Pest control concerning gnats in soil

amneziaHaze · Mar 2, 2026

trygrowup said:
Sorry @Ninjadogma I forgot to ask what BT is.

And agree on the must part, after been removing gnats with a pincet and a loop, from buds 8 hours extra when trimming.
I never forget that.

Thanks again

Bacteria thats in musquito bits
Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis

MercDod · Mar 2, 2026

trygrowup said:
Thank you @MercDod

This metode also sounds easy.

Just wanna clarify.
You are sure you mean PH water before you making the mixture, right?

Thanks again for input

Yes

BeefyBully · Mar 2, 2026

Not boil soil but boil water then over soil for gnats before grow then follow up with bti and as maintenance lost cost with sticky traps

amneziaHaze · Mar 2, 2026

BeefyBully said:
Not boil soil but boil water then over soil for gnats before grow then follow up with bti and as maintenance lost cost with sticky traps

Wouldnt that harm the mycos and rest of micro life?

Bossman1 · Mar 2, 2026

Coconutz said:
I completely eradicated fungus gnats without spending money or using poison.
View attachment 2608259
A bag over the pot stopped them getting in/out to lay egg and I could squish them with ease.
View attachment 2608265
View attachment 2608266
A pair of scissors works well at this stage, after watering I'd be cutting them in two.
View attachment 2608260
My mums, I put each of them in a bag
View attachment 2608262
Fungus gnats hatched up to 10wk iirc, Google 4wks isn't accurate!!
View attachment 2608264
Up to 5 gallon iirc?
You can buy these paint bag filters iirc they're 60 micron they keep gnats in/out they're only £1 each if you don't fancy plastic?
View attachment 2608261
The foundation is there for a good gnat proof screen.
If you sew a draw string top and bottom of the paint filter bag then it would fit any size pot, elastic in the stem drawstring would essentiall

I keep my pots covered it helps prevent fly by egg laying but they're not a guarantee, covering them yeilds other benefits for roots and helps with evaporation/humidity, preventing any interface for salt crystals forming preventing roots from growing in the stratified area.
View attachment 2608268
That sounds like a bunch of bull but the results are visible

It's all a waste of time if new gnats are getting in, if you're using soil you're almost guaranteed to have gnats thats just the way it is, however if there's no new source you can wipe them out

That is a great idea !!!!!

trygrowup · Mar 2, 2026

BeefyBully said:
Gnats, a very common problem, the quality of worm castings and compost is a direct reflection.
Boil the soil first for the larve, while moist add in the BTI, continue with sticky traps for the adults flying around.
Then as additive maintenance, plant tharapy lost coast works good.

But if you ask me bavaria bassaianna at germ works good and goes long way.
No issues

Goodluck

Thank you @BeefyBully .

Also a good method.

I would personally find the boiling soil part a bit to much work, but the idea have crossed my mind.

Good info thanks

BeefyBully · Mar 2, 2026

My guy, the idea of growing in soil is to let the microbes do the work...
while boiling water, the stove does the work...

from the stove to pour over pot is no work at all vs. sweating and jacking up grows, swatting gnats etc. would be more work.

as a matter of fact, how would it be if one goes to show off grow and when tent opens up and gnats start flying out.
"Bro, dude ..." to me that would be embarrassing...lol

the idea of growing in clean untouched soil, with no larva is paramount. good for starting a grow with confidence. Although gnats do show periodically it is essential to continue a follow up program for maintenance.

Growing takes work, problem solving, planning, critical thinking, tracking etc. But most of all, growing is about choice.

Soil or coco

Week4Bytch · Mar 2, 2026

amneziaHaze said:
Wouldnt that harm the mycos and rest of micro life?

Probably a super soil grower, you wouldn't want to try this with a no till style of growing. It would definitely kill of the beneficial microbes. BTI (Mosquito Bits) once a week always works. Just part of the equation. They'll always be there. Like flies on shit.

orggrwr · Mar 2, 2026

Week4Bytch said:
Probably a super soil grower, you wouldn't want to try this with a no till style of growing. It would definitely kill of the beneficial microbes. BTI (Mosquito Bits) once a week always works. Just part of the equation. They'll always be there. Like flies on shit.

I grow in living soil and I am definitely NOT pouring boiling water on my soil. There are so many ways to get rid of gnats, no need for such drastic measures.

trygrowup · Mar 2, 2026

Thanks guys. Important to clear that out.

Edit: maybe for some who grow synthetic in dirt?

Ninjadogma · Mar 2, 2026

amneziaHaze said:
Bacteria thats in musquito bits
Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis

Jewish BT

I'll just walk myself out of this thread after that...

Gmix · Mar 3, 2026

Coconutz said:
Eh? Which part don't you understand, I'm missing the relevance to what I said?

My point was nematodes live on?

I misunderstood your post
Reading it again I kwim

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

orggrwr said:
I grow in living soil and I am definitely NOT pouring boiling water on my soil. There are so many ways to get rid of gnats, no need for such drastic measures.

LOL... omg my guy, I think lost in translation is relevant.

why do we choose coco over soil? regardless of the choice, to start off a grow wouldn't you want to start a grow on a clean slate?
planning is paramount. If you pour boiling water over a pot of soil does that not establish a clean slate?

once clean, moist and cool adding the BTI, does it work right away?
how much time do you wait for microbes to start working before applying to the pot?

ALCON:
yes, there are many ways to combat gnats but if you are dealing with gnats currently you currently need drastic measures.

when growing, do you let the plant root bound, big plant in a small pot?
uh.. no, you want an even keel upward, up pot and switch to flower in bed of new fresh soil.
we off to the races!

* When adding microbes, I give it a few before adding to the pot (meaning) I let them activate before adding to the pot, I use a wetting agent such as aloe. Evenly water from top to bottom, oh it's so nice

* Add Bavaria Bassianna (fungi) to your grow IOT to enhance the diversity of the Rootwise and Bio-Phos. Rootwise products for feeding engine and Bassianna for armor protection.

*Add in a quality mulch layer

Next...As a grower you are either proactive or reactive or both. In soil you are a steward, meaning make sure it's in there and let the plant decide.
One can determine what types of growers are out there and can tell them apart from one another. But it all falls back to Darwin and natural selection.

"Birds of a feather flock together"

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

To the original post, it is my recommendation that that you look into problem solving. It is a multi-step process that when you research you consider all before making your choice.

for example: problem drying and curing, the norm if 60F60%14days.
(Here is what two guys were arguing about.)

False, your giving bad advice. There are 2 types of drying environments (if the genetics are there in the seed/clone) that will seperate you from rookie, beginner, intermediate, moderate and sometimes even Master level growers to a cannabis cup winner terpene and flavornoid profile. In order to achieve Terpenes and Flavors that allow you to compete and potentially win in cannabis cup competitions u must present your flowers from a level 4 or 5 dry & cure environment. There are only two types of drying environments that will allow you to bring out 97% of the terpene and flavornoid profiles. That's 55-60°F and 60-65% RH but 75% of the cannabis cup winners were presented with a dry environment of 65°F @55% RH for 48 hours then drop it to 55°F @63-65% RH for the remaining 13 days. A dry of 15 days are cannabis cup winners. You have to get those AC temps cold to slow it down to dry of 15 days. What we find is that around day 13 the moisture on the outside of the bud becomes dry before the inside which is normal but maybe like 1-2% dryer than what we like to see. In order to fix that, we changed - not the AC temps - but the RH from 60% to 63-65% and it fixed the problem. We wanted the outside of the bud to slow down by .066% per day. To you guys it doesn't matter but for us cannabis cup winners it matters very much.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Smh, why wouldn't you smell when the plant is dumping Chlorophyll out? It's perfectly natural and fine. It goes away on around Day 8-12 dry. I always go 3 days more of dry past the last day I smelt Chlorophyll. If I smelt Chlorophyll on Day 11 and Day 12 the smell went away then I would dry 3 more days at 60°F and 65% RH. This is to ensure all the Chlorophyll is dumped out and gone.

the answer for drying and curing is within these two dudes going back and forth

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

what @Ninjadogma said earlier in the post means you are reactive. Imagine now you in flower reacting. vs. being in flower not looking back.
referencing the original pic I would start over. drop bean directly, week to sprout.

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

as a matter of fact, just drop another bean and run it just like I said. make sure you in a fabric pot.

trygrowup · Mar 3, 2026

Yeah
Me for example.
What i don't like about gnats is they are a pain to remove from buds.
Also it annoys me when they are so many, that i can't have something to drink standing, without either choose to get the extra protein or remove them.
So i try to keep them from doing that.

The lid i use for my pots helps a lot but i'm gonna upgrade the lid taking inspiration from this tread as a first.

If that isn't good enough for me, then i'll use more from this tread.

orggrwr · Mar 3, 2026

BeefyBully said:
LOL... omg my guy, I think lost in translation is relevant.

why do we choose coco over soil? regardless of the choice, to start off a grow wouldn't you want to start a grow on a clean slate?
planning is paramount. If you pour boiling water over a pot of soil does that not establish a clean slate?

once clean, moist and cool adding the BTI, does it work right away?
how much time do you wait for microbes to start working before applying to the pot?

ALCON:
yes, there are many ways to combat gnats but if you are dealing with gnats currently you currently need drastic measures.

when growing, do you let the plant root bound, big plant in a small pot?
uh.. no, you want an even keel upward, up pot and switch to flower in bed of new fresh soil.
we off to the races!

* When adding microbes, I give it a few before adding to the pot (meaning) I let them activate before adding to the pot, I use a wetting agent such as aloe. Evenly water from top to bottom, oh it's so nice

* Add Bavaria Bassianna (fungi) to your grow IOT to enhance the diversity of the Rootwise and Bio-Phos. Rootwise products for feeding engine and Bassianna for armor protection.

*Add in a quality mulch layer

Next...As a grower you are either proactive or reactive or both. In soil you are a steward, meaning make sure it's in there and let the plant decide.
One can determine what types of growers are out there and can tell them apart from one another. But it all falls back to Darwin and natural selection.

"Birds of a feather flock together"

If that works for you great but I think we have different approaches to living soil. I definitely do not want to start with a clean slate
I cook my soil for months cultivating the microbes that are feeding my plants, why would I want to nuke them just before I introduce the plants. I don't add microbes during the grow except in the form of compost/castings tea and compost top dressings. In my experience Gnats never require drastic measures, they are more a nuisance than serious threat. When I start seeds in 4" pots I water with bti once then once they are transplanted in 10 gallon pots the rice hull mulch goes on and that's it, no gnats even though my soil has been cooking outside. Again if it works for you go for it but I believe you are doing new growers a disservice by recommending pouring boiling water on living soil.

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

listen it's never going to be good enough for you, why? because you'll always be improving

BeefyBully · Mar 3, 2026

the disservice comes from new growers not planning on a grow then running into issues and not knowing what it is they are asking.

once it is established you can do and re-use over and over again. Boiling water was done years ago.
yes, there are many approaches to gnats but there is only one to planning.

it is a direct threat to a flowering plant, to a plant that's in Veg not so much.

Pest control concerning gnats in soil

Pest control concerning gnats in soil

amneziaHaze

MercDod

BeefyBully

amneziaHaze

Bossman1

trygrowup

BeefyBully

Week4Bytch

Loyal To The Soil

orggrwr

trygrowup

Ninjadogma

Gmix

BeefyBully

BeefyBully

BeefyBully

BeefyBully

trygrowup

orggrwr

BeefyBully

BeefyBully

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