Scarid Fly

I had a bit of a disaster with this plant, a clump of M.painteri ' Montrose Form '. It looked alright but then suddenly collasped into this.



On a closer look in was full of Sacrid Fly maggots which had totally eaten the main body of the inside of the plant. You can just make out a few of the maggots on the end of this single head.



It was not all bad new has I was able to save 11 single heads which were cleaned and treated with a hormone rooting powder and I have another clump which is still looking good.

Oh, nasty! I've not had problems with this pest recently, which I put down to using a much more gritty compost, though I think the JI #3 that I use as a part of the soil stiull has some peat in it. I have heard that it is the peat that they like.
But good to know that you have saved plenty of heads.

Euw. My condolences Tam. And there was you saying that you didn't get many visitors. Although I'm sure that you'd prefer not to have too many guests of this kind!

...... Si

Well, its does give me the push to get on with something. In the picture below I have cleaned up the offsets from the plant above ( right hand side ) and I have taken some offsets from some others such has vetula gracilis P 461, beneckei ( which offsets like mad but never flowers ) and I have broken up a small clump of a nice golden spined marcosii.