Question
QUESTION: Hello! Not sure if you can help me without a picture, but i figured i'd give it a try anyway. A few night ago i sprayed all my plants with neem oil to get rid of some aphids. Well, last night i was looking at them and noticed some tiny 1-2cm long white worms on the soil of my Sarracenia minor. There were even some climbing up the three pitchers it has. I only found them on this plant and decided to spray it again with neem oil. Would you know what they are and what i can do? Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Manny,

Those are most likely fungus gnat larvae.  You definitely want to treat for them because they'll eat the roots of your plants.  Avoid using Neem on the soil surface.  It's intended to be used on leaves, not on the soil.  Instead, use an insecticide made with pyrethrin.  Safer?makes an excellent prepared solution.  Follow as directed on the bottle.  You may need to treat again in 7 days to completely eradicate the little critters.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for that peace of information. Sadly, i have not found any insecticide.
The only thing that i have been able to find that is an insecticide by Safer is
there 3-in-1 prepared solution. Would that be fine to use? The ingredients
say something like salts and fatty acids or something like that. Not sure if
thats safe though. I did spray the soil with some fungicide, also from Safer, to
see if that would help any and i have not seen the worms since, but of course
that doesn't  mean that they're not under the soil right!? Again, thanks for all
the help.

Answer
Use any product with pyrethrin.  I mentioned Safer?only because that's what we use.  Fungicides won't have any affect on fungus gnat larvae.  They get the term fungus gnats because the larvae feed on soil fungus.  If fungus isn't present, they eat plant roots.  So make sure the bottle has pyrethrin as the main ingredient.  Follow as directed on the bottle.