What pest or condition causes this. It's the same leaf. photos with and without flash have been taken. Leaf was crunchy . No pests have been visible.
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pests What pest or condition does this look like.
- Thread starter Swamptrout
- Start date
Powdery substance
After inspecting the plant today we discovered these flies. There are heaps of them - what are they? Are they a problem?
In case you cannot tell from the photo they are a golden colour, not black like normal flies and they are smaller in size.
In case you cannot tell from the photo they are a golden colour, not black like normal flies and they are smaller in size.
Wow.... those are some nice macro shots of the flies !! I don't know what they are other than.... flies 
Are you growing indoors or outdoors ? If outdoors, have you had a lot of rain lately ?
It looks like a fungus has found a home on the bottom of the leaves. Probably from the leaves being too wet for a period of time. That fungus can cause the damage you see.
As for the flies, maybe they just stopped by for a drink of water ? I really don't know. I don't see a lot of mechanical damage on the leaves. A fly that large should cause a lot of damage if it was feeding on the leaves. You could keep an eye out for the larvae though... maybe the flies are planting their own seed on your plants.
Just my thoughts,
Jeff
Are you growing indoors or outdoors ? If outdoors, have you had a lot of rain lately ?
It looks like a fungus has found a home on the bottom of the leaves. Probably from the leaves being too wet for a period of time. That fungus can cause the damage you see.
As for the flies, maybe they just stopped by for a drink of water ? I really don't know. I don't see a lot of mechanical damage on the leaves. A fly that large should cause a lot of damage if it was feeding on the leaves. You could keep an eye out for the larvae though... maybe the flies are planting their own seed on your plants.
Just my thoughts,
Jeff
Forgot to update, turns out they are Qld fruit flies. As yet they havent done any harm to the plants but are bloody annoying so i have a few traps set. So far they are working well.
We have had a tonne of rain of late (not normal) and I read that these flies like moisture, Hoping it will dry out a bit soon.
The plant which had the leaf damage (initial photo) was a poor quality sick looking plant to begin with - it never improved so it got disposed of to save the good plants.
We have had a tonne of rain of late (not normal) and I read that these flies like moisture, Hoping it will dry out a bit soon.
The plant which had the leaf damage (initial photo) was a poor quality sick looking plant to begin with - it never improved so it got disposed of to save the good plants.
Combination of mass amounts of rain and the traps have reduce the number of flies. Happy days !