Fungus gnats and the best way to get rid of em!!!!!!

Hey fellas and ladies, today i went and checked on my girls and the look good but noticed a pesky bug flying around and creeping in my soil long story short i believe i have fungus gnats i may have over watered slightly and fml thought the girls looked a lil thirsty .any way i put up some sticky traps and i dont have many so far only got about four or five but i know its not a cure just a estimate of what u have on ur hands ,so its not super infestation but the question is ...... Should i use azamax to treat the soil or sand on top of the soil . The adults are just pesky but its what i cant see thats bothering me the larvi will destroy roots and too much invested to be screwed but gnats ... Appreciate all comments good bad lemme know ty

Unless u have a million of em they're not gonna eat that much. If u really want em gone block off their access to the soil. Spray only as a last resort. Ppl are spray happy when it comes to bugs and I work in the biz I'm tellin u man that shit ain't no joke.
If u gotta spray use soapy water first. Safer soap works too. Benign stuff to humans but lethal to bugs.

Thank you i wont sweat it that much and just keep the sticky cards out thanks

Yup they are a pain huh lol. Honestly I haven't had them since growing in soil. I had some flies my last run but not the same and easier to control. I tried a number of things and none worked! Sharp sand, sprays, and a weak peroxide solution. I never tried blocking the tops of the pots though as I couldn't come up with an lid that was not in the way. As Dan says they didnt seem to do much damage but I guess I'll never know because I never not had them .

Treat my soil with azamax at the beginning of veg...are they flying yet?

If there are only a few adults I wouldn't worry but they will multiply like crazy in response to higher temperatures. I'd keep an eye on them jic. I mix diatomaceous earth into my soil mixes because I've had a nasty infestation in the past. I also keep a hotshot pest strip in my veg room (higher humidity, the flies seem to like it more in there - then again my flower room is sealed off). Working well so far. Good luck, Best wishes.

Constant fan blowing air doesn't give them chance to settle
Sticky traps or vinegar cup traps for gnats
if you have lavre issues you can use slices of potato on top of your soil that they will attack/eat then you can remove everyday
Can also use ground cinnamon and sprinkle it on top of your soil something in it that kills the bacteria/fungus that in the soil that they like
also can put sliced cloves of garlic in the soil that will will irritate them just stick them with a tooth pick or something so they easy to remove

Scarid 10 to bomb them and kill adults and yellow strips near the drain holes and on top of the medium to get the babies. This will get rid of them completely ,if you dont get rid of them they can fuck up the root mass with larvae. Also the little pricks bite while your in there watering.

RAYRAY420SMOKEWEEDEREDAY said:

Constant fan blowing air doesn't give them chance to settle
Sticky traps or vinegar cup traps for gnats
if you have lavre issues you can use slices of potato on top of your soil that they will attack/eat then you can remove everyday
Can also use ground cinnamon and sprinkle it on top of your soil something in it that kills the bacteria/fungus that in the soil that they like
also can put sliced cloves of garlic in the soil that will will irritate them just stick them with a tooth pick or something so they easy to remove

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Bro i think he wants to kill gnats not prepare a Sunday dinner.

Lol thank you there are only a few and i have some yellow sticky traps and their catching a couple,of adults but still not major infestation .. I did leave a piece of potato in the soil and i didnt see any larva but if their adult they have to be mating im letting the soil dry up a lil and my humidity is a lil lower ... I bought a soil tester for ph and moisture so have a better idea when to water .

I also have a fan blowing on them just dunt know if its two much its a 20 " box fan but on the lowest setting is there a such thing as two much wind ?? And i know ya can catch fruit flys and regular gnats with vinegar but will that have any harm on the plants ??

*BUDS said:

Bro i think he wants to kill gnats not prepare a Sunday dinner.

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LOL worked for me. Plus these are options not all methods have to all be applied at the same time

Jae215 said:

I also have a fan blowing on them just dunt know if its two much its a 20 " box fan but on the lowest setting is there a such thing as two much wind ?? And i know ya can catch fruit flys and regular gnats with vinegar but will that have any harm on the plants ??

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Yeah you can use to much wind at an early stage but overtime it does build stronger stems/branches
As far as I know a few vinegar traps Is not going to do any harm to your plants

*BUDS said:

Bro i think he wants to kill gnats not prepare a Sunday dinner

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Jae215 said:

Lol thank you there are only a few and i have some yellow sticky traps and their catching a couple,of adults but still not major infestation .. I did leave a piece of potato in the soil and i didnt see any larva but if their adult they have to be mating im letting the soil dry up a lil and my humidity is a lil lower ... I bought a soil tester for ph and moisture so have a better idea when to water .

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Yeah the potato option is only really for a major larvae issue and you want to try to eliminate some daily if you havent seen any yet sounds like your still good for now and wouldn't worry to much about the potato slices for now

Gnatrol in your feelings n waterings... Water enough for soil to dry out then reapply as gnatrol only works for 72 hrs each application. It kills larve, use cfl lights as a really damn good substitute or with yellow cards. It works very well

Mosquito Dunks, Mosquito Bits if available as the Bits are easier to apply. It's Bacillus thuringiensis israeli and the toxin it produces, which is a narrow spectrum larvacide that will kill fungus gnats. If all you can get are the Dunks, break into quarters or so and soak in water overnight then apply to plants. You could also grind the Dunks up but if you're going to do that I would recommend you wear gloves and a dust mask.

Gnatrol is another Bti product.

Fungus gnats don't come from over watering. You can be watering fine and have fungus gnats. Female fungus gnats lay over 100 eggs at time. Most people probably don't have predators in their indoor soil-less mix.

BT...........safer brand caterpillar killer with bt.

Last time I had em I was ready to burn the freakin shed down lol. Little bastards just would not die!! Actually it was the reason I switched to hydro! Never see em now!!

Depending where you live you can try getting some kind of a nemetode like say Nemasys http://www.beckerunderwood.com/productsservices/biological-crop-protection/bio-insecticides/nemasys/ or anything with BTI bacteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis_israelensis in it.

The gnats have a 10 day cycle so the BTI bacteria needs to be used every 7-10 days and it'll take 4 treatments to destroy the full cycle. Also you HAVE to use dechlorinated water as it'll kill the BTI.

For the nematodes like Nemesis each pack which costs around $60 CDN, it'll do an area of up to 2500 square feet. I sell quite a bit of the Nemasys in my store.

To test for fungus gnats take a potato, slice it in half and put it on top of the soil cut side facing down. You should see fungus gnat larvae on it in a day or so.

brimck325 said:

BT...........safer brand caterpillar killer with bt.

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Wont work... I made this mistake myself once. The Safer stuff is Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki, which is effective for caterpillers/moths (Lepidoptera), but with gnats/blackfly you want the israeli sp. as they produce different toxins. One time I bought the stuff you refer to, not noticing the sub-species myself. After a couple weeks I was wondering wtf was going on because the problem didn't seem to be getting any better.

Mosquito Dunks are probably the most commonly available Bti product, sold at virtually every hardware store and garden center. Obviously they kill mosquitoes, too, I use them in my rain barrel for this reason as well as for fungus gnats. You can use it before you even get gnats, say about once a month.

Nematodes are effective, you have to re-apply eventually though and for future crops. Instead, I keep Hypoaspis predator mites around, in containers and in soil aging/recycling totes. Had them for years and just keep introducing them to new containers and back. They eat fungus gnats eggs or larva/pupal stages living in the soil, as well as a plethora of other soil-dwelling pests, springtails, other mites, as well as dead vegetation (microbes) if that is all there is. Other benefits come with them being a part of the soil food web.