My new nemesis seems to be fungus gnats. It’s not a new problem, but a recurring one that’s driving me nuts.

You wouldn’t believe the damage these little suckers have done. They ate 4 of my 5 Queen of the night tulips bulbs, so it looks like I won’t be having tulips this spring… boohoo. The left the empty shells of the tulip bulbs for me to find.

I only found out because I was wondering why they hadn’t sprouted yet. Only one of the bulbs showed some greenery peeking through the soil line, but when I disturbed the soil where the other tulips should have been, there was nothing. In my curiosity, I dug down to the level of the bulbs and uncovered just the empty shells. I could see a few wriggling larvae so I knew it was fungus gnats.

They also left holes in my calla lily leaves! Gah! The only thing they haven’t attacked yet are the liliums.

I’ve been out on the balcony every day armed with my spray bottle of pyrethrum. I spray the soil and leaves on a daily basis hoping to kill the adults before they lay more eggs in the soil. I think I’m seeing an improvement in numbers, but it’s an ongoing process. I wish I had something to knock out both adults and larvae at once.

There are organic predatory nematodes, mites and bacteria, but they’re not easy to get a hold of. The bacteria isn’t approved for use in Australia and the mites and nematodes would require shipping from another part of Australia.

I read another remedy that could work is to drench the soil and spray the foliage with hydrogen peroxide. The peroxide should kill the larvae and eggs by oxidation and give plants an added boost of oxygen around the roots. It’s meant to be a good fungicide too, something I should use on the frangipani since it’s not growing any new leaves and it’s spring.

Speaking of frangipani, I did squeeze the branch and it’s not soggy, so I’m not even sure if there’s a fungal infestation. I did dig up some of the soil and found it to be clumpy even though the soil was pretty dry. There were some white stringy bits that looks like webbing holding the soil together. I’m not sure if this is fungus in the soil or fine roots of the frangipani. Either way, it could do with a hydrogen peroxide drenching.

There’s some debate on what strength to use. Bill Munro, an advocate for the use of hydrogen peroxide on everything including himself, says 8% for gardening, some other web sites are saying say 3%. But either way, I need to find some large quantities of hydrogen peroxide to begin with!