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One of the disconcerting things that Andrew tells me about our home, is the ever increasing numbers of pot plants.

“Where did that pot plant come from?” He asks as I look away suddenly seeing something else that I must attend to.

With the amount of plants in the house, it means there are little tiny flies, gnats, drosophila melanogasta (Biology 101 recall) flying about. They are most annoying.

One evening, I saw Pud looking up and around and he intrigued me.

“Look at Pud,” I say to Andrew. “Wouldn’t it be eerie if Pud can see ghosts! (My overactive imagination). Maybe he’s looking around him because he can see the spirits that surround us that we can’t see!” Maybe the shadows we have aren’t the ones we make but of others we cannot see?” I added remembering one of my most favourite shows on television, Ghosts (UK version thank you very much).

“No, he’s just looking at those annoying little flies!”

Well rain on my parade. Oh well.

While my mind swirled to the fantastical and the creative, (I’m the dreamer in this relationship) my husband promptly said the most logical and factual conclusion that they were the gnats from the house plants. Begrudgingly I had to admit he was right (although I do like the idea of being surrounded by ghosts).

So today, I had to do something about them. The gnats, not the ghosts. I got to work.

I’ve been watching this YouTuber called Creative Explained. He’s a bit OTT but he’s addictive to watch. I’ve done four of the things he recommends so far. Today I tried his orange peel suggestion.

I boiled the peels in water then sprayed it on every plant. With the boiled peels then I chopped them up and put them in the soil of each plant. Let’s hope those pesky flies stop.

However to really kill those eggs of theirs on the soil, he suggests a mixture of water and peroxide (sounds dubious) which then you water the plants and it kills the eggs on contact. I haven’t tried that.

Meanwhile, I’ve also got some orange and mandarin and lemon seeds sprouting. My plan is once the backyard is relandscaped, I can use the sprouted seeds to plant in pots so I don’t have to buy any plants!