Fun gus gnats? Fun (and organic!) way to kill em...

[ShutUpDonny]

Yeah, okay, so it's more easy than fun, but the awful stupid pun was too good to pass up.

Anyway. My girl was completely overrun with the little fuckers. They didn't seem to be doing any damage, but who knows how long that would have lasted. So in a frenzy of cheap-assery I turned off the humidifier completely for a few days and let the RH get down into the 30s. Then I just filled up a drain tray with an inch of water and left it in the tent. Within 24hrs it was full of drowned fungus gnats, and I literally have not seen a living one in the week since then. I have seen a marked increase in trichomes, though, I guess from the dryness...

Yeah, maybe they're dormant, maybe it only worked because my ambient RH is so low, maybe maybe maybe. But if you're in a pinch why not give it a try? At least you'll get to watch them drown. The only bummer with the whole situation is that now I have no immediate reason to use Capulator's awesome foliar spray. Good thing I believe in preventative medicine!

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

dropping RH to 'stomata closing' levels and watching a pan fill with gnats dont sound like fun

try bti. not as 'fun'.

 

[4everhigh]

they are still in that dirt man. only thing i found is replacing the top 3" inches or so of the soil, then start whatever treatment you go with. i personaly just really stay on the neem. foliar spray every other day atleast. along with spraying the top of all the soil in each pot. try to deter them fuckers from wanting to get back in the soil. i havent had too much trouble since i first got hit. i have seen one flyer in 3 months. havent won the war, but that battle was mine!

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

they are still in that dirt man. only thing i found is replacing the top 3" inches or so of the soil, then start whatever treatment you go with. i personaly just really stay on the neem. foliar spray every other day atleast. along with spraying the top of all the soil in each pot. try to deter them fuckers from wanting to get back in the soil. i havent had too much trouble since i first got hit. i have seen one flyer in 3 months. havent won the war, but that battle was mine!

Cant use neem in flower.

A thick layer of DE and MicrobeLift as a BTi source will knock that shit out. Organic and cheap.

Let me repeat....a THICK layer of Diatomaceous Earth.

ML 2 or 3 times the recommended dosage at EVERY water/feed.

I flat out dont ever see gnats. ever.

 

[GrimloxK]

I just remembered that DE I read somewhere is not the proper way to get rid of fungus gnats.

When lights go on my RH is around 30% anyways...I like the idea of lessening the chances of mold or rot. especially late in flower.

I heard adding a layer of sand to the top will help with this...I had this fungus gnat problem myself about 2 weeks ago...I basically let my soil dry out for an extra day, and shook up my smart pot to have some of them come to the surface and killed them on site...especially the ones with the white sack who probably carry the eggs.

I see one or two floating around now...but i'm so close to harvesting i'm not giving them too much of my mind. It's too late for me to use Neem so i'm just gonna do some maintenance just to keep their pop down just so that I don't see a re-emergence.

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

whre'd you read DE didn't kill gnats?

 

[BrianDirt]

Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats like to feed on roots of the plants and organic matter. Adults and larvae live in moist, shady areas. The adults lay there eggs on top of the soil, near the base of the stem and takes about 4 days to hatch. The larvae will start by eating the root hairs of the plant then working their way up the plant, Fungus gnats like to eat organic matter so they will be stealing away nutrients from your plants, so its best to get rid of them completely.

If plants are outdoors, check the soil of plants before taking them back indoors for adult gnats or their larvae.

Prevent indoor entry of gnats by making sure there is no open windows open without screens on. Aug is a bad time for them as they are worst that time of the year.

Put sticky traps on the soil surface to trap the gnats

Put potato slices on the surface of the soil. The larvae like it and will be drawn to it.. After about 4 to 5 days, remove the potato slices with the larvae. To get rid of them you can do a lot of things like either use a NO pest strip, neem oil or putting sand on the surface of the soil will suffocate the eggs and get rid of them as well. Tobacco juice kills them, and works well for re-occurrences!

They can be in or on the soil and can fly. In order to get rid of them you can use neem oil, sand on the surface again kills them, and no pest strips catch the ones that fly. A chemical product called Zone works very well and is very powerful and works well in hydro!
Other Products which can be used in hydro and soil are:
Chemicals
Hot Pepper Wax,Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide (which can be used right to the day of harvest),GNATROL( used in hydro in the water as well as soil),Doc's Neem Pest Soap,Safer Sticky Stakes,TR-11000 Pyrethrum.

Str8 from this forum, because I hate those suckers too, nothing like picking dead nats out of your buds!

 

[Organicyumyum]

introducing predatory nematodes into your soil will get rid of fungus gnats completely, no question about it.

 

[OctoberDee]

Add sand to your topsoil and spray with insecticidal soap. Also bug strips for the ones that flee when you spray. The water tray thing actually works too, I put dish soap in the water they seem to like the smell or something but not as effective. Diatomaceous earth will kill them if they land on it so it's more preventative like the sand but breathing that shit in is harmful to your lungs.

 

[Abek666]

introducing predatory nematodes into your soil will get rid of fungus gnats completely, no question about it.

but its winter and they dont send them in cold temps cause they die at real low temps so first time they send them nematodes is march or april depend on the temps at your place

btw they are really the best way to kill these gnats!

have a good day

 

[Dr.Pepper]

BT + DE + Media = no gnats

 

[Prince Blanc]

Have to agree that Bti or predatory nematodes are the way to deal with fungus gnats. Will require at least two applications of Bti to deal with unhatched eggs, but it's easy and effective. Left unchecked and they can cause plenty or damage, not to mention be a total annoyance.

 

[rvd]

try caps bennies;your plants will love it.

 

[Desert Bloom]

I was over run with them. I tried several methods. First was just zero tolerence organic spray it worked well but did not get rid of them. I put sand on three plants which kept them out of the roots but they kept breading on all the rest. Finally i transplanted all the rest not in sand but during transplant I completely washed all soil from the roots, sprayed the roots and new soil with zero tolerence and then put a bounce sheet around the base of the plant. The gnats do not like the smell of the bounce so they will not lay eggs in the soil if there are larvea in the soil they will hatch and fly away not to lay again. I also bombed the room. I have not had gnats since and any plant that I grow automatically gets a bounce sheet.

 

[yellowhead]

I don't reckon DE does much, if anything. Predatory nematodes and Bti are the way to go IME.

 

[sox]

all you need is some worm castings, cover the soil in a healthy layer of castings, water, and BAM, in a few days... no more bugs

 

[Seamaiden]

I don't reckon DE does much, if anything. Predatory nematodes and Bti are the way to go IME.

DE (the 'insecticidal' form) is used widely to handle a wide variety of pests, including fungus gnats, ants, and fleas. There are conflicting theories on why and how it works; one is that the diatoms skeletons are very sharp-sided and so get into tender parts of the bugs' bodies and cut them up; another is that the DE causes dessication. I can see the skeletons of the diatoms cutting soft bits because I know that you cannot use silica-based sand in any tank housing young sharks, because it literally abrades them to death. I have no idea about the possibility of dessication.

But I know it's used against many types of pests in the home and the garden.

 

[dirk d]

i use the yellow sticky pads on each plant and it works pretty good. of course my environment is getting better and knowing how bad a problem you have is the first step in a preventative program. good luck.

 

[sox]

WORM CASTINGS!

 

[Seamaiden]

Wait... dude, what?