I hate gnats …

Jim Haddar

Well-Known Member
So I put Mexican pinguicula on my Christmas wish list and I got this. I switched to a new container with fresh media today because it’s raining outside and carnivorous plants prefer untreated water as a general rule. It was a lot smaller when I got it. The black smudges on the leaves used to be gnats. Mexican pings tend to grow on rocky hillsides and don’t really put down roots. They cling to rocks and absorb water through their leaves. I am growing in a mix of perlite and vermiculite but pumice would probably be better. I have grown them on decorative lava rocks. C59F918D-E2BD-4AD1-B797-AB7D6A6D3713.jpeg
 

DrBuzzFarmer

Well-Known Member
Fungus gnats hide in the upper layer of soil.
I sometimes spray the surface with Method1 pps, to discourage colonization.
It's made with essential oils, smells like pinesol, and evaporates fairly quickly.
It's been very useful for me. Runs just about any bug away.
A little goes a long way. I usually have some left when I buy a new bottle.
 

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
Fungus gnats hide in the upper layer of soil.
I sometimes spray the surface with Method1 pps, to discourage colonization.
It's made with essential oils, smells like pinesol, and evaporates fairly quickly.
It's been very useful for me. Runs just about any bug away.
A little goes a long way. I usually have some left when I buy a new bottle.
Pinesol? :confused: I think you mean peppermint.....
 

Dreaming1

Well-Known Member
Mosquito bits. Has a bacteria in it. Sprinkle on top of soil and around the pot to get the ones in the root area.
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
I am so fucking sick of fungus gnats. Hope next run they’re not such a problem, tossing old soil swapping for Promix and maybe using a mulch layer this time round. They’re not really hurting anything but fuck they’re annoying.
 
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DrBuzzFarmer

Well-Known Member
I am so fucking sick of fungus gnats. Hoped next run they’re not such a problem, tossing old soil swapping for Promix and maybe using a mulch layer this time round. They’re not really hurting anything but fuck they’re annoying.
Anything bought in a plastic bag and kept outside a store, will have fungus gnats, most likely.
You gotta decide whether riding the ragged edge of moisture control is actually worth it. Your watering regimen is most likely at fault. Gnats needs a moist top layer to move in and make your life miserable.
Cannabis doesn't mind a crispy top layer...
Water less frequently.
Use Method1 pps as a soil surface spray when they show up to annoy you.
 

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
Organic and couldn’t get the nematodes or predator mites when I setup and shit kept coming up that needed my money more than the plants. I’ll get em in there this time around.
 

Hiphophippo

Well-Known Member
Fungus gnats hide in the upper layer of soil.
I sometimes spray the surface with Method1 pps, to discourage colonization.
It's made with essential oils, smells like pinesol, and evaporates fairly quickly.
It's been very useful for me. Runs just about any bug away.
A little goes a long way. I usually have some left when I buy a new bottle.
Also they are smart adaptable creatures. If you treat the top layer of soil and don’t drench it they will burrow deeper. also you have to have a planned attack killing all three life cycles at once. You have the larvae stage which are in the soil eating your roots so you would treat your soil with a bti product or peroxide drench killing the larvae. then you need to focus on the adolescent or teenage gnats as I like to call them. They live near the plant base and around the leaves and top of soil. I kill them with either sand which I don’t prefer I use Damascus earth and perlite they don’t like that. then there’s the pesky adults that fly around searching for a new house to inhabit and destroy the current resident. I kill them with Damascus earth and fly strips remember if you kill one stage and not the other they will return the only effective way to eliminate them is to kill them all at the same time.
 

Hiphophippo

Well-Known Member
You also have to be proactive when they are gone and keep up on your Damascus earth and strips I also keep bti in my top dressing to prevent babies from forming at all
 

MICHI-CAN

Well-Known Member
Outdoors they are no match for these guys when using this. Hummingbirds will clean a plant of anything small very quickly. And the show as a bonus.

 

DrBuzzFarmer

Well-Known Member
Outdoors they are no match for these guys when using this. Hummingbirds will clean a plant of anything small very quickly. And the show as a bonus.

I've watched them at my window planter, with their slender, long beaks, and it never occurred to me that they eat protein...
Blew my mind...
 
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