greenhouse flys

I have had the heater on in my greenhouse for the past week, I went in today and there seems to be a lot of little black flys hovering around my chilli plants they rest in the soil until I disturb them does anyone know what they could be I have only really had ants in there this year and it seems quite late in the year to start getting whatever they are, could it be the extra heat? :(

 

sounds like sciarid fly

 

Hi Dalbuie,
i had a xmas cactus that i cut back this year, (it was do or die, it really needed perking up) so i cut it down put it out for the summer, and when i brought it back in again a few weeks ago, i noticed i had lots of these flies too, so i would be interested in learning more...i put my fly killer next to the plant but it didn't make a diference to the flies!
gill

 

These buggies sound very familiar - had them resting on the compost round my toms in the greenhouse this year. Does anyone in GC know if they are in anyway harmful ?

 

I too have had them in my greenhouse and even on my indoor plants. Disturb the compost and they hop/fly around. I haven't found they do harm, but then that could be masked by the harm of other pests.

 

I had a look in the greenhouse today and although there are rather a lot of them they don't seem to have done any damage(so far). I have never heard of the sciarid fly so I will have to look it up.

 

Hi Dalbuie
Have had a look for info about these little buggies myself - try the following link :-
http://www.organicgardening.org.uk/factsheets/pc22.php

If this link doesn't get you there, its factsheet PC22 on the HDRA site.
Cheers
Rat

 

they have maggots that eat rotting debris, if you have ever tried big seads in peat based compost which was too wet...say pea or bean seeds and when they didn't germinate dug them up to find little white maggots eating them, then these are sciarid fly grubs...the flies hopping about above are the adults (also called mushroom flies)keeping the compost on the dry side deters them, some sprays kill them or there are organic methods like predators, see here
http://www.defenders.co.uk/sciarid_fly.htm

 

mmm! charming little things, thanks sewer rat and steveW