Tiny flies around the house in pot plants

Well hello dear people.
I have a question for YOU!
I have several potted house plants around my home, the problem is, is that with each one there seems to be gathering of these very small flies living in the compost. This is very annoying...what can I do to get rid of them? I am constantly waving my arms up in the air swatting. Is it the peat free compost I have used?

 

You could try watering the plants next time with spray strength insectacide. From then onwards allow the surface of the compost to dry out between waterings.

 

If they are white, they would be whitefly, but it sounds like you have the small black flies - thrips. I understand that they can come from the compost. The only thing to do is to spray. You must spray more than once, because you do not kill them all, but even if you did there would still be eggs around to create the next generation. Fly papers help, but are unsightly and only check numbers rather than decimate them.

 

They could also be fungus gnats, but the advice is the same as above.

 

if they come from the compost (I have the same thing) is it a serious problem for using the compost? should I just get some more?

 

Might be sciarid fly again, same as fungus gnat I think. If so you might find very tiny white larvae in soil as well. They normally eat damp rotted stuff, but can sometimes damage tiny seedlings. They shouldn't harm the compost. To get rid of them, spray with dilute washing up liquid then sprinkle the top of the compost with dry compost, or let it dry out a little. They like a damp surface to live on. Try watering plants from the bottom.

 

I have the same problem and they are very very annoying. Everytime I cook/eat, they always ended up in my food. I went to buy some sticky sheets, they are not very helpful as they are not sticky enough to catch the adults but u could put some petrolium jelly on. Like pete2255 suggested, allow the surface of the compost dry out between waterings, that's what I have been doing for the last 3 weeks, the population does seem to go down.

 

Same here loads of little flies in conservatory, I like the soap idea and will do.