top of the liquid rather than the effect of soda crystals that attracts them.