After 3 months of using peroxide to try and deal with these little bastards one drench with the Gnatrol and hanging the traps has cut the population down more than I could have even hoped for. I still have a couple flying around but I need to be follow up with a couple more gnatrol applications to break the breeding cycle. Thank you guys so much. I was getting ready to go with napalm. It was getting personal.
You're going to have to continue repeated applications of Gnatrol to keep populations under control, as Bti doesn't reproduce indoors, or persist for long periods of time. It's just the nature of the bacterium trying to compete with preexisting microbial populations in your soil mix.
If needed, there are better long term control options in
Hypoaspis miles and/or
Steinernema feltiae, available here....
https://www.naturesgoodguys.com/
"Three commercially available biological control agents can be purchased to control fungus gnats in pots or container media (
Table 1). These include
Steinernema nematodes,
Hypoaspis predatory mites, and the biological insecticide
Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies
israelensis (Bti). Several Bti products (Mosquito Bits, Gnatrol) are readily available in retail nurseries and garden centers, so these products may be the most convenient for home gardeners to use. Bti does not reproduce or persist indoors, so infestations in potting media might require repeated applications at about five-day intervals to provide control. Nematodes and
Hypoaspis mites must be mail-ordered and are live and perishable products, requiring immediate application. Nematodes can provide relatively long-term control of fungus gnat larvae, and they can be self-reproducing after several inoculative applications to establish their populations.
Steinernema feltiae is more effective against fungus gnats than other commercially available nematode species. Mix Bti or nematodes with water, and apply as a soil drench, or spray onto media using a hand-pump spray bottle or other spray equipment, following label directions."
UC home and landscape guidelines for control of Fungus Gnats.
ipm.ucanr.edu
The good news is that some bacteria are likely still alive that survive the processing and stuff. But no way would you even find a viable worm cocoon!
