Gnats everywhere

wouldn't a layer of sand cut down on gas exchange taking place in the upper root system? It puts cigs out fast.

Cut back a little on your water. I use a hydro system, but even in soil, too much moisture on top will make the gnats thrive. I inserted my feed tubes about 1/3 of the way down the pots, leaving the top couple of inches virtually dry, and the gnat problem vanished like a virgin on prom night.

I have had this problem twice, the first time they went when i harvested my first grow but then they came back, i found the solution accidently whilst drinking beer in my grow room, the pot whith my plant in is sat ontop of another pot which is upside down i accidently spilled beer into the rim of the lower pot about 4 days ago but did not realise, i noticed today the flys were gone, so on closer inspection seen they were all drowned in the beer, solved the problem !

I would recommend this to anyone with the same problem, put a small amount of beer in a saucer next to your grow and watch them commit suicide !

Wow, I never thought of that, a cup of beer works for slugs too the same way.......baits them in and they drown.

Good one Baz!

ickybiker said:

Wow, I never thought of that, a cup of beer works for slugs too the same way.......baits them in and they drown.

Good one Baz!

Click to expand...

Thanks, always great when you accidently stumble on to solutions!

I was trying a few things but to no avail i was going to try a layer of sand but didnt like the idea of it, also if they can burrow under the soil why would sand stop them, not saying it don't work but dont like the idea of my pot looking like one of thos public ashpans you get outside stores ha ha

Neem oil to spray and gnatrol for watering. You can mix it in water and it will kill larvae in your soil. They're both natural and safe.

Make sure that you get new soil for the clones , dip your clones in a liquid that will get the gnats , and grow the clones in a different room , if you can. What kind of soil did you use for this grow ?

Miricle grow organic choice was the soil. I also think I may have used some soil from around the house. That is prolly how they got in there. I have to say the sand definitely does work and well at that.

im having a flying bastid issue too. i used this stuff called shultz garden and housplant spray. and at first i was nervous using it. thought id come home to dead plants. but the plants are thriving with it. its made from crysanthemums. kills affids thripes, and all sorts of shit. i sprayed it dirrectly onto the top of my soil and it has stopped the gnats cold. but only on the plants i sprayed with it. i didnt want to kill my whole garden, if it was bad stuff so i only sprayed three of my 6 plants. now im going down to kill the rest off, and add sand on top of the soil to boot, just to makesure........the bugs i have are tiny flying things, and they hang around underneath the buckets it seems.

let me know how it works when your finished spraying all of your plants.........

so far in the last two weeks. i have sprayed the plants with shultz garden and houseplant spray, put sand on top of the soil, and left two bowls of beer for them. two weeks later by using all three together. i have managed to kill them off. almost completely. although im sure the sand will need some time to kill the others. but im extremely happy. ive only seen two since two days ago. and thats coming from there being more than i could count.

Congrats mate. Gnats are a pain, but easy to get rid off if you do it right, and you did it right.

The only thing i would add is that sticky pest strips work well, if you don't want to leave bowls of beer around the place.

Bowls of beer might be ok now, but what about summertime? I know if I leave a beer in the house for over a day I'll come back to about 1000 fruit flies the next day... And I have no doubt fruit flies would go after herb.

I use permethrin. You can mix it at a very very high concentrate and just pour it down into your soil. killing the larvae instantly and your fly problem will " die off" in a day or two.

between that and a couple yellow pest strips and your should be all set overnight.

Yeah that shultz spray you mentioned is exactly that. But only probably like 2-5% active

I have to say I pretty much used only sand and I have only seen 1 gnat in the last two days.

ok so you tried every trick but the permanent one no pest strip ................replace it every three months . i havent had to do any of this other crap ! hang the no pest strip and in a week no more gnats

so far i have used the shultz housplant and garden spray. sand and beer and its working so far. but im sure ill never get completely rid of them until i harvest every one of my plants and wash the room and buckets and start over. i have two closets im thinking of starting a grow in the other closet. seperate from this one.

Chicks on patrol!

They will eat the young ones who like to walk around, and their larvae eat gnat larvae. Plus they are cool.