Fungus Gnat Solution???

So I was in my local hydro shop looking to purchase some diatomacious earth to kill my fungus gnat problem... was asking him how DE effects the Ph of my soil and if it could be easily leeched out and he recommended before buying more products try using flour...thats right....all purpose cooking flour...was wondering if anyone has tried this before.... His theory on using flour made sense....flour expands when moistened and when the flour coated gnats lick their bodies and legs they ingest it and swell....also it coats their wings and prevents them from flying...Any input on this would be great.

My weapon of choice against the fungus gnats is mosquito dunks. You go to home depot or Lowes and get the dunks in the home and garden section. I get a little tupperwear container and place an inch of R/O water in it. Break up a little of the mosquito dunk in the water. Change water every 6-7 days. I just place the tupperwear container close to where the little bastards fly around.

Mosquito dunks were first created as a solution for malaria. They work great on fungus gnats.

Never heard of using flour, but it makes sense, I suppose.

I use diatomaceous earth myself, it doesn't change the pH of your soil nor does it require leaching out.
It's just like flour, but microscopically it is razor sharp shards of silica that slice and dice fungus gnats until they dry out and die.
Your plants don't absorb it or anything like that, so no worries there.

grub x works. also if there in containers put duct tape over the top leaving a quarter inch between strips. i always leave 3 inchs in my pots. just incase i have to add dirt or perlit or sand. if you cover the top of ur pots with perlit or sand they cant breed. also if you slice a apple or other fruit and place it in the room they will infest it. you can throw it out every 2 days before they hatch. this way your controlling the breeding. only works if you let ur plants dry out.

i would think flour will get moldy after a day or 2. if you water on top of it. maybe he meant if your going to let them dry out.

The flour sounds sketchy. Fungus gnats are controlled by the following: 1. Layer of sand or perlite on the top of the soil. 2. DE layer on top of soil. 3.Gnatrol (spray and drench), this is the same chemical impregnated in the dunks. 4. Drench with 3% 1/2 tsp /gal hydrogen peroxide. All of these methods are proven for gnat control. The reason for fungus gnats is the soil in the top of the pot is never drying out. Let the pots dry 1-2in before watering. You will have to kill the flying insects as well as the larva in the soil.

I had Fungus Gnats bad. Put 2 inches of perlite or sand on the soil so they cant lay more eggs... I first used Mosquito dunks to get them pissed off, and put yellow sticky traps everywhere so the flying ones get stuck. The next week i used Azatrol or Azamax, 1.5 tablespoons in 1 gallon of water, and poured 1 pint per gallon of soil, this kills the eggs/larvae. I repeated this 7 days later, and they were GONE. The larvae are what cause all the damage. During this whole process when you water your plants with nutes or RO, water from the bottom of the pot/from the drip tray, that way the top gets dried out and only azatrol gets poured from the top down..

I recommend Azatrol for ALL pests, it just kills everything, and its OMRI compliant. It is toxic stuff even though its organic. I've got my whole arm/hands in a bucket of it and got "chicken pox" looking marks on my arms for a day. I've also breathed its fumes for a while and my tounge tingled and the tip felt numb... I've done this several times and it has not killed me, but it did cause a reaction so wear gloves and a mask, or put a shirt over your nose, etc...

I also used "GoGnats" product, and mixed it with water and used as an "area spray" so they gnats would keep flying around instead of landing on something. That made them more likely to get stuck on the traps... Pests take a multi pronged approach, especially once their eggs have been laid. Once you see several of them, hit the soil with a drench and it will take the lifecycle out...

thanks for the help guys.......I've heard the gnats can become immune to pesticides when using azamax...ever hear this????? I do have some perlite so I will probably give this a try....the flour idea ...it kinda sounds buyable but like someone said I think it would get pretty nasty after a couple days....although the guy did say make sure your pots are dry....the guy at the hydro shop that recommended this procedure has been growing for 10 yrs and is a current horticulture student at the local state university so he would probably know....but even then IDK.....I'm starting with the perlite...I think(I'll smoke on it).....should I give another dose of azamax to the soil before applying the perlite???

All pests can build up tolerance, that's why its good to go with the stronger dose (1.5 tablespoons) as it will really get to them. and after 2 doses, they should be history.
I'd put perlite immediately, that way the perlite itself will have the azamax in it as well. If you dont plan on running a sulfur burner any time soon, and are not in late flower, you can also use Azamax as a foliar spray.. But i recommend the soil drench first, so you can take care of the eggs/larvae in the soil.

how strong would you mix the azamax for foliar? I'm about two weeks away from switching to 12/12.

I made these out of the confusing instructions that are included with Azatrol. On the Soil Drench Chart the, .4%, .6% & .8% are the different strengths depending on how bad your pest infestation is. If its fairly heavy or you just want to kick their butts, use .6% or higher..

Awesome.....thanks a bunch....marantz has only 6 post on his account and is throwin out help like this...I love it +rep to you my friend

So I went with about an inch and a half of perlite on the top then dosed with azamax real good.....then mixed a foliar spray just to keep em off the plants.....then placed a couple sticky traps in the tent....working great and for now the bugs are gone............They're propably still alive just burried in the snow of perlite!!!!! Thanks guys

Awesome man, that's the way to go. Dont forget to water the pots from the bottom from here on out during the Azatrol/Azamax cycle... that will allow the layer under the perlite to dry out with azatrol/azamax in it, and no bug will want to live in that environment .Hit them at least one more time with a soil drench in a week or so, if not a 3rd just to make sure. the sticky traps will become your "meter" to see if they are dying. Put up new sticky traps each azatrol application, you'll see by the 3rd application, there should be no more stragglers sticking to the traps I also knock on the pots to shake up the top layer of Perlite to see if any gnats come out of the perlite. Sounds like they are going to be history in your grow very soon Good luck!

I know I'm kinda fuct....my system is 5 gal buckets of FFOF with 2" of gravel on bottom(and now 1 1/2" of perlite on top) ....then that bucket goes inside another 5gal bucket with a drain hose on it that drains to waste..fed by a top feed drip system...SCROG......gonna be a pain in the ass to bottom feed...pretty much impossible....just gonna let my moisture meters go to the dry zone then azamax again...prob be about 4-5 days between azamx doses.....then i will let that dry to the dry zone on the meters then go on with my regular feeding schedule......I'm switching to 12/12 this weekend and need to get back on track with feeding.

Has anybody heard of watering with a bit of dish soap to take care of this problem? My girl said she had a fungus gnat problem and when she started the soap thing they went away.

you know.....now that you say that I remember reading about using bio-degradable dish soap(like a drop per gal.)......IDK...If I have this problem again I might try it but the perlite on the topsoil is a def. solution to the gnat problem.

Hey how's it going endcycle, are the gnats getting their ass kicked yet or what?

Haven't seen a gnat in like 4 days.....did a trim of all the lower bud sites and branches that weren't poping through the screen two nights ago and didnt see a single one.... currently back on track for flower feeding. Soon as I noticed the bugs were gone...growth exploded!!!

Azamax+Perlite=dead fkn gnats....Thanks a bunch for your Azamax recipes

Awesome! That's what i'm talkin about. Now you know, as soon as you see those things again, hit the soil with a drench, they wont be around long what i like about Azamax/Azatrol is this same mix works for most pests I got rid of root aphids with the same application, and i hear it works just as well on spider mites. Some pests may require foliar though. Keep em green, and glad you're back on schedule!

ENDLSCYCLE said:

Haven't seen a gnat in like 4 days.....did a trim of all the lower bud sites and branches that weren't poping through the screen two nights ago and didnt see a single one.... currently back on track for flower feeding. Soon as I noticed the bugs were gone...growth exploded!!!

Azamax+Perlite=dead fkn gnats....Thanks a bunch for your Azamax recipes

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