Can anyone tell me what small flying monstrosity this? 
I caught it in my kitchen, which is a floor above and several rooms away from my babies alas, Im concerned. 
I know it doesn’t take much for an infestation. 
I figured it would be easier to ask than to worry myself into a tizzy about it.
Thanks in advance, to everyone who responds.
Your time, knowledge and any suggestions are greatly appreciated. 
That’s a gnat
Harmful to Cannabis?
Yep, fungus gnat
Not the worst bug you can have, but who wants them. Search fungus gnat here.
They are just a pest. Nothing to really worry about. If they get too bad, use some sand to cover the tops of your pots. They can not get in the soil to lay their eggs, and the hatched ones can not get out.
Thank you, I’ll have a look for sure! 
I’m searching natural ways to get rid of them currently because they have to be coming from one of my regular houseplants. Which is a total bummer and now I must go on a seek and destroy mission! 
Would cat litter work as a stand in for sand?
The non clumping kind. 
I very much doubt it. It absorbs water. Its nothing like sand. Gnats like the damp.
Duly noted…scratching that idea. 
Some of the best methods to kill fungus gnats:
If your infestation gets really bad it can cause damage to your plants:
Some damage done by fungus gnats:
Bookmarked for future use!
Fabulous, thank you! 
No one here uses Steinernema Feltiae? Beneficial nematodes. Way you apply them is you first make sure your soil is receptive to water (pre-wetting the soil if need be), then you add the baggy to a watering can and just water EVERY PLANT IN THE HOUSE with it. This is important because if you don’t catch every plant it’s just gonna start back from wherever there are still gnats living.
These could be something other than gnats though. The one thing that gets mistaken for gnats (sciara analis) is root aphids, well, the winged image stage of the root aphid, that is.
I would call neither harmless, as some replies here try to claim. A proper gnat infestation can cost you over 20% in yield weight. Try calling that harmless. And that’s not counting the weakened immune system paving the way for other problems.
Those gnats are present in a lot of bags of soil you can buy here in Europe, even the specific for cannabis kind, and even the better brands.
I started sterilizing my soil prior to use, after steam sterilization I let it cool and then inoculate it with a few different soil organisms. I always make a bit more than I need, then keep the rest in a bucket so it can start to live, then I add that as a starter on top of the starting material for the organic life amendments.
I use a mix of Sannie’s Perfect Start, Sannie’s Symbiosis, Bacterial from NoMercy, and an entomopathogenic fungi called Metarhizium Anisopliae. This then gets mixed into a soil base consisting of 50% BAC lava soil, 50%Plagron Batmix, along with a teaspoon of potash, a heaped teaspoon of Kieserite and a heaped teaspoon of a patented calcium carbonate powder called Eunosan, which purports to help plants take up nutrients more efficiently. Whatever, it’s calcium!
This way I’m left with soil that doesn’t carry any pathogens or gnat eggs anymore yet has a jump start on proper soil life.
I’ve been relatively free of bugs this way, although lately I have forgotten the potash a few times and that has come to bite me in the ass!
Well that post became longer than anticipated. Time for a bonghit!
Oh, before I forget. You can see which is which by watching the abdomen of the bugger, if it has a split body, then it’s a gnat, if it’s a “clumpy” body without the split between abdomen and thorax, then it’s a root aphid.
Nematodes get rid of both just as well. But for proper eradication it could be you need to re-apply a week to 14 days later.
Enjoy that bong hit! You’ve earned it!
Thank you, more info for me to soak in and consider moving forward.
I have worked with nematoads in the past, on a much larger scale though and they were helpful.
Bottom feeding keeps soil on top of pot dry , plus plants love being feed direct to root tips , feed has no soil to travel thru maybe changing ec or ph , feed goes straight to tips , any holes in bottom of pot line the inside with cheap material type weed control fabric , this acts as a barrier so gnats can’t party in the holes : )
Gnats stick to your lovely buds pita
Fungus Gnats?
-Always heard it’s the larvae eating at your roots that cause trouble. The adults not so much other than they produce babies that eat your roots.
Here’s what I do:
Water properly- allow the soil to dry thoroughly between watering. Simply put, it takes dampness to make them happy.
Use yellow sticky traps for fungus gnats (blue for thrips) - these won’t stop them, but will show you how bad the problem is.
Use mosquito dunks/bits (as others have pointed out) but be careful as the dunks/bits can bring fungus and mold if overused. I like the idea of soaking them in water used to irrigate the plant, but not sure of the effectiveness there. (?) -always understood one of the vectors for getting the good-guy bacteria into the bad guys is that they eat on the dunks/bits.
Diatomaceous earth. I use a duster to treat the top layer of soil. Bugs hate it.
I have seen time and time again, people refer to “letting the soil dry out thoroughly”.
I’m gonna call it like it is. So here’s what:
I don’t know how much water you think a gnat larvae needs in it’s environment to stay alive, and how long a drought needs to be to break a cycle, but I can tell you one thing, if you are going to keep your gnats in check by using water levels, you aren’t gonna grow much.
Soil needs to have moisture to live. Roots need water to live. When you let soil dry out to bonedry (the levels needed to kill gnat larvae would be one where your plants hang drooping for days), only to overwater just to be able to get the now hydrophobic soil back into a water loving state, then you are effectively not just killing a few of them fungus gnats, but you are also killing a vast portion of your precious root system.
Try it out. You don’t even need the fungus gnat infestation for it. Just stop watering, until your plants hang drooping, and then wait with watering for another few days, because those gnat larvae are just gonna be diggin deeper while you are thinking they are done livin, then when you water again they gonna be up n running back in no time only to surprise you with a repeat infestation that you don’t understand is happening. Only it’s not a repeat. It’s still there. All you did was harm the plant more than the bug, and now you gotta put money in saving an even weaker plant. That’s what that will show you, that a drought for days, is really a bitch for your plant to handle. It’s like your girl getting put in the ring with Mike Tyson. But it’s easier to think that a cheap solution is gonna save you, isn’t it?
And that’s the problem. We all wanna save a dime.
I’ve tried DE as well, but honestly, once you water with that shit on top stuff just gets disgusting. And it stops working too once it’s wet. I mean, it’s a nice theory and all that, but in practice, diatomaceous earth never really worked too well for me. I still have a bucket of the stuff, all I use it for now is to repel an ant species that can’t be eradicated from coming indoors. Smallest of them fuckers still make it through though.
Sure sure. Plants need water. So do bugs, especially fungus gnats. There’s always that balance. But not acknowledging constantly wet soil plays a role in fostering a “pro-fungus-gnat” environment seems to miss that point. Water properly and you’ve got a good start at a wholistic approach. It’s helped me.
I respect your thoughts on DE, and don’t necessarily disagree. Diatomaceous earth isn’t a panacea. But it is another way to create an unfriendly environment for bugs and it’s harmless to humans. Messy? You betcha. It’s part of the trade off and with discipline it can be minimized. I reapply once the soil has dried a bit, and agitate the soil to breakdown clumps once dried.
The dunks/bits always seem to do the trick when it gets that far, but honestly, with proper watering, soil sterilization prior to use, and periodic DE, I don’t have “gnat issues” most of the time these days.
Ugh! I’m jealous of those mosquito bits! It’s one of the things the average European grower can’t usually get their hands on, sadly! I’ve had the opportunity once but cash was tight, but that’s the thing I hear constantly, that the mosquito bits are the one thing that reliably works every time. And IIRC it’s natural too, which is a very big plus in my book.
And I hear you on the friendly/unfriendly environment. It’s just that my approach does not lend itself well to letting the soil dry out. I’ve started taking the opposite route. Kill all incoming eggs before using the soil, then add water with optimized levels of oxygen by bubbling ozone through the feed water before watering the soil, never letting it dry out more than half an inch of dry topsoil.
So these gnats are attracted to the colour yellow?
What are the Mosquito bits?
