stevew Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 Found loads of these swimming in the water. Removed as many as I could, now noticed that some of them have crawled inside the pots from the bottom, and the hard husks of whatever they are remain on the surface of the soil -- presume they have burrowed through the soil to the surface and hatched. One Sarracenia has suddenly died, and my suspicion is that this is the cause!! They are about an inch long including the tail bit... Help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popespliff Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 Is it a Rat tailed maggot Eristalis tenax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimfoxy Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 (edited) I don't think they should be harming growing vegetation. They are commonly found in stagnant water with lots of organic material (e.g. sewage!) Usually, I think, CP water lacks the organic matter to support them. What have you got dying in there?! I can't remember seeing these in my CP water; usually I get mosquito larvae and other smaller water creatures. What about anybody else? They all turn into good CP food when they hatch! Edited July 28, 2009 by jimfoxy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevew Posted July 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 I don't think they should be harming growing vegetation. They are commonly found in stagnant water with lots of organic material (e.g. sewage!) Usually, I think, CP water lacks the organic matter to support them. What have you got dying in there?! I can't remember seeing these in my CP water; usually I get mosquito larvae and other smaller water creatures. What about anybody else? They all turn into good CP food when they hatch! Ah! I have seen these flies a lot in my g/h lately! The larvae were introduced (I think) when I used some rain-water from a water butt I recently put in. Okay, I need to re-wind... A few months ago (about April time) I connected a water-butt to my shed roof, which happens to be under a sycamore tree (neighbours tree). A few weeks later I started drawing water and it had a whiff of beer, like it was fermenting... probably a dumb idea to use it for my CPs in hind-sight. A few days later I noticed these strange larvae in the water and spent hours fishing them out of the trays. I cleaned the water butt out and tried again, and within a couple weeks it was whiffy. I presume it is impossible to collect rain water that has filtered through a tree, as the water collects too much organic matter along the way and goes off v.quickly? Lesson learned, I am going to move the water butt and collect water from the house instead (will mean cutting into Victorian-age iron down-pipe, but...) Anyone else noticed problems collecting water from under trees? How the hell did these bugs get in there?! Fortunately I have been buying RO water for the last few months because I quickly gave up on this water when it started to whiff... Thanks for helping me identify the bug though. I re-potted my "sudden-death" S.Psitaccina, roots actually looked okay, maybe something else caused it to die so suddenly then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimfoxy Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 I also have the problem with a eutrophic butt collecting water under a Wysteria. I suspect that wherever there are leaves and especially flowers/pollen etc then this happens. (Any gaps will allow flies to get in and lay eggs in the water.) I have two other butts leading off from this one in a cascade arrangement. All are fairly well sealed. The other two do not go smelly so I suspect it is the organic matter collecting in the first butt that does it. I avoid using the smelly butt for CPs and use it just for outside pot plants. Sycamore can have huge numbers of aphids on their leaves so, as well as tree debris, all the honey dew from these aphids will be entering the water, turning it nice and sugary. Maybe hence the fermentation! I am thinking that eutrophic water collected this way will be still low in minerals but will be rich in nutrients. And we are told that is bad for CPs that grow naturally in nutrient starved areas (e.g. sphagnum bogs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevew Posted July 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 I also have the problem with a eutrophic butt collecting water under a Wysteria. I suspect that wherever there are leaves and especially flowers/pollen etc then this happens. (Any gaps will allow flies to get in and lay eggs in the water.) I have two other butts leading off from this one in a cascade arrangement. All are fairly well sealed. The other two do not go smelly so I suspect it is the organic matter collecting in the first butt that does it. I avoid using the smelly butt for CPs and use it just for outside pot plants.Sycamore can have huge numbers of aphids on their leaves so, as well as tree debris, all the honey dew from these aphids will be entering the water, turning it nice and sugary. Maybe hence the fermentation! I am thinking that eutrophic water collected this way will be still low in minerals but will be rich in nutrients. And we are told that is bad for CPs that grow naturally in nutrient starved areas (e.g. sphagnum bogs). Thanks Jim -- that all makes sense -- you're right the sycamore was alive with aphids, especially a couple months ago -- so that would explain the fermentation -- I'm not exagerating, the stuff coming out of tank has a frothy head and really smells of "off" beer!! (not that I would drink it though!). Time to move the tank methinks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenofeden Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 they hatch into hoverflies, harmless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Bog Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 (edited) Have the very same squirming around in my drain off container under a wormey, never seen them other years... maybe conditions just right for them now. Bob Found loads of these swimming in the water. Removed as many as I could, now noticed that some of them have crawled inside the pots from the bottom, and the hard husks of whatever they are remain on the surface of the soil -- presume they have burrowed through the soil to the surface and hatched. One Sarracenia has suddenly died, and my suspicion is that this is the cause!!They are about an inch long including the tail bit... Edited July 29, 2009 by Pete Bog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AAJ Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 Several years ago I made liquid fertilizer using nettles instead of comfrey, it smelt like slurry. Obviously the flies thought it was and laid their eggs in it. They hatched into these maggots, a horrible mass all linked together by theitr tails. I didnt know what they were and flushed them down the drain, never to repeat the project again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayden Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Bump :) Are mosquito larvae harmless to seedligns? Theyre in my germination pots and my ro water is in the post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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