FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

Kind of a stupid question, but I've been fighting a fungus gnat infestation on some of my indoor plants lately and I've pretty much eradicated them all by just watering with mosquito bit tea, but today I was quickly just watering my younger sundews growing in LFSM with the tea and I noticed it smelled REALLY bad, and at that point I didn't know it had gone bad until I googled it.

Should I repot the cape sundews, or is it ok and I just need to flush it with distilled water or something?

Intheswamp wrote:Mosquito bit?

Yeah it's this stuff:



It's got the BT bacteria in it that kills mosquito and fungus gnat larvae. Haven't had any issues with it but apparently the batch I made went bad recently. I think the bits are made out of corn cobs.

LFSM inside should be good for years unless you have it sitting in water. A trick i do is collect plastic jar lids and place them under my pots so excess water can drain out and not wick back in.

optique wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:17 am LFSM inside should be good for years unless you have it sitting in water. A trick i do is collect plastic jar lids and place them under my pots so excess water can drain out and not wick back in.

Do you think the LFSM will be ok even though I watered it with something that smelled kinda bad? Just leave it alone?

So it didn't stink before you used smelly water? Should be fine just flush it out and call it a day. I put floating aquatic plants in my rain water tubs keeps the water pretty fresh.

Water Spangles (Salvinia Minima) seem to be the all around best for the task.

It's a plant. And it's water. Nothing to worry about.

jetfire245 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:05 am It's a plant. And it's water. Nothing to worry about.

Yes, but if it is rancid the PPM (mineral content) could go up higher than the Sundews range and hurt them, just like sundews can’t just be watered with ordinary tap. They are just double checking to see if it is ok to do so.

optique wrote:So it didn't stink before you used smelly water? Should be fine just flush it out and call it a day. I put floating aquatic plants in my rain water tubs keeps the water pretty fresh.

Water Spangles (Salvinia Minima) seem to be the all around best for the task.

Yeah, the plant's only been in my collection for around 2 months so it's pretty freshly potted in brand new LFSM. Thanks for the help, I'll just flush it out!

MaxVft wrote:

jetfire245 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:05 am It's a plant. And it's water. Nothing to worry about.

Yes, but if it is rancid the PPM (mineral content) could go up higher than the Sundews range and hurt them, just like sundews can’t just be watered with ordinary tap. They are just double checking to see if it is ok to do so.

Yeah, this. If it were any other plant I would be like eh whatever, but since they're low PPM plants and it wasn't exactly distilled water I was concerned.

MaxVft wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:29 am

jetfire245 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 4:05 am It's a plant. And it's water. Nothing to worry about.

Yes, but if it is rancid the PPM (mineral content) could go up higher than the Sundews range and hurt them, just like sundews can’t just be watered with ordinary tap. They are just double checking to see if it is ok to do so.

Water doesn't need to smell bad for the ppm to go up lol. As long as it's rain water or distilled water with no minerals in it previously, minerals aren't just going to spontaneously appear in the solution. So again, nothing to worry about.

ppm is measuring electrically conductive materials in the water and not just minerals. Even if the ppm did raise on this rancid water, it's still rain water with very little minerals.

Yes, think of bog water, where the plants naturally grow. Would you personally want to drink from a bog? Probably not unless you’re Bear Grylls(Gosh that man will try anything). All that matters is if the plants can take the water not you.

Intheswamp wrote:

Nikson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:56 am

Intheswamp wrote:Mosquito bit?

Yeah it's this stuff:

I gotcha. It sounds like you've gotten some good answers to your question. I'm curious, though, how large of a water container and how much of the Mosquito Bits do you use in it?

I used one of those one gallon distilled water jugs that I had left over! I only put in enough to lightly cover the bottom of the jug, like not blanketed in them, just so that there was a very thing layer of it on the bottom.

I think next time I'll just make enough mosquito bit tea just to water with and not keep it over time. I did more research and apparently the mosquito DUNKS are better for long term tea purposes, over the bits which are made out of corn apparently.

Also thanks to everyone else that just responded as well! That makes total sense that the plants are normally already living in pretty stinky conditions anyways. I was just worried if I'd end up with weird fungal growth or mutants or anything that would hurt the plant.