Roots Organic Soil (Free Gnat Larva Included!!)

Nullis said:

I also don't like to put a layer of anything like DE or sand on top of my soil. Eventually it all gets wet, hinders air exchange and just gets nasty and sloppy.

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my bad i should have kept reading!

Yellow traps
Wine in a bottle with a funnel
vinegar in a jar with a little bit scented dish soap


The little buggers are so easy to trap, if you kill the adults you can usually brake the whole cycle. Although this is the time of the year when they get real gnarly.

Bottom feed your plants. Byebye gnats.

green as grass said:

I've gotten them too, what i would use is pyrethrium tr and then i have this stuff called gnatrol i add that every time i get soil, its a bad bacteria that the larvae eat and die.
i would do a bomb for ones flying around every 4 days as well as yellow sticky traps to monitor there reproduction. it knocked em out and they are gone till today which has been 3 months.soon as summer hit they were everywhere.
Also i have gotten thrips too. with TR bomb and spinosad to knock them out. it worked and now three months free of them. Now every clone i have gets dipped in azatrol and 4 days later floramite dip. I DO NOT WANT SPIDER MITES! i'm not afraid of much but i'am deathly afraid of these critters as they are like a plague and are teriblly hard to get rid of.

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ill take 100 spider mites over 1 root aphid anyday

http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis
http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/natural-mosquito-control-products

A combination of beneficial predatory nematodes and the "Dunks" which are merely bacillus thuringiensis, will attack the soil cycle, killing the larvae (and many adults) Sticky traps. and bowls of either cheap wine or cider vinegar help control the flying adults. PLEASE DO NOT USE pesticides, bombs or pyrethrin sprays. Especially during flower.
Fungus gnats are more of a REAL nuisance than anything. I've had them so bad that at times I'd be breathing them in, and the corpses covered the corners of the room to a depth of over an inch. They were in my cloning area with freshly rooted clones, yet I saw no evidence that they impacted the clones, and saw no evidence that they impacted the vegging plants. Thankfully, using the above methods,I was able to pretty much get rid of them before i flipped the girls, so none were getting stuck to my bud. I've only had 'em a couple times, but those couple times they were a real bitch to control and get rid of.

Nullis said:

Go got some Mosquito Dunks, which is the Bti, sold at most home improvement stores. Crush up a dunk as best you can, put the powder in a gallon jug with some water, shake it up and let it sit for several hours or over night and then water all of your plants with it. Do this every other week, and within a couple weeks you should notice less of them.

It is good to do use the dunks along with sticky traps and a dusting of DE where ever you see the adult gnats like to congregate. They also find their way up drainage holes at the bottom of the pots and lay their eggs there also, so I work DE into the carpet around the pots. Those that land in it and are exposed to the DE will die eventually.

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I got rid of mine by doing the following two things last grow: 1 - 2 waterings with gnatrol (same stuff as the dunks) and set out a honey pot trap anywhere they congregate. The honey pot trap is a small pot of soil, saturated with gnatrol water and molasses (the molasses will attract the gnats). Over the top of the pot, lay 2-3 yellow sticky strips like prison bars with some space between so the gnats can fly down to the soil. Eventually, almost all will either land on the sticky strips (may need to replace once or twice) or lay their eggs in the honey pot that kills the eggs.

What about a soil drench with azamax?

Guessing that would work... the store where I get mine from the gnatrol is many times less than the gnatrol... but the gnatrol's only good against certain bugs... still, hard to beat a few dollars on the price for a little bag that'll last you years compared to a not too big bottle of azamax several times that. But the azamax will work on a lot more stuff... and i think the azamax would kill them quicker right? the gnatrol just breaks the larval chain.

I think I got bugs from roots organic soil. I had great results with fox farm soils and pro-mix, than i swicthed too roots organic and ever since my plants grow slow and turn yellow, it is like something is eating the roots or something, I do see alot of fruit flys coming from the soil but i dont see anything else but, there gotta be something killing my roots

Those probably aren't fruit flies...

Buy some predatory nematodes add them to your soil .

Alcohol and the bti are the best defenses. I had an infestation directly in my root system on some bubble bucket dwc plants, they were eating the roots and multiplying like crazy. I used neem and it had little effect, azatrol worked better it slowed their breeding and movement considerably, but when I started spraying alcohol on the roots and the tops on my soil on my soil plants it devastated the gnat larvae. The plants showed no signs of trouble from the direct alcohol on the roots but it killed the larvae on contact. I tried peroxide it does nothing at all to the gnats or larvae. Also believe it or not straight chlorine bleach didnt kill several that I put directly in a cup of it, they just crawled away. I also mixed some bti/water up.and poured it on everything, it has prevented reinfestation. Bti works very well, I put it in my livestock drinking water reservoir (per instructions on the package, 100% safe for mammal consumption) and it totally prevents the larvae stage of mosquitos also. Bti/azatrol/ISO alcohol are life savers.