Sciarid Flies

A tried and tested tip for preventing an invasion of sciarid flies and larvae in your precious sowings. Take a box of matches.......and insert one match head-down (the match, not the gardener) in each cell or pot, or several spaced out in a seed tray. It really does seem to work!

 

Intresting keep that in mind thanks noisette47

 

Good one, I've not heard that one...is it the sulphur?(or whatever they use nowadays)
Puts a new meaning to root burn as well!

 

Not yet What's the betting that someone, somewhere will turn it into an expensive gardening product? Luckily, matches ( and wine) are still cheap here. The only things that are...

 

You haven't mentioned yet whether it also kills the plant.

We can probably get away with doing it over here, but I'm sure it can't have been passed as an insecticide in the EU so probably illegal. Tut tut.

 

Its the chemicals that are used to make matches. Phosphorous can add nutrients to the soil and potassium chlorate tends to be used in disinfectants, both these and other elements are used to make matches.