How do you battle fungus gnats?

[SoulMan420]

Like the title says I'm looking for effective ways to control fungus gnats. They are the only bugs I get. I use fox farm ocean forest and I think maybe the larvae are already in the bags. I haven't had them bad enough to do serious damage but I hate seeing them flying around and in my soil. I don't want to use anything too harsh. Right now I have sticky traps in my grow tent. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Lo Budget]

http://sierranaturalscience.com/natural-pesticides/sns-203/
Pesky little buggers aren't they?
Amazon has sns 203

 

[420PyRoS]

I had them too. Indoors also bleh. I'm not sure why or how they went away but I was basically using fly strips beside the plants. I also don't fill my pots all the way to the top when I use soil.. so I usually have some extra space, so when after I watered the plants, I would take dry soil and cover the top layer. I also started pointing my fans lower to the base of my plants to help move air across the soil.

If you water the plants a lot or if your soil retains water, you will keep helping those bastards breed. Try to let the soil dry out between watering.

 

[Alienwidow]

Use mosquito crumbles. Theyre availible from amazon and they come in a shaker container. 20 bucks will do about one hundred 5 gallon plants. I fill up the cap 2/3 full and sprinkle it around the top of the soil, then water in. You can also put them in the rez in a sock. You can order them off amazon. Theyre either called mosquito bits or crumbles and they work like a charm. Also try and let the soil dry more between waterings if you can.

 

[Machiavelli_719]

Just go to your grow store and get a product called GrowStone GnatNix and follow the instructions on the bag. It's just little bits of recycled glass, it feels like mini lava rocks. Bugs can't get through to your soil and the ones already in your soil will soon be trapped and die a miserable death.

-Machiavelli

 

[SoulMan420]

Thanks for the responses. I'm gonna follow your recommendations and prepare to go to war against these gnats. No mercy.

 

[Grojak]

IME mosquito dunks didn't work (crumbles) not well enough… my best fix has been soil drenching with Azamax and yellow sticky traps. Azamax (and SNS 203) are both organic and will not, should not be a one and done solution, for fungus gnats when I've had them I would do a drench of azamax every 5 days for 3 weeks (3 applications), some will do every 3 days but I find every 5 days works fine.

Of course the most organic method is 1" layer of sand… they literally can't get through it from what I understand… or do a combo of a treatment than sand.

 

[SPLFreak808]

Azamax and sticky traps should completly get rid of them in less then a week. Y'all got some hearty fungus gnats if it takes multiple azamax treatments lmao! Azamax the foliage one time,azamax the root zone one time and put up sticky traps because the gnats will have no where to go but fly somewhere yellow (yellow sticky traps). H202 and ghost peppers have worked for me also but multiple treatments. No matter what though, you need sticky traps or they will land back on the plant when it transpires all the neem of itself.

 

[SoulMan420]

I have used sand on top of the soil but it's a pain to water. I definitely use sticky traps and have had them stick to my hair when I have to gotten too close to a plant. You don't even realize how many gnats there are until you see a trap full of them.

 

[researching]

Bottom feeding will help. Also, diotamaceous earth on top will too. Thankfully they aren't even close to the worst of pests, but they are annoying for sure.

 

[texasjack]

sand on top and fly paper does it for me.

 

[unwine99]

Mosquito bits, beneficial nematodes, sticky traps........and a pyrethrin spray if you have a nasty little infestation and can see the little bastards crawling on top of the soil. The trick is really controlling them at their larval stage because once they're flying around, you can bet they're laying eggs all over the place.

 

[Darth Vapour]

it starts off with this for all soils grown indoor from there i will recharge my soil with natural amendments this will allow for couple weeks of growth then its chem baby

 

[Carolina Dream'n]

Bacillus Thurgenesis

Known as Montery B.T and is the active "ingredient" in mosquito bits.

 

[Darth Vapour]

The goal is not to have them to begin with but in most cases QC has been thrown out the door in turn quantity its all about money .. for soil companies and cutting corners
Gnats are more of a nuisance then anything else..
Has anyone ever had plant death due to gnats ??? i mean they say parent gnat can lay eggs in the top 1" of soil even with cuttings my root system is well below 1 " of soil but curious anyone have plant death cause of GNATS .. we here it all the time but i never seen it or
people tend to hit plants with dunk or what ever ,
but i look at it as first of all understanding the actual insect , its likes, and dislikes etc
So here is my conept of ridding gnats the real easy way first off dont allow them the enviroment to live in drop RH water less bottom feed plants use funnel keep top 2 inches of soil dry
sprinkle cinnamon on top of soil add sand you can also get them stickies that looks like that dome whn you bring your pets home from being spayed place the sticky into pot close to stalk any new gnats that come up get stuck any parents going or trying to get into soil Stuck the remaining gnats will die out pain n simple

 

[Orlando737]

Like the title says I'm looking for effective ways to control fungus gnats. They are the only bugs I get. I use fox farm ocean forest and I think maybe the larvae are already in the bags. I haven't had them bad enough to do serious damage but I hate seeing them flying around and in my soil. I don't want to use anything too harsh. Right now I have sticky traps in my grow tent. Any tips would be appreciated.

I've put quantities of new soil I've just bought into smaller bags then into the deep freezer for a week or so, kept repeating until all the soil was treated. Make sure you store it where there's no chance of re-infestation. Kills all potential gnats and their larvae stone dead, literally......
Never had the problem since. Simple cheap & no pesticides.
Hope this helps.

 

[researching]

The goal is not to have them to begin with but in most cases QC has been thrown out the door in turn quantity its all about money .. for soil companies and cutting corners
Gnats are more of a nuisance then anything else..
Has anyone ever had plant death due to gnats ??? i mean they say parent gnat can lay eggs in the top 1" of soil even with cuttings my root system is well below 1 " of soil but curious anyone have plant death cause of GNATS .. we here it all the time but i never seen it or
people tend to hit plants with dunk or what ever ,
but i look at it as first of all understanding the actual insect , its likes, and dislikes etc
So here is my conept of ridding gnats the real easy way first off dont allow them the enviroment to live in drop RH water less bottom feed plants use funnel keep top 2 inches of soil dry
sprinkle cinnamon on top of soil add sand you can also get them stickies that looks like that dome whn you bring your pets home from being spayed place the sticky into pot close to stalk any new gnats that come up get stuck any parents going or trying to get into soil Stuck the remaining gnats will die out pain n simple

It would have happened. I had a seedling that was having an issue and I discovered a fungus gnat larva living inside the stem. I cut above the infestation, dipped it in rooting hormone and let her do her thing. I was totally amazed she survived.

 

[Darth Vapour]

Herd people using boiling water on there soil prior to using

 

[researching]

Herd people using boiling water on there soil prior to using

Heard baking it too. Either seem like a PITA. Obviously though that depends on your setup. I don't even worry about them anymore. I don't have enough that they are even an issue.

 

[Alienwidow]

Bottom feeding will help. Also, diotamaceous earth on top will too. Thankfully they aren't even close to the worst of pests, but they are annoying for sure.

DE did nothing against mine. The mosquito bits take two weeks to work but with the price, if you have 50 X 5 gallon plants to do, 20 bucks will give you two treatments at one a week for two weeks. That will get rid of them by week two, if your using enough of them on the top of the dirt. Im curious as to how much the azamax costs since ive never used it.