Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I've let dry to wilt, but everytime I top dress I believe I'm reintroducing them to the soil.
How do I get rid of gnats
- Thread starter Toxic Deadite
- Start date
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Are you growing in living soil?Do this:
Clean up the grow area if it's dirty....and I mean CLEAN!
Get a bottle of hydrogen peroxide (the regular stuff from the grocery store that's already diluted)...
Measure 1/2 cup of it and mix it with one gallon of water to dilute it even more
Put your fabric pot in a tub or bucket
Pour the H2O2 solution onto the soil let it sit for a minute or two
Replace the pots and set some yellow sticky traps around them
Wait a few days and check the sticky tape
Go back to normal watering
If gnats persist, then repeat the process from above about every other watering.
You WILL see leaves turning yellow from this process and you can damage plants if done excessively (or so I'm told), but all my plants manage to come back strong(er?) every time! I rarely have to repeat the process twice...but, again, I keep a VERY clean grow area.
That's what I do and it works for me. I've done it many times. That's all I can tell ya!
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
How bad was the infestation?
tstick
Well-Known Member
No. I started out trying that indoors and always had bug problems. So during the course of one of the living soil grows, I'm sure I killed all the beneficial bacteria along with the pests....but it was the lesser of two evils because, I then switched to fert salts and finished the grow.
I'm sure the "dead" soil could be reinoculated and come back to life after a week or two of the treatment....but I haven't done that.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Cool that worked out for you. I was having trouble with nutes in soil, so I recently switched to living. I have a gnat infestation and I'm so trying to not kill soil microbes, it's hard in organics.
Rozgreenburn
Well-Known Member
Got the same deal, try top dressing with EWC, over time the good mites in it eat fungus gnat larvae. And try to stay a bit drier. I switched from coco to living soil 4 months ago and I still water it like coco occasionally {by accident, old habits}. I have new things to learn now {cool} and I am giving my synthetic nutes to a friend who uses them. Hope your experience in this method works well for you too.
MICHI-CAN
Well-Known Member
Man I envision covered wagons with snake oil salesmen hawking from the buckboard after browsing this.
DE or diatomaceous earth is a very safe and pet friendly product when "FOOD GRADE". Not the arsenic laden crap at your pool store. The biggest threat is eye irritation and minor respiratory irritation due to the abrasiveness. Not toxicity.
A simple light dusting on your soil surface. Then a piece of landscape fabric covering the soil and tucked in around the edge. Repeat an application after a week on top of fabric. Then again a week later to insure the life cycle is broken.
Stop over watering. LOL.
And I use DE for fleas and ticks on my pets since the farm days of my youth. No fleas and none of these weird ailments all the pets bathed in poisons get.
Best wishes.
DE or diatomaceous earth is a very safe and pet friendly product when "FOOD GRADE". Not the arsenic laden crap at your pool store. The biggest threat is eye irritation and minor respiratory irritation due to the abrasiveness. Not toxicity.
A simple light dusting on your soil surface. Then a piece of landscape fabric covering the soil and tucked in around the edge. Repeat an application after a week on top of fabric. Then again a week later to insure the life cycle is broken.
Stop over watering. LOL.
And I use DE for fleas and ticks on my pets since the farm days of my youth. No fleas and none of these weird ailments all the pets bathed in poisons get.
Best wishes.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
So far it's great except for the fuckin gnats. I only water 5% a day so that's not all that much. Any drier and I'll have dead plants. Lol... hope all goes well for you too.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Is 5% a day too much?
I gave up on fabric and air pots because of fungas gnats, the air spots especially. That and I didn’t see any benefits, other than easy re potting with the air.
Coco and air pots = fungas gnat paradise
Get pantyhose, dirt cheap and pull it over the pot and up the plant some, twist pantyhose and pull back underneath the pot.
If done right it’s 100% gnat proof, wraps the stem of the plant without any hindrance to growth.
It works on any pot.
It is a massive pain in arse come watering though, I’ve only done it with hand watering, but you’d be susprised how quick and effective it can be once in the swing of it.
My other solution which isn’t quite 100%, a good layer of perlite top and bottom of pot, controls numbers.
Coco and air pots = fungas gnat paradise
Get pantyhose, dirt cheap and pull it over the pot and up the plant some, twist pantyhose and pull back underneath the pot.
If done right it’s 100% gnat proof, wraps the stem of the plant without any hindrance to growth.
It works on any pot.
It is a massive pain in arse come watering though, I’ve only done it with hand watering, but you’d be susprised how quick and effective it can be once in the swing of it.
My other solution which isn’t quite 100%, a good layer of perlite top and bottom of pot, controls numbers.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
Letting them dry out only works if you are overwatering. i highly doubt thats the case here. DE is not going to blow around with your fans except for when you are applying it. No big deal. i drank 8oz of it to prove to the ol lady it was safe. It does not seem to work very good for bugs though. Larve , sure but bugs will walk around it or jump over it .....or just use brethren bodies to make a bridge.
The dunks are your best bet. DE will work if done like MICHI said to apply it.
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
3 drenches with Gnatrol will eliminate the larvae.......yellow stickies for the adult flyers.
Works every time.
Works every time.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
The dish soap is the only way to get it to mix with water. I have used every dish soap on the market. You can use regular dawn if you want....its basically used for that all around the world. Its super safe. 15ml per gallon of soap is strong.... 5 or 10 ml is all you will need to emulsify the oil. Every gardener should have neem to prevent mites and fungi.
The dish soap alone can kill most bugs with an exoskeloton.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I'm gonna do the dunks.
MICHI-CAN
Well-Known Member
I strongly advise against the use of neem oil in your soil. Big no no.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
Can you tell me why not ?
I dont like to feed the soil neem oil but i have always sprayed the top of the pot. Why would watering with neem hurt ? Thanks
tstick
Well-Known Member
Diatomeceous earth works when it is dry, or as a dry top dressing to prevent the gnats from emerging, but, as has been stated, DE is very dusty and fans will suck it in and blow it out. You'll have it everywhere before you know it. Plus, it's not good to breathe it and that's almost unavoidable when working with it indoors.. As soon as it gets wet, it won't work anymore, either. I use DE to great effect when treating thrips because I can apply the DE with a puffer -which is the proper way to use DE. Again, it always ends up a dusty mess.
Yes, I killed my living soil. But I asked myself what really are the benefits? I've grown both ways and the weed turns out great in either case. So why not make life easier and bug-free? That's the idea and benefit of indoor growing to me, anyway...sterile conditions -to keep the pests out, not bring them in.
I am (kind of) experimenting with a soil/hydro combination grow at the moment with a few clones I cut from the last grow. The top layer is soil and under it is a reservoir of perlite chunks.
Yes, I killed my living soil. But I asked myself what really are the benefits? I've grown both ways and the weed turns out great in either case. So why not make life easier and bug-free? That's the idea and benefit of indoor growing to me, anyway...sterile conditions -to keep the pests out, not bring them in.
I am (kind of) experimenting with a soil/hydro combination grow at the moment with a few clones I cut from the last grow. The top layer is soil and under it is a reservoir of perlite chunks.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
That is what is SO great about a living soil. you are not going to kill all the bennies with DE only. The peroxide is the only thing that hurt them.
Sterile conditions = hydro.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Good to know. I thought you could use a silicate like agsil for an emulsifier? I mixed the neem with the soap and water, but I was nervous to spray my plants. Also how does it kill larvae if you spray on the leaves only, is it systemic?