Fungus Gnats Are Killing Me!!!

[PrimeTime]

Dude , i dont think that the flytraps will be of great help , they do trap insects but if dont get enough nutrients from the insects they die. To make it simpler , the energy they put into closing the traps must be less than that they gain from the insect. All the best with your fight with the gnats.

 
Just for fun trust me i kill more by smacking them than flytraps would

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

When all else fails and you give up...
 

 

[PrimeTime]

Thanks Chris Im sure thats where I'm heading...

 

[mushroombob]

PrimeTime,

your flytrap post reminded me. a few years ago I had a big problem with fungus gnats. I just happened to also be doing a lot of carnivorous plants that year I I put a bunch of sundews around my plants that had the fungus gnats.

They actually worked for me. I think it will depend on the number and size of the sundews relative to the number of plants you have that are infested.

Also, any sundews at home depot or lowes are going to be 5 or 6 bucks each and small. so its not a great solution unless you already have the plants, but it did work.

I am also battling fungus gnats right now, from an infested bag of soil, and the problem is huge. I have delayed planting my peppers this year because of it.

I found some sundew seeds and figured I'd get some going for the future, but they wont help me now.

Anyone else ever tried them? I pretty much had one sundew plant in between every 2 african violets (I had a bunch of av seedlings from a cross I had made and they were the source of the problem)

 

[zantrax]

It's not the adult fly but the larvae that harm your plants. Just use BTI, Mosquito Dunks or Aqua Back to kill the larvae, bottom water, and use sticky traps to kill the adults. It's so simple. You can stray from this method all you want but this is the only real solution.

 

[PrimeTime]

It's not the adult fly but the larvae that harm your plants. Just use BTI, Mosquito Dunks or Aqua Back to kill the larvae, bottom water, and use sticky traps to kill the adults. It's so simple. You can stray from this method all you want but this is the only real solution.

 
Thanks zantrax but if you read the thread none of those things have worked for me.

 

[Brain Strain Pepper Head]

[SIZE=16pt]http://www.nufarm.com/USTO/Malletr2FTO[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=16pt]Mallet 2F T&O Insecticide is a liquid concentrate containing imidacloprid for the control of insect pests in nearly all residential and commercial settings. Mallet 2F T&O is a neonicotinoid insecticide with long-lasting, residual control with proven performance on key pests such as aphids,white grubs, weevils and cutworms in turf plus aphids, mealybugs, leafminers , thrips and any soft body piercing insect in ornamentals.

And according to the manufacture it is safe for veggies http://www.cdms.net/LDat/ld9I1002.pdf[/SIZE]

 

[zantrax]

Have  you tried letting your pots completely dry out to the point where your plants wilt like crazy then just saturating? I've had good luck starving the larvae from water for a few watering cycles and when I do water I dose with bti. I just found peppers to be sensitive to insecticides and they hardly work against fungus gnats. 

 

[PrimeTime]

Zantrax, yes i have. Ive let them dry to the point of killing a few as they are seedlings of different ages.
 
Well folks beneficial nematodes watered in last night. I saved half for a near future watering. Ill keep ya posted. One thing i noticed yesterday before treating them was that they seemed noticably better. I think the peroxide top watering i did last time helped alot. I dont recommend top watering at all but it did seem to do something. Hard to say as i had so many bugs there are many different stages of them in there.
 
Enjoy your Sunday folks. Spring is comming, its 40 here!

 

[Helvete]

Grrr, I think my overwinters picked up some gnats and brought them in when I was putting them outside last weekend when it was 70º ...now we're looking at another snow storm tomorrow 6-10"
 
I don't have a lot of gnats thank god and the low humidity from the 19º and cranking the woodstove the last few nights is helping dry out the soil...
 
I can always tell that Spring is coming because I go and look at my orchard trees, they're getting buds on them...only a matter of weeks now

 

[PrimeTime]

Well folks Im planning to make the second and hopefully final nematode addition this weekend. The directions say to water plants first then water in the nematodes. I did this last time. Does anybody have an opinion on doing the first watering with dunk water?
 
I can say that the bugs are definately dwindling pretty fast. Thank god!
 
Id have to say of all i tried what seemed to really help the most would be h2o2. I bottom water regularly so my first h2o2 watering i bottom watered only. Same with the second treatment. This helped but not until the third try when i bottom and top watered with h2o2 did i see a huge difference. So far the nematodes seem to be working hard. My sticky traps and dustbuster are seeing less and less action.
 
I plan on using dunk water for all waterings and maybe another h2o2 later on.
 
I will update again in a week or two
 
edit: Have a great weekend!!!

 

[thirdcoasttx]

Glad to hear you're getting it under control!! Fungus gnats are a huge PITA.

 

[PrimeTime]

Yeah and when you need to check your beer glass......

 

[PrimeTime]

Update:
 
Last check looked really good!!
 
My sticky traps totaled 12 gnats. i saw only 2 living in the trays. Watering this weekend (dunks only) and will report back.
 
Could it really be over? Sweet pickins

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Hopefully it is and they are not all in the soil eating the roots! Man I hate those things!!!

 

[PrimeTime]

I have high hopes Chris. The 2 plants that looked bad, wild brazil and jays peach ghost are perking up. It certainly has been a start i hope not to repeat. Learned a lot of course!

 

[Proud Marine Dad]

A high quality neem cake like they sell at buildasoil.com mixed into the soil mix would help a lot as would crab meal. Crab meal contains chitin, which acts as a pesticide. The chitin in crab meal stimulates soil microbes to exude an enzyme called chitinase. Chitinase breaks down the exoskeletons of many pests and their eggs (the exoskeletons and eggs contain chitin, and the chitinase breaks down this chitin).

 

[McGuiver]

I use sticky traps. This is about one week.

I place them in the container next to my plants at the height of the container. The bugs just fly into them.

Works for me. Every time I water the bugs come out and get stuck to the trap.

 

[PrimeTime]

A high quality neem cake like they sell at buildasoil.com mixed into the soil mix would help a lot as would crab meal. Crab meal contains chitin, which acts as a pesticide. The chitin in crab meal stimulates soil microbes to exude an enzyme called chitinase. Chitinase breaks down the exoskeletons of many pests and their eggs (the exoskeletons and eggs contain chitin, and the chitinase breaks down this chitin).

 Interesting. Thanks
 
 

I use sticky traps. This is about one week.

I place them in the container next to my plants at the height of the container. The bugs just fly into them.

Works for me. Every time I water the bugs come out and get stuck to the trap.

 
Yeah I've been using them since december, thats what mine looked like overnight...

 

[McGuiver]

Interesting. Thanks
 
 

 
Yeah I've been using them since december, thats what mine looked like overnight...

Sounds like you have them bad. I usually put 4 cards out a time. You just need to break the breading cycle.