Tiny Fungus Gnats on Wire Vine Leaves

Reasons for Wire Vine

• Creeping wire vine hails from New Zealand and is a favorite for many gardeners who have joined the "love it!" crowd. Its green foliage fades into a distinctive hue of bronze when summer sets in or it begins to get cooler. For many home gardeners, this aspect is a key feature, as it sets apart flower beds from the green lawn; the plant's circular, glossy leaves also add a different element to beds when placed near pointy-leaved plants. This low-growing plant is favored as a ground cover, over walls or as trailing container plants.

Care

• In general, healthy plants are less susceptible to pests and disease, although fungus gnats may be more attracted to what your wire vine is growing in than whether it's healthy. Wire vine prefers well-drained, moist soil in a sunny or semi-shaded location; like many other plants, wire vine can handle larger amounts of sunshine in the northern part of its range but may need protection from afternoon sun in warmer areas. Even with proper care, however, you may still get fungus gnats. Fungus gnats prefer to lay their eggs in potting media that is high in peat moss or hardwood bark; switching to a drier media may help curb population levels.

Fungus Gnats

• Fungus gnats are tiny, zig-zagging fliers attracted greatly to fungal spores on greenhouse stock and other plants. Once thought of as just a greenhouse nuisance, these small pests have been discovered feeding on various other plants outside of the protected walls of greenhouses. Adult females will lay their eggs on host plants such as wire vine; the larvae will feed on the roots and various other parts of the wire vine -- sometimes resulting in death.

Natural Control

• Discovering fungus gnats on your prized wire vine may elicit some concern -- and for good reason. If you're after a natural form of control of these tiny, pestilent creatures, you're in luck. Several biological controls are available to consumers for control of the larvae of these small nuisances. Predatory mites, rove beetles and entomopathogenic nematodes will all help control the larvae; Bacillus thurigiensis israelensis is an effective microbial insecticide.