If you have several plants at home, you have probably already spotted them: mourning flies. They are small, black flies that resemble fruit flies. Only they don’t fly around your fruit bowl, but near your houseplants. Very annoying, but luckily we have the solution to make your house and plants free of mourning flies!
What is a mourning fly?
The mourning fly is often confused with the fruit fly. The difference is in the color and the season they are active. A fruit fly is brown in color, and a mourning fly is black. However, the color of such a fly is of course difficult to see when it is so small and flies around quickly. You can therefore also recognize them by the period in which you find them. For example, fruit flies are mainly active in the summer. If you see them outside of the summer, you are probably dealing with mourning flies.
Where do mourning flies come from?
Mourning flies are mainly attracted to moist soil and rotting roots. The females, who only live for a day or two, lay an average of 200 (!) eggs at a time. The larvae love the wet soil and hang around here. A plague is therefore quickly caused.
The solution
Of course you want to get rid of it as soon as possible. The following tips will help you with this:
Find out which plant is infected. Then set these aside so that no more plants are infected.
Place a container of wine next to the infected plant, this attracts the flies. Then the flies drown in the drink.
Place the infected plant in another pot with new (dry) soil. Make sure you don’t water the plant right away so that the flies don’t have a chance to come back.
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Prevent mourning flies
It is of course best to prevent the critters from nesting in your beloved plants. The following tips will help you with this:
Do not water your plants too much. Of course you want your plant to grow, but too little water is always better than too much.
Remove dead, fallen leaves from the plant as soon as possible. These can rot, which attracts mourning flies.
Place your plant in a pot with a hole in the bottom. This way the excess water can easily wash away and you prevent root rot and therefore mourning flies.
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Source: Own Home & Garden
