Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Pests for the Holidays?

Brrr.....I'm a tad bit chilly while writing this. I'm certainly not acclimated to the cold temperatures that appeared last night. All my plants are safely stowed away either in the house, the shed or my makeshift greenhouse that my hubby constructs for me in the winter. Hopefully, you had the opportunity to move your plants to somewhere that they won't be damaged by freezing temperatures.

With moving of plants indoors during the winter as well as the holidays being upon us, many people see small gnats flying in the house. This can be a common affliction with indoor plants whether they're houseplants, poinsettias for the holidays or for those outdoors plants being temporarily stored indoors until temperatures warm back up outside. Fungus gnats are small flies that are blackish with long legs. Since they're flies, they only have two wings. Fungus gnats may be seen indoors flying around potted plants. Larvae are maggot-like and live in the soil of potted plants.

Fungus gnats are usually a problem when plant soil stays moist from overwatering. A simple way to get rid of the gnats is to reduce the water supplied to the plant by only watering the plant when the soil is dry. Reducing the water supply will get rid of the larvae so will eventually reduce the adult gnats seen flying around. There is no good way to get rid of the adults that are already present- maybe try flypaper near the plants or physically smashing the gnats.

The boy's update....
The boy is doing great (and is why I haven't been posting here like I normally do). He's a little over a month old now and up to about 11 pounds already.
He's such a good baby; we really couldn't ask for more! He's becoming more aware of everything- smiling, cooing and looking around. We are really enjoying spending time with him and have gotten our schedule pretty much adjusted. I'm sure we'll go through another schedule adjustment when I return to work later this month.