bugs coming out my compost HELP

I got 'em once from a shitty bag of soil I bought.
Myself, all I did to get rid of them was I hung a Hot Shots strip, and let my soil dry out really well.

Viola, no more gnats, period.
(they also killed my spiders though, and that sucked.)

The plants drooped a little bit because they got thirsty, but I kept them fairly happy through misting with water and foliar feeding.

There are solutions, and Diotamacoues Earth is a good one. I also love the Trichoderma solution. I have made, in a small apartment, both thermo-compost and worm-castings with little un-wanted pest problems. The reason... tons of healthy microbes and red-wrigglers out-competing them... I also made sure to keep these well draining and ph neutral. I suppose a few of these critters are inevitable in some cases, but they can be beaten by competitors you encourage, through cultivating the ideal environment for them. It may also help to use a smaller proportion of compost/organic matter per 'soiless mix'. At any rate, good luck with your troubles mate. And ALWAYS screen off you grow room 'intake' areas, and siphon your excess water/ runoff.

ok mixed up some coffee with 2 sugars in a small ashtray and a bottle lid and going to test this solution with the fungus gnats tommorow and will let u know the result later on in the day ....also tryin at the same time the drying out technique .too much watering may of led these gnats to enjoy themselfs too much....wondered why my little fan leaves at bottom of plant were going yellow and dropping off its cos they are eating there way through my damn plants lol

Look if you really want a solution that works then you need to spend money and stop throwing things like coffee at it and spend a little.





J

Some of the mentioned products cost a couple of bucks.




J

Diatomaceous Earth..................................

Ya its a bug<sarcasm............guess your not all that interested in dealing with your problem. If you were you would already know what it is......

watchhowIdoit said:

Ya its a bug<sarcasm............guess your not all that interested in dealing with your problem. If you were you would already know what it is......

Click to expand...

To be fair diatamacious earth isn't very well known about in the UK.





J

You all have plain old kitty litter dont you? None chemical floor dry, the kind that looks cat litter, used in garages to soak up oil and the like? Same thing in most cases. Just the size of the particle and how it is package. And if you live in the countryside near a livestock farmer ask them. They probably use it in their feeding programs as a anti-caking agent and intestinnal parasite control in the herd....... Yes you can get food grade DE but its not necessary for plants.....the type used in livestock is food grade....

watchhowIdoit said:

You all have plain old kitty litter dont you? None chemical floor dry, the kind that looks cat litter, used in garages to soak up oil and the like? Same thing in most cases. Just the size of the particle and how it is package. And if you live in the countryside near a livestock farmer ask them. They probably use it in their feeding programs as a anti-caking agent and intestinnal parasite control in the herd....... Yes you can get food grade DE but its not necessary for plants.....the type used in livestock is food grade....

Click to expand...

Easy there tiger.


I know about it because I read a lot.


Im just saying unless you read a lot over here you aren't gonna know about it. I've read about it in Urban Garden Magazine.
A few years ago when I asked my hydro store to hook me up with some I got a dumb look from the guy who said "dia what.....?"


He still doesn't know what it is. Lol



J

I am not wound up a bit, concise is just my way. Check the local feed stores for it...its not all that available in hydro stores here either. Costs them too much money in pesticide sales...

Yeah... I'm a bad spellir....lol.

[video=youtube;Q8hvtQGEb7Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hvtQGEb7Q[/video]

Fungus gnats just love to have water sitting around to lay their eggs in. I dont think those are gnats in your water. Also smoking and intentionally blowing cig smoke on your plants could kill them. Nicotine is not only poisonous to plants it can physically plug up the stoma.....