We have "tiny black flies" in our home. Could they come from house plants (peace lilies)? Would mulch help>

Sounds to me like you have fruit flies, they come from fruit but also live in houseplants. Take a glass and fill with vinegar. Put plastic wrap over it, and punch a small hole in the top of the plastic wrap. You will be surprised at how quickly they go into the jar. Change the vinegar every week or until they are gone.

We have "tiny black flies" in our home. Could they come from house plants (peace lilies)? Would mulch help%26gt;
They could have come from your plants if they are newly brought inot your house. Consider Fruit Flies, they hide in our produce when we bring them home from the store.
Reply:Hi. There are three basic possibilities: (1) they're coming in from outside your house, in which case they could be anything, and there would be no way to control them. However, they would be a temporary problem, then, and go away on their own in a week or two. (2) They're "dark-winged fungus gnats" - scientific name is the family Sciaridae; they live in potted plant soil. They can be very hard to get rid of, depending on how many infested pots you've got. (3) they're "moth flies" (family Psychodidae), which breed in sink traps. Just cleaning your drains well can rid you of these.



Do Google image searches on the scientific names and you can see pictures. I'm betting on the fungus gnats, myself. Nearly everyone who has potted plants has these flies in their homes.



Hope this helps,
Reply:Try spraying plant and soil with BT (bacillus thuringensis) available as 'Gnatrol' from Abbott Laboratories, for one. May have to spray more than once (if they are fungus gnats).