Fungus gnats are a consequence of a stagnant and overly moist environment in the soil, soil that lacks oxygen is gonna be anaerobic, detrimental fungus that attracts those gnats thrives in a high co² environment with maximum humidity. reading through the comments I can’t help but feel like everyone is complicating the issues and solutions without nipping the ACTUAL source of the problem in the ass and really shaking my head bringing any form of pesticides, neem,dunks, etc in the picture
ITS SIMPLE TO FIX!!!
increase airflow and decrease standing water/oversaturation, I DONT CARE HOW YOU ACCOMPLISH THAT, but ultimately that’s the LONG TERM solution, if u can’t resist watering to frequent or to much at a time feeling like u gotta give ur garden daily waterings then pump up your soil medium with more perlite and still add more fans and airflow to offset the anaerobic soil conditions it’s creating but let’s fix it the right way instead of throwing more unnecessary crap in the soil
I’d almost guess you prob have a healthy amount of decomposing roots in that medium by now which is what’s been helping with the issue, it’s putting more natural drainage and aerating your soil much like perlite would only much better
Checking back in, my hatred for fungus gnats is matched by my respect. They are a damn worthy adversary and they are persistent and HARD TO KILL.
There’s no way I am going to curse myself and declare ultimate victory over them, but I have won the battle and I see so few now. But I still see one every day or two.
I’m using coco, here is the combo that took care of business.
BTi - 3 drops in every gallon I applied with no letups
EPM spray (citric acid) once - twice a day soaking the top.
Sticky Traps
OG Biowar
Layer of Perlite on top of the coco. I think this actually was the single most effective, and probably a good preventative measure going forward.
Physical barriers and sticky traps are the only progress I’ve made on the ones in my basement. Mesh over the tops works pretty good. My gnats guzzle BTi. Doesn’t matter if it’s mosquito dunks, Microbe Lift BMC or gnatrol, they bathe in it and ask for more.
Its already been said but i have had success with mixing various things in my water for my soiless medium grow. mosquito dunks and powdered sulphur have been ultra effective
Late to this. But. I’m in a few gardening groups. When starting seeds some people have trouble with fungus gnats. What they do is to plant the seed. Then either use cinnamon powder on the soil to kill fungus. Or once seed or plant is planted. Put sand over the soil. It keeps the gnats at bay. Or lol. If your like me. Expeirement with natural methods. Like carnivorous natural sticky traps. Lol. This one is just a baby. But has already proved its worth
Interestingly, I had em, but they’re nearly gone since I put a cup of bleach in my “sump” since it was off line. I didn’t realize where they’d gone until I saw their floating carcasses. It reminded me of a scene in Game of Thrones, I felt powerful…
Might be worth putting a tablespoon of bleach in a big glass of water to see what happens. I don’t know if they were drawn to it, or if they were just checking it out by chance, but it didn’t end well for them.
Had anyone mentioned watering plants that are in pots from below. Example put potted plant in a dish 2” high, pour water in and have the water be drawn up through the bottom to the roots leaving surface dry?
Funny you mention this, Cactus. Being born a bastard, I can bastardize whatever I care to, since I’m bona fide and all. So I run a bastardized system, well a couple of them.
However the aqua tray, has 4 - 3 gallon nursery type pots, I did drill 12 extra holes, keeping them in line with the pots drain slits.
Organic mix, of Dr. Earth goodies, portions of large chunk perlite, coco husks, sunshine mix #4.
Each pot has a plant.
The pots sit on a piece of coco mat, in the 2’ x 2’ x 7" tray with a F&D kit installed.
A 20 g reservoir under it, with a pump to flood, to about 3-4" of nutrients.
I use Master Blend Tomato fertilizers, mixed to label, that works out to 500-600 ppm, ph is adjusted down with 4 TBLS of MorBloom to 5.8 - 6.0 but will increase over the week to 8.6 or so. I only add back, no res changes, until the cull.
As the pump floods, the wicking action feeds the plants.
Not one single top down watering took place since transplanting into them.
I’ve watched this grow, waiting for the gnats to bloom.
In the past, I’d DE them, I used dryer sheets, I run a tea ball of Bits in the resy. The Biologicals worked a treat, when I used them in my mix tote.
However when watering from the top down, I’ve always seen some.
I’m close to 5 weeks of wicking action only, and I can scratch the surface around to tops of the pots, seeking them out, and do not see any.
Wicking who knew!
there you go, just accept them (within reason, I mean we are not talking plague of locust over Oklahoma, right). I just smoke 'em. they can’t be any worse for me than the shit that I might try to spray on them to get rid of them.
I’ve tried dunks, Microbe Life BMC which is a higher concentration of liquid BTi, Lost Coast Plant Therapy, Monterey BT… Got some hypoapsis miles coming this week. Hope they are hungry. I’m tired of messing with these fuckers
I’m going to try and find some, for lack of better term a deep well type of saucer, for my 1 gallon pots, and some for the 3 g’s, as I can set my 4" pots in a 10/20 tray and bottom flood those. Maybe getting away from top down fluid filling may help, or may not.
Agree totally % I would make a compost tea ( my cure for everything) with a tablespoon of molasses ( black strap un-Sulfurated of course)
Spray plant and top of soil usually does the trick
When I tried Growing dtw in coco for a few runs, I had the fuckers so bad. Nothing worked 100% some methods helped more than others . But once established are hard to eliminate. I tried almost everything . Fans blasting across tops of pots, yellow cards everywhere , tanglefoot, Neem meal/oil ,essential oils, bti, btk, dunks perlite capping coco , l.a.b.s… i even bought and capped all pots with 2 inches of gnat control ( recycled glass product no longer for sale) . These fuckers were relentless until an old fart told me to use a propane torch .
I admit it , when I first read it thought it was bonkers .
Easy a.f. just hydrate coco and giver a good torching it will smoke a bit don’t melt your pots . Its very satisfying zapping the freshly hatched runners . Torching every couple days coupled with daily btk 10ml/L brought the gnats to screeching halt . And while extreme was the only way I could stop them.
Bti in water. I buy those granulated things with bti. Put it in the water. Wait some time. Water with it. I use fabric bags they sell for the laundry to put the granulated thing so I can throw it away later. Saved me so many plants
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% I would make a compost tea ( my cure for everything) with a tablespoon of molasses ( black strap un-Sulfurated of course)