Fungus Gnats

Thanks for the link Proserpina. I suspect they were already in some of my compost, too, Scarlet.

Yes, I do always water from the bottom and have been letting the compost dry out almost completely between watering.

Something I noticed tday in the midst of washing and re-potting, is that the rubbish shredded wood and goodness knows what compost seems to have so much fibrous material that although there are large numbers of gnat maggots they're often not eating the roots but the fibrous matter. Not sure if it is significant, but is interesting and is in line with the garden myths blog. 

The cucurbits are suffering the worst sudden collapse, possibly because the grubs are eating up inside the below ground section of the stems; the plants look a little limp and soft one day and then are horizontal the next! I have no doubt that it is the grubs doing the damage - seeing a large number of them inside the chewed out end of a stem it would be hard to think otherwise.

Everybody has gone outside today - it is warm and a little blowey so that should make life tough for the adults!! I've picked through pots and pots of compost removing the grubs and then left the compost out in a tray to bake dry so that I may be able to re-use it for potting on tougher plants.

I think i have an advantage in that all my plants are headed for the open garden where predators in the soil will deal with the problem. The challenge will be protecting tiny plants from plant predators outside.

A couple of chillies and aubergines put on a spurt over night (well it feels like it!) so there is always hope. Fingers crossed for a long warm autumn.