what dosage of Micbrobe-lift are you using?
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Not to interject but i was using 2 drops per gallon of h2o
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Oh, boy. That is a great question. The labeling is for mosquito control for water features and the dosage recommended for the control of mosquito larva is 2.5ml/1000 gallons. Which is an exceedingly small amount. So, I did have to guess a little bit here. But since this is a biological control, I used the hand-grenade approach with crossed fingers.
Here is what I did but donāt take this necessarily as a recommendation:
What was treated:
Three canna ātreesā, four potted rosemary, about eight potted basil plants, two hot pepper plants, mixed containers of thyme, mixed containers of radishes, one cucumber plant. Probably around 50-60 gallons of soil/coco mix, overall.
Only the thyme was actively being attacked but as a preventative I also addressed other plants in the room.
I wasnāt looking to drench the soil at first but instead just wanted to initially innoculate the media.
Application:
Took 1 ml using a syringe to 1000ml water. Applied the solution to all of the containers. Just dribbled it around the soil. Then did a normal watering but canāt remember if and how long I had waitedā¦
Result:
Gnats were knocked down within the period of several days. Thyme was heavily damaged but am thinking this was due to being attacked in the first place. The other plants have not shown any obvious signs of stress. Have not seen further gnats since the application.
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FN came back recently. I think they got attracted when I stripped my plants of the lower growth and left it outside the room (stupid I know).
Had issues with them over the summer and after I finished my grow I took a break for a couple weeks and havenāt seen them back since.
Where the fuck do they come from? Id like to stay perpetual now and not take breaks to get rid of them. The only other time Iāve had them was 7 years ago when I started growing in soil and they would literally come in via the bags.
Itās cold AF outside so surely they canāt be alive outside and coming in. Over the summer I was doing work on my house so I was in and out of the basement a lot from outdoors so attributed their presence to that. But I never go outside from downstairs anymore. So Iām curious how they came in
Iām in DWC and RDWC. Theres only a few here and there now but over the summer I opened the lid to one of my totes and a bunch came swarming out
They donāt appear to be doing any damage and didnāt appear to do any damage last grow.
Iāve heard putting mosquito dunks in my res and putting yellow sticky traps up.
All these other options seemed effective for grows with an actual medium.
What other options do I have?
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I thought I had fungus gnats on my earlier hydro grow, but they turned out to be sewer flies. If you have a macro lens or USB scope, you can take a close look and you should be able to tell for sure. The flies dont hurt the plants the way the FN bugs do.
I moved the worm bin to the other side of the garage. Seems to be making a difference (in combination with diatomaceous earth.)
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Ebay 
bt stop purchaseā:point_right:applyā:point_right:revel in there demiseā:+1:
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Thank you for the tip. Right now, for the first time I have the little bastards flying and crawling all over the place. Picked up the crab shell amendment and will be incorporating that into the grow.
Iām sure its been mentioned somewhere in this thread but malted barley ground down to a fine powder top dressed, I usually also add some neem at the same timeā¦ works for me anyway
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Do you water in the neem?
I usually top dress with both and leave it for a few days before watering. I donāt want to stress the ladies to much but I donāt want the knats to keep breeding either. Itās a bit of a dance but the plants will tell you.
I would also suppliment with yellow sticky traps.
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I had the little bastards on my last indoor grow and this finally worked and itās cheap.
Let your medium dry out then place a layer of sand about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep all around the plant being sure not to miss any spots or areas. They canāt penetrate the sand to lay their eggs.
To monitor the little pests place a small bowl of beer in your grow tent and check daily in the morning. They love beer and they will drown trying to drink it.
Rooooool another one!
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Oh yeah
If you have drainage holes in your grow containers, pickup a roll of landscape fabric at lLowes and a package of file type large rubber bands. Cut the landscape fabric into a piece large enough to cover the bottoms of your grow containers and up the sides a few inches. Secure with a rubber band and the little bastards cant enter thru the bottoms.
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The sand does work realy well I just do far to much transplanting and cloning to rely on it. Also if your running flood and drain tables its alot harder to use sand. The bt stop is water soluble and can be applied to all types of medium. If your running commercial sized operations you need biological controls as the sand becomes messy and time consuming.
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Oh yeah for sure!
I grow in soil and was referring to that type of medium for a small # of plants.
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Mine are just about gone. Sometimes I can be a little slow on the uptake. I had been experimenting with rooting cuttings in water, instead of my usual rapid rooters with a dome and the gnats were really enjoying themselves in all the bottles of water that the stems were in. Got rid of the water and have only seen two or three in the last couple days.
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This is exactly why I have always used Foxfarm Ocean Forest soil, since it has crab shell in it. I also take the extra step of sterilizing my soil before I bring it in to the garden - this can be done by cooking the soil in an oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or in a microwave oven. For the microwave, simply fill clean microwave-safe quart-size containers with moist soil and heat the soil for about 90 seconds for every couple pounds of soil. I prefer the oven method because it doesnāt kill off the beneficial bacteria that may be present in the soil, however I always add mycelium when planting or transplanting, and use organic teas also so that isnāt really that much of a consideration. I used to have bad fungus gnats before I switched to the Ocean Forest and took the extra step of sterilizing my soil. I also keep the garden area clean and make sure there are no leaves on top of the soil, to avoid gnats and PM. I also have a cheap bug zapper hanging at the top of the tent like this one Innoo Tech Portable Insect Electric Bug Zapper, 2020 Upgrade 1000V Mosquito Killer 4W UV Lamp that is hooked up to the top of the tent and I have set up to go off during the night cycle, as well as yellow sticky sheets hanging in the garden. You can never be to vigilant with those suckers, or mites, etc. and a good solid integrated pest management plan is a must. If you find that you are infected with them I have found that using pyrethrin in a sprayer on the soil, about an hour after watering works, but since new adult gnats emerge every day you need to spray affected plants every two to three days for at least 14 days with pyrethrin to get rid of them.
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Yellow traps work great to keep numbers down
Tip
Keep at least one part of sticky touching pot rim. The buggers use the rims as a highway and canāt help but exit on the yellow turn
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I started culturing some bacillus thuringiensis along with other beneficials. A spoonful of gnatrol, a dash of SCD, a bit of recharge, some molasses, soluble kelp and SuperThrive. Aerate for a few days and toss in the reservoir. Gnats dead, plants grow. Woooo
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