seeing a million different ways to remove/prevent fungus gnats out there -
what are YOUR recommendations? the dish of liquid did NOT work.
what are YOUR recommendations? the dish of liquid did NOT work.
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fungus gnats?
- Thread starter cubbieblue82
- Start date
Pfeffer said:
should have clarified, i'm sorry. plants are currently small and INDOORS until weather cooperates. don't really want to introduce MORE critters to the house, do i?
I think I may have gotten my fungus gnat situation under control, this is what I did: I waited until my plants needed a good watering and then I watered with hydrogen peroxide/water solution diluted 1/4 respectively. This will take care of the immature fungus gnat larva living in the soil.
Next I waited a few hours for the soil on the top of the pots to dry down a bit (it didn't take long under my bright ass led lights.) and I dusted the top of my soil with cinnamon. (I had a lot of cinnamon on hand, you could probably use sand or pebbles if that's any easier cheaper for you.) Cinnamon has the side effect of helping prevent dampening off as well.
And lastly I have been exclusively bottom watering since the application of the cinnamon. The last two steps prevents the gnats from reproducing, as the top 1/4 inch of the soil needs to be moist for them to reproduce.
I did this about a week and a half ago, and I haven't seen any gnats in about a week so I'm hoping I have things handled.
Next I waited a few hours for the soil on the top of the pots to dry down a bit (it didn't take long under my bright ass led lights.) and I dusted the top of my soil with cinnamon. (I had a lot of cinnamon on hand, you could probably use sand or pebbles if that's any easier cheaper for you.) Cinnamon has the side effect of helping prevent dampening off as well.
And lastly I have been exclusively bottom watering since the application of the cinnamon. The last two steps prevents the gnats from reproducing, as the top 1/4 inch of the soil needs to be moist for them to reproduce.
I did this about a week and a half ago, and I haven't seen any gnats in about a week so I'm hoping I have things handled.
I used a hydrogen per oxide solution and topped them later with some fresh soil. So far they haven't come back and it has been 2 weeks.
sounds good. i was a little worried about using peroxide in the plants, but if it works...great! thanks guys.
SteelHeat said:
good question, i hadn't even thought of that.
continuing on that, i will be switching the dozen-ish plants i have now into promix HP soon (once the rest of seeds get here and get germed). peroxide dilute OK in promix as well?
Praxxus on YouTube recommends using a NEEM oil mixture to douse the soil and pyrethrin spray to spray the leaves. It's hard on the plant when you do it, basically like chemotherapy, so only use it on established plants that can bounce back.
Alternatively, there are hypoapsis mites you can by that you introduce to your soil. They do not harm the plant, and instead all they do is eat fungus gnat larvae. They will kill off any danger to your plants in a hurry! You can find those here: http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html
The mites, coupled with using sticky yellow traps, will often solve it without having to use harsh treatments.
Alternatively, there are hypoapsis mites you can by that you introduce to your soil. They do not harm the plant, and instead all they do is eat fungus gnat larvae. They will kill off any danger to your plants in a hurry! You can find those here: http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html
The mites, coupled with using sticky yellow traps, will often solve it without having to use harsh treatments.
Do you have other house plants as well? Ive battled fungus gnats since last summer, but I think Ive finally beat them. Its true they are annoying as hell, and tbh can be a little embarassing if company is casually swatting around their faces, but I wouldnt go so far as to say they are more annoying than harmless...I'd take steps towards prevention and then get to eradicating.
I just waged an epic war against the fungus gnats in my house, and I think I've won (knock on wood). Thankfully just as I'm starting my peppers inside. Here's how I did it.
1. Inspected all house plants by shining a flashlight into them near the base. If there are gnats there they will emerge after 20 seconds or so. You'll see the larva crawling around in the soil too. I identified all the worst offenders. For me it was the plants in large pots with lots of exposed and slow-drying soil. The plants in small pots and quick-drying soil did not have any gnats.
2. I let all my plants dry out almost completely. For the larger ones this took more than a month. Thankfully none of my plants had a problem with this, but be aware some may be sensitive.
3. At the same time as I was letting them all dry out, I put the sticky pads up in all the pots to catch the gnats as they continued to hatch and took off in search of water. I replaced the pads several times as they filled up, I was amazed at how many there were!
4. Once the soil in all the pots dried out substantially and the number of gnats began to fall, I applied this insecticide to the soil: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BX1HKI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage. Only use this on house plants, not anything you're going to eat (says so on the bottle). The insecticide has to be watered into the soil, and then you're supposed to wait a week for the soil and roots to soak it up and take effect.
5. Once I gave the insecticide a week to do it's magic, I removed a thin layer of the top soil in all the plants that had gnats and covered the soil in a 1/2 inch layer of sand (builders sand in some and ornamental black sand in others).
What I learned was that fungus gnats become a big problem if you are over-potting your plants and the soil stays damp for a long time. I re-potted a couple of plants after realizing this. The ones that you can't re-pot just put sand or some loose covering over the top of the soil to prevent the gnats from laying eggs. I found that my plants with mulch covering the soil did not have gnats. Also, fungus gnats seem to be a HUGE problem associated with using Miracle Gro soil, I will never use that crap again.
Good luck fighting the gnats, those suckers are tough.
1. Inspected all house plants by shining a flashlight into them near the base. If there are gnats there they will emerge after 20 seconds or so. You'll see the larva crawling around in the soil too. I identified all the worst offenders. For me it was the plants in large pots with lots of exposed and slow-drying soil. The plants in small pots and quick-drying soil did not have any gnats.
2. I let all my plants dry out almost completely. For the larger ones this took more than a month. Thankfully none of my plants had a problem with this, but be aware some may be sensitive.
3. At the same time as I was letting them all dry out, I put the sticky pads up in all the pots to catch the gnats as they continued to hatch and took off in search of water. I replaced the pads several times as they filled up, I was amazed at how many there were!
4. Once the soil in all the pots dried out substantially and the number of gnats began to fall, I applied this insecticide to the soil: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BX1HKI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage. Only use this on house plants, not anything you're going to eat (says so on the bottle). The insecticide has to be watered into the soil, and then you're supposed to wait a week for the soil and roots to soak it up and take effect.
5. Once I gave the insecticide a week to do it's magic, I removed a thin layer of the top soil in all the plants that had gnats and covered the soil in a 1/2 inch layer of sand (builders sand in some and ornamental black sand in others).
What I learned was that fungus gnats become a big problem if you are over-potting your plants and the soil stays damp for a long time. I re-potted a couple of plants after realizing this. The ones that you can't re-pot just put sand or some loose covering over the top of the soil to prevent the gnats from laying eggs. I found that my plants with mulch covering the soil did not have gnats. Also, fungus gnats seem to be a HUGE problem associated with using Miracle Gro soil, I will never use that crap again.
Good luck fighting the gnats, those suckers are tough.