HandyGringo
Well-Known Member
These traps were super effective. They caught a lot of dirt because my plants were short, but also loads of flying stuff. Any experts want to weigh in?
Two weeks worth of bugs on these traps, are they gnats?
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Phytoplankton
Well-Known Member
Looks like fungus gnats mostly. They're fairly easy to get rid of. I believe you can get "mosquito dunks" and make a solution to water with. The gnats don't cause harm, but the larvae eat roots.
HandyGringo
Well-Known Member
Thank you. I've watered with nematodes and I've hung up another bunch of traps. Hope that does it. I would spray with neem oil, but I have just released a ton of predatory mites for thrips, would be a shame to kill those.
Phytoplankton
Well-Known Member
Not sure if the neem will kill the larvae in the soil. The adults don't cause issues, it's the larve in the soil that eat roots. Another thing you can do is put a layer of diatomaceous earth on top of the soil, but at this point that would also probably kill the good nematodes. Give it a week or so and see if the number of flyer caught decreases, that will let you know if the predators are working.
HandyGringo
Well-Known Member
Gotcha, thanks for the insight. Something is for sure sucking at my leaves though, so that might be thrips I guess. I had thrips last year and caterpillars.
The leaves are also showing signs of deficiency, which could be caused by roots being eaten, right? But the rest of the plant looking healthy makes me wonder. Might just be a good old deficiency.
Thanks I'll look into those! Gnatrol is BT, right? I'm already using a variant of BT for catarpillars, probably not the same tho.
compassionateExotic
Well-Known Member
BTI not BT
bt is for caterpillars and similar
bt is for mosquitoes and fungus gbat larva , it does not kill the adults
i suggest microbe life bmc over mosquitoe bits because its 2x concentrated and also 2x shelf life.
another sop for fg and key is having good airflow over medium because that will deter the fliers from laying their eggs. Have yellow traps as a pest pressure monitor and to also catch em . If u see more than 10 in a week i suggest using highest dosage of bti and for adults to buy it roce beetles to chow the adults
Atheta coriaria or Rove beetle (Dalotia coriaria)
Atheta coriaria or Rove beetle (Dalotia coriaria are used primarily to assist in the control of shore flies and fungus gnats and other small arthropods in the soil or planting media. They also help control soil stages of thrips and feed on most other small soil organisms such as moth flies...
HandyGringo
Well-Known Member
Gotcha, thanks! I will try to find some European versions of these recommendations. We're a bit limited compared to you Americans when it comes to pest control, it seems.BTI not BT
bt is for caterpillars and similar
bt is for mosquitoes and fungus gbat larva , it does not kill the adults
i suggest microbe life bmc over mosquitoe bits because its 2x concentrated and also 2x shelf life.
another sop for fg and key is having good airflow over medium because that will deter the fliers from laying their eggs. Have yellow traps as a pest pressure monitor and to also catch em . If u see more than 10 in a week i suggest using highest dosage of bti and for adults to buy it roce beetles to chow the adults
Atheta coriaria or Rove beetle (Dalotia coriaria)
Atheta coriaria or Rove beetle (Dalotia coriaria are used primarily to assist in the control of shore flies and fungus gnats and other small arthropods in the soil or planting media. They also help control soil stages of thrips and feed on most other small soil organisms such as moth flies...www.evergreengrowers.com
Phytoplankton
Well-Known Member
Yeah, those small white dots/areas on the lower leaves look very much like thrip damage.
compassionateExotic
Well-Known Member
Understandable , there’s just simple preventive measures like air on medium and enough dry batching u def can make pressure of FG if not cured even if ur region has them always. Key is like any pest is knowing ur pest pressure populations for correct sop/ipm. FG is a never ending issue exp for organics but like Ive Discovered it’s like any pest is knowing ur scouting but also being aware to never allow high range populations to occur . Meaning way easier to tame and reduce small-none and keep at bay always by a good ipm program than fighting when pest pressure is medium-high mode.
I also forgot to mention is keep ur medium as dry as u can but still moist meaning not capped, fungus gnats def can’t live for long in such . I realize if ur having organic material and many mediums but once u have a controlled dry batching and making this barrier of airflow ontop of medium with traps u should be able to np to have organics or not and not have a fungus gnat issues.
i‘ve tried sand or other things as a barrier but honestly I didn’t see the win or worthy for my sop for FG IPM. my main thing was having colonies of rove, h miles and swirski so if a pest occurs it’s their food but als0 those kind of medium based bugs will chow down on compost based also. Once I even got my populations up and food in mediums the rove beetles and h miles seem to stay year around and I don’t even have to buy them for re-populations. Key is they need food so having like for worms lots of protein and organics is key but also enough water and air balances for everything to be happy.
hillbill
Well-Known Member
Been using Gnatrol for 10 years, watering it in in each new batch of 50% plus recycled mixes. Gnatrol is seriously stronger than the Dunks.
I live if a heavily shaded side of the hill with millions of trees and decaying limbs, leaves and everything that lives and dies there. Fungus Gnats are everywhere most warm months.
I live if a heavily shaded side of the hill with millions of trees and decaying limbs, leaves and everything that lives and dies there. Fungus Gnats are everywhere most warm months.