Whats the best way to get rid of fungus gnats?

Cripes, I knew all along I was wasting my time posting that sage advice. swoosh right over the ol noggin.

1 Like

Hey guys I have a root aphid and fungus gnats infestation!!! Need help wanna kill these fuckers ASAP !

2 Likes

Whatā€™s bt?

1 Like

BT = Bacillus thuringiensis

For fungus gnats: BTI = bacillus thuringiensis israelensis

There some examples above such as microbe-lift or those mosquito control pucks at HD. Your local greenhouse supply may have it as well in different forms.

4 Likes

Donā€™t forget to check out the steel wool option :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Items you need

Bamboo skewers. $1
Yellow party plates. $1 ]
Petroleum jelly. $1
Multi purpose sand 60lb bag. $4-7

Small coat of jelly of yellow(blue is good for other pests) sides of plates for cheap sticky traps for adults.

Use sand to make a 2 inch layer on the topsoil.

Done.

3 Likes

This works. Iā€™ve been fighting gnats because I use blumats and my soil is never dry. I put BTi in the rez and they were gone in weeks. Now im not using blumats but I water from the rez with BTi in it. I think I will be able to keep them at bay with BTi as a preventative for now on.

2 Likes

Chop all the plants down and Nuke the room.
I always put soil in black plastic bags in the full sun for a few days or bake it in the oven the bugs will all die in there. I act like itā€™s a hospital type clean room.

d37aeac2a724c755b450edbb4531857e86f1c5dbc0fff22b2dd2c235eb74c0f2

5 Likes

What are the skewers for?

Hang the party plates off them, spear the other end into the soil. Some insects are attracted to the color yellow (e.g. yellow party plates). Similar to those horticultural sticky strips. Itā€™s usually meant more as a diagnostic than a remedy.

The sand ( diatomaceous earth, gnat knix, etc ) is the remedy for his technique.

Iā€™ve done something similar but in conjunction with BTi or other techniques.

1 Like

Stratiolaelaps Scimitus mites, Steinernema Feltiae nematodes, and Dalotia Coriaria (rove beetle) are all options for controlling fungus gnats in soil beds that need to be kept moist. I occasionally see a gnat, but also see the rove beetles hunting them down. :grin:

3 Likes

Sorry, for sticking into the plates. but you can honestly lay them, hang them anything really theyā€™ll find them haha. Iā€™ve even had a friend that used to used rolls of yellow tape but I could not find any at the time. Contact adhesive or double sided tape and yellow/blue laminated construction paper work as well.

1 Like

I have them pretty bad right now in flood/drain hydro. Iā€™ve tried everything under the sun, with low success. Next run, Iā€™m going to be covering all of my pots with mesh netting.

2 Likes

I had them really bad once and I have a very easy fix to never get them again. I mix about 1/4 cup of mosquito bits into 5 gal of soil. Hever had them again after that. Also I never open a bag of soil and use it right away. I dump it into large totes and let it dry out for about a week before use.

4 Likes

Did you try the Excel yet?

@advancedbuffalo told me he found success with it in hydro. Iā€™m still gnat-free over hereā€¦not a single flyer in over a year.

1 Like

Tried em. I also use Microbelift BMC BTi. It might help my numbers a little bit, but doesnā€™t eliminate. Iā€™ve used BTi in the reservoir and pouring over for an entire grow, and had yellow cards 100% covered on both sides.

I tried it on some young plants in hydro. It didnā€™t seem to work, but I canā€™t tell if thatā€™s because they were coming in from elsewhere. My wife has veggies in the basement and I didnā€™t use it on my flowering tent either. So Iā€™m not 100% sure. It didnā€™t kill the algae on my RW, which I had thought it was going to do. Thatā€™s their food.

3 Likes

Need higher doses to kill algae it only slightly discourages algae growth in normal doses, but the doses required to kill algae seem to have a negative effect on the plant growth. Doesnā€™t kill the plants, they just donā€™t grow as fast. You could ramp it up to 2mL/gallon for faster results.

Takes a couple weeks or so to eradicate, Iā€™d try it on all plants and see if it knocks out the problem. I now think it doesnā€™t do much to the adults but kills the larvae/eggs or prevents the adults from breeding.

Good luck, theyā€™re annoying as hell.

4 Likes

Iā€™ll try a bit directly on some larvae and report back. I can usually find some in the bottoms of my pots.

2 Likes

Using concentrated BTi requires a specific use pattern to eradicate - gotta break the lifecycle. I use Gnatrol, but itā€™s essentially the same thing, if not maybe in the same concentrations, and it works every time as long as you follow the directions. Hereā€™s the lifecycle:

image

The pattern suggested by Gnatrol is a heavy dose every 5 - 7 days, repeated 3 times at least. So youā€™re looking at 2-3 weeks to break the lifecycle. Of course, combined with yellow sticky traps. And then, because you may have a few fliers left over, youā€™ll want to do maintenance doses on the same schedule to keep them from reproducing for the next couple weeks after the heavy dose cycles.

I do that in soil if I get an outbreak and it always helps. Sometimes I get caught off guard by an infected bag of compost, and if you follow that protocol, theyā€™re gone in a month.

If for some reason that doesnā€™t conquer your gnat problem, they might not be gnats. Several other small flying pests look very similar and can be hard to diagnose.

4 Likes

This Product works very well
https://doctorzymes.com/mo/index.html

3 Likes