Tired of dealing with these little bastard 
fungus gnats so I got some mosquito bits. Is it best to mix with water or just mix in the top layer of soil? Also much should I add?
6 Likes
surface layer is better IME because it’s got some kind of nutrient-affecting properties when I’ve “brewed” it(raised pH). if you’re loaded & can afford a mulch layer with it than go for it. next time i’ll try the powdered bT which can be liquified.
just scratch it in like it’s a top-dressing of fertilizer, should see effects in 1-2 weeks as the microbes meet up with their prey.
6 Likes
So pretty much just pepper the top layer and mix a little? Thanks
4 Likes
I ground up 2 gm per 7 gal pot (I’m using Mosquito Dunks but it’s the same stuff as the bits).
Worked great for 2 weeks. Later I reapplied with the water. It is hydrophobic and doesn’t mix in well. Adding drop of liquid soap on your finger to the water helps a little.
Cheers
G
6 Likes
IME the bits aren’t as good as the dunks. I tried a brew of sorts, just added a bunch to a gallon of water and let it sit for a few days and then added that to my waterings. Something with the sugary corn bits causes all sort of issues I never had when I did the same thing with the dunks. For the dunks I’d just break them up by had as much as I could and Let it sit the same amount of time and used at the same ratios.
2 Likes
It’s funny that you posted your question when you did, @anon81143130 - I’ve been wanting to create a thread with my feedback on Mosquito Bits…
After battling gnats for the better part of the past year or so, including during the cold winter months, I finally decided to give the Bits a try.
During my battle, I tried Dr. Earth, Sevin concentrate, neem oil, several pyrethrin based products & a couple others that I can’t recall. I have a 4000 gallon pond in my yard, and with ponds come mosquitoes, so I’ve had Mosquito Dunks sitting around since I built the pond in 2010. It took a year, but it finally hit me - can these things (the dunks) control gnats? I hopped online and did my research, and obviously learned that, in fact, they CAN control gnats. In fact, they make the Mosquito Bits to be a more convenient form for using with plants.
So here’s where my Mosquito Bits program likely differs from most of what I’ve read from other growers. I wouldn’t post it if it didn’t work well AND was an improvement over what most people might otherwise do.
Here are the tools I use:
One gallon pitcher, small strainer and a 1/2 PVC pipe for crushing and stirring.
I place about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the Bits into the pitcher and add a gallon of water and mix it up. Most of the Bits will float when you first put them into the water, so come back to the pitcher and stir them in throughout the day until they all fall to the bottom. Like this…
With the Bits sitting on the bottom, use that PVC pipe to mix AND crush down on the bits. You want to break off tiny pieces of the bits because this is what the gnat larvae will feed on - and it will kill them. The pieces can be so small, you can hardly see them, or not see them at all!
In this pic,
you might be able to see that I’ve poured about 2/3 of the pitcher into the bucket. Since most of the Bits were waterlogged and sitting on the bottom, I could swirl the water around in the pitcher and pour the water into the bucket without using the strainer. This ensures that I didn’t prevent any of the gnat larvae killing Bits from going into the water that I’ll be using to feed the plants.
In this pic, you can see that I caught all the Bits in the strainer when I poured the rest of the water into the bucket. For efficiency, I really get the water swirling around in the pitcher before I pour it through the strainer.
Now that I have a gallon of treated water, I just add that to the larger volume of water that I’ll be using to add my nutrients to for feeding my plants. If I have a bunch of plants to feed (maybe 10 or more), I will likely make up 2 gallons - one at a time. I like to let the Bits sit in the water overnight, but I’ve settled for an hour or so with no issues.
In this pic, , you can see how much of the Mosquito Bits I’ve used from that container. Remember the 2 or 3 tablespoons of Bits I told you to start with? Well, I’m still using the same Bits I started with a FEW MONTHS AGO!
Yup! I’ve been doing what I described every day for the past 3 months or so and I no longer have a gnat problem and I haven’t been using new Bits for each watering! I can’t believe they still work, but they do! Obviously I’m prepared to replace the Bits, but if it ain’t broke!
For the record, it took about 10 days to 2 weeks for me to notice that the gnats were almost completely gone. So it’s not fast acting, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to kill the larvae as they feed. Gnats might still show up in your garden, but they won’t reproduce with success and they won’t become an infestation.
I might sound like a commercial for Summit, the makers of the Mosquito Bits (and Dunks), but if you think about it, I’m telling you how to use the product in a way that works AND use the least amount possible! Easily the best insect control decision I’ve ever made.
5 Likes
Same active ingredient, this is also an option … but mail-order:
https://microbelift.com/product/bmc-biological-mosquito-control/
Small size only, you only need a small amount.
3 Likes
I’m having trouble understanding how that works. The bits are treated corn IIRC. Repeated washes and the water is still effective? 
Cheers
G
2 Likes
I can’t find corn mentioned on the label or Summit’s website. I’ve seen other people post about it being made with corn, but let’s be logical - can corn survive in water for a few months while getting bashed and crushed by a plastic pipe every day? I think it looks like corn, so people just run with it.
I can see you’re skeptical. Perhaps I would be too if I just read what I wrote without experiencing it. But, yes - it’s still effective.
4 Likes
I’m having the same issue and nube suggested Gnatrol. He swore by it. I always thought that it wasn’t organic, but it turns out it is. I applied some a week ago and it definitely diminished the gnat population. Second application will be tomorrow, I expect them to be gone after that. If you haven’t already bought those bits, I’d go with the Gnatrol instead.
1 Like
Keep us posted after a few months have passed. If you have to keep reapplying it, you’ll be using more and more of it. I’ve used about ten cents worth of the Bits and have no gnat issues. At this rate, I’ll have that container for a decade or more. If both products control the gnats, the value of the Mosquito Bits is hard to beat.
2 Likes
Ive been using dunks by breaking off about a gram chunk and putting it in my 10 gallon rain water resevoir, it kills all the baby mosquitos in the water and also whiped out all of the fungus gnats i had in my room, i used my outdoor compost this time around so there were quite a lot flying around and about 2 weeks after the first watering with them there were no more than 1 or 2 and my sticky trap took care of them.
3 Likes
Yeah as @minitiger said, gnatrol is the same active bacteria - Bacillus thuringiensis (israelensis) - innoculant, considered “organic,” and it’s much cheaper than the dunks or bits due to how effective it is.
After buying dozens of the big bottles of mosquito bits over the last five years, and finding them never able to really eliminate gnats in an organic grow, I switched to gnatrol. You only have to use a tiny bit in two applications 7-10 days apart to eliminate them, rather than just “controlling” them with the mosquito dunks/bits.
I’d still strongly recommend the yellow sticky traps to help get rid of gnats during an infestation, and to help diagnose any re-infestation when it inevitably occurs. There’s nothing that will get rid of them forever, since they exist in everyone’s house, outside, and come in on fresh fruit & produce. But the gnatrol bought from www.organicbti.com is the best organic option for the money, in my experience.
4 Likes
I just put about 1/4 cup in each container and mixed it in to the top inch of soil. After just 3 days I’m already seeing significantly less so fingers crossed. I dont think I had a big infestation to start off with , just didn’t want to wait until I did
2 Likes
well guys I’m 100% fungus gnat free after about 2 weeks. I mixed about 1/4 cup of mosquito bits into the top inch of soil and they slowly got less and less until nothing in sight.
4 Likes
Me, too! Finally! Gotta give props to @nube for the Gnatrol suggestion, that shit worked better than anything I’ve tried before.
3 Likes
I use these 2" stainless split hinged tea strainer balls to put the bits into, then hang the ball in my tea making tote. Very cheap garden tool, IMHO.
I can have 2-3 balls hanging in there.
I started off with dunks floating but they would rush into my watering can, then bitch up the flow out of the spout. I have to add a section of hose to fit my spout so I can reach all the pots in the flower tent, it became annoying. Then I found the Bit’s and LOVE them.
Also when mixing up my medium on the basement tarped floor, a few cups go into the mix.
I still use tangle trap on pieces of scrap cardboard, as the yellow and blue sticky traps get expensive.
I’m getting ready to fill a tea ball with Neem Meal, as I never used it for bugging.
5 Likes
just curious if you had any green algae from putting on top of soil?
I’m afraid he’s gone, I also used those mosquito bits (cheaper Chinese version) on top of the soil and never saw any algae, I think they are waterproof … 
1 Like
Sorry to hear that, but thanks for chiming in
In the middle of a battle
(War). With these little bastards🤬. Do you know if it works better, watered in or mixed in with soil? (Or both)
Thanks, krusty.
1 Like