First, let me state that I have never eradicated fungus gnats. They're BAD where I am and I've even found them down on the back of the property (I live in California's Sierra Nevada mountains), I've never experienced such a persistent little fucking pest.
When I used DE, I did not find relief. When I used crumbled dunks sprinkled on the surface of the soil, I did not find relief. I used the dunks in the water I used for mixing up fertilizers, found no relief. I found some good relief using Capulator's beneficials, but not eradication. I haven't gotten a hold of Gnatrol, but I do have cedar oil and am able to mix up my own 'cides' using essential oils--no relief.
The issue is the gnats getting into the root zone and laying eggs, the larvae are what damage and kill our plants. So the neem may seem like a good idea, until you go too far and smother your plants. I've done it, and ultimately it not only didn't kill the larvae, it did kill a bunch of veggie starts I had going.
I've done so much trying to eradicate them indoors (NO harsh or persistent chemicals though, I'm fairly married to organic methods) that I've lost track of everything I've done. This includes sandwiching the media between layers of perlite when potting, which didn't work.
So asking *me* what works isn't necessarily a good idea, because the only way I've seen that stops them from eating up whatever I'm trying to grow inside is to plant it in pure perlite. Everything I've discussed has worked well for pretty much everyone else I've seen post about the subject, though.
Sorry, but I've gotta be honest.
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First, let me state that I have never eradicated fungus gnats. They're BAD where I am and I've even found them down on the back of the property (I live in California's Sierra Nevada mountains), I've never experienced such a persistent little fucking pest.
When I used DE, I did not find relief. When I used crumbled dunks sprinkled on the surface of the soil, I did not find relief. I used the dunks in the water I used for mixing up fertilizers, found no relief. I found some good relief using Capulator's beneficials, but not eradication. I haven't gotten a hold of Gnatrol, but I do have cedar oil and am able to mix up my own 'cides' using essential oils--no relief.
The issue is the gnats getting into the root zone and laying eggs, the larvae are what damage and kill our plants. So the neem may seem like a good idea, until you go too far and smother your plants. I've done it, and ultimately it not only didn't kill the larvae, it did kill a bunch of veggie starts I had going.
I've done so much trying to eradicate them indoors (NO harsh or persistent chemicals though, I'm fairly married to organic methods) that I've lost track of everything I've done. This includes sandwiching the media between layers of perlite when potting, which didn't work.
So asking *me* what works isn't necessarily a good idea, because the only way I've seen that stops them from eating up whatever I'm trying to grow inside is to plant it in pure perlite. Everything I've discussed has worked well for pretty much everyone else I've seen post about the subject, though.
Sorry, but I've gotta be honest.
-----------------hi, i appreciate the honesty, they are very persistent..i have been using the
neem oil for 3 grows and have not killed any plants thank fully(i dont think ? )..i cant actually say that because i had all the fan leaves turn brown/dry out/fall off and there were very few sugar leaves big enough to absorb..and the bud actually fattened up good(og kush-sour diesel)..this issue started at about wk 4 of bloom, it could of been a ph issue, nute issue..i just started using
promix and liquid nutes (
general organics go box)..i was told it was ph/overwatering/root rot and 3 different other diagnosis lol and everyone had very good pics and everyone said something different- the runoff ph was 6.1 in
promix, so i cant see how it could of been a ph issue..i keep a journal still..so it could of been the
neem oil that did damage and made the leaves dry out/fall off..the couple of plants had just sugar leafs and the buds got large and pretty good, i was shocked i expected a loss from those.. i have been using
neem oil and learned alot since my first grow, i dont have any issues at all with ph/root rot etc the plants are nice and healthy and in wk 5 of bloom..
foxfarm ocean forest and
neem oil are a disaster..but, since figuring out how to grow indoors the
neem oil dont seem to be affecting them..and if i spray the
neem oil mixed with
protekt every 2 wks i dont see any flying..as soon as i stop spraying they are back, so i am not killing them completely, because they wouldnt keep popping up if i dont spray..i am gonna try the
diatomaceous earth, if that dont eradicate them completely than i will use the mosquito dunks..and just keep trying less stressful method(
neem oil), i say less stressful because now that you told me you killed plants using
neem oil, i will be looking for issues more intensely now lol..i read the
diatomaceous earth is completely harmless to plants, no bad taste/odor..i dont want to put anything in the
promix that will potentially kill/stress/stunt my girls..have you tried the neem with the
dyna gro protekt as a mixing agent(to break down the neem and allow it to mix well with warm water)? ifeel for you not being able to get rid of the gnats, i used to get really uptight trying to rid the grow of the gnats..you said you are growing in perlite, you mean just perlite? no type of medium at all? never heard of it, if it works than thats what matters..what ph would you feed at with straight perlite? what nutes do you use? i am very curious because it takes 5-7 days for the
promix to dry out and i want to feed it more(every 3 days)..how often do you need to water/feed with just perlite? is there a difference in brand of perlite? it seems like it would dry out fast with good airflow(6"440cfm exhaust w/12" oscillating fan, both run 24/7 )and it takes 7days to dry out..i keep temp at 70-72 w/air conditioner in summer..and i mix about 40% perlite in with the
promix along with dolomite lime, it seems like 7 days is too long..i am always open to new nutes/medium/techniques as long as they work..i used
fox farm ocean forest a few times and did not like the way the soil is processed/mixed ? f.f. killed a few clones(turned so dark green they looked blk in 3 days), i mixed perlite in with the f.f. also and a few times i had burnt plants..so i stay away from fox farms, i read that having hot bags(more nutes than the next bag)is common with f.f. o.f. soil..so i went with the
promix and go box nutes and have had decent luck so far..