Newb Question On Bugs

[Bullethead21]

What are the tiny little gnat type creatures seen flying around indoor plants? Any idea what these are or what is used to get rid of them?

Thanks in advance!

[Green Supreme]

Sounds like fungus gnats. Perhaps you are overwatering. They like very damp conditions. You can use a pesticide like Gnatrol or you can top dress with diatomecious earth. Good luck. Peace GS

[Bullethead21]

Thanks GS!

[FullMeltGuitarist]

Yeah, definatly sounds like Fungus Gnats, you should flush your plants with some Larva Solution and put up some sticky fly paper hanging from the ceiling. Worked great for me anyways.

[Bubbleman]

I had really good results back in the day ( when i was actualy growing ) , with tobacco plants.
i had grabbed a few from a friend just for fun, and put them next to my cannabis plants.
At the end of the cycle when i finaly looked at the tobacco plants up close, each one of the tiny sharp hairs that grow off the tobacco plants ( and there are thousands on each plant) seemed to have one or two single gnats impailed on the hair. Would have made for amazing macro shots. oh well before my macro camera's time...


Bubble man


ps, obviously this is only going to kill the flies, the actual larvae that is doing all the damage will still be in our soil, eating up your roots....

[Bullethead21]

Thanks for the info guys!

[Bullethead21]

Anyone recomend what type of larvae solution is good? I did a google search and I dont really know what would be best to use.......

[FullMeltGuitarist]

I think its called like Safer the brand i used, and its in a green bottle

[YukonBikerGuy]

I just used the fungus gnat spray available at Walmart on the surface of the grow medium and bottoms of the containers, yellow sticky stick traps get lots of gnats, and try to keep the medium a bit drier. Repeat the treatment every 3 days, 3 or 4 times and it should kill them all. Leave up a clean sticky stick trap or two afterwards to monitor if any gnats come back. Good luck, I hate them lil bastards, I was so happy to get em all dead, you will be too.

[orihime]

imo the best thing to use on fungus gnat larvae is any product with Bti, Bacillus thuringiennsis israelensis, in it. Bti is a bacterial disease of mosquitos and fungus gnats. it can be found in many products. gnatrol which was mentioned earlier contains it and has been know to work well in hydro set ups. another product is mosquito dunks, and i've read uses of it in both hydro and soil. i've used it in soil with good results.

thing is most anything ya do to the larvae is generally gonna take multiple applications to attack each clutch as they hatch. personally found it easier to figure out how to stop adults from layin eggs in the 1st place, stopping the cycle there. used sticky traps to detect where they were gettin in. then put out hot shots no pests strips. then put a layer of perlite on top, a soil suggestion. the gnats cannot lay eggs on the coarse perlite. some people use DE, diatomaceous earth, which was suggested earlier. one word on DE is it kills any bug it contacts, good or bad. another topping option is sand, cleaned and coarse. it adds more weight to the pot than perlite and is a tad more messy imo, but it works.

one last suggestion is to get a preditor critter. two options there are nematoads and hypoaspis mites. i got to see the mites do wonders in one garden.

best of luck!
hime