Gross!!! I have Fungus Gnats
- Thread starter missnu
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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. [color=red. Plants growing in rock wool are more prone to getting a more severe infestation than plants growing in soil. If your plants are affected during late flowering or close to harvest, please try to use the safest means of control to be safe to your health.[/color]
Prevent and Control
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!
Margarine tubs with a moist paper towel on the bottom will also work. Wait several days and then cover and throw away. Using something like margarine tubs that you can quickly cover will also often times capture many adults in the process of laying eggs.
The key beating fungus gnats is to break the breeding cycle. Make sure you do not have any moist/damp garbage in your home. They will move about your home traveling from your grow room to kitchens and other rooms and if there are sources of moisture there where eggs can be laid, they will lay eggs there.
If you have multiple bathrooms and not all are used often drains can be sources for egg laying. Flushing them well, and often, even using boiling water to assure killing any eggs that are not flushed, will also help get rid of fungus gnats.
Putting a layer of sand, as thick as possible, over the top of your soil (if growing in pots) will also help rid you of fungus gnats. The sand will dry out quickly and not offer them a good location for laying eggs.
They can be in or on the soil and can fly. In order to get rid of them you can use neem oil, sand or perlite 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 Hydroponics/Aeroponics!
Other Products which can be used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics and soil are:
Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide
GNATROL( used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics in the water as well as soil),
Safer Sticky Stakes,
TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
PERMETHRIN dust
Mosquito Dunks
Organic Control
Natrasoap
Pest Oil
Neem Oil
Hot Pepper Wax
Doc's Neem Pest Soap
Sticky traps
Safer's Insecticidal Soap
Neem Oil
Neem 2
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. [color=red. Plants growing in rock wool are more prone to getting a more severe infestation than plants growing in soil. If your plants are affected during late flowering or close to harvest, please try to use the safest means of control to be safe to your health.[/color]
Prevent and Control
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!
Margarine tubs with a moist paper towel on the bottom will also work. Wait several days and then cover and throw away. Using something like margarine tubs that you can quickly cover will also often times capture many adults in the process of laying eggs.
The key beating fungus gnats is to break the breeding cycle. Make sure you do not have any moist/damp garbage in your home. They will move about your home traveling from your grow room to kitchens and other rooms and if there are sources of moisture there where eggs can be laid, they will lay eggs there.
If you have multiple bathrooms and not all are used often drains can be sources for egg laying. Flushing them well, and often, even using boiling water to assure killing any eggs that are not flushed, will also help get rid of fungus gnats.
Putting a layer of sand, as thick as possible, over the top of your soil (if growing in pots) will also help rid you of fungus gnats. The sand will dry out quickly and not offer them a good location for laying eggs.
They can be in or on the soil and can fly. In order to get rid of them you can use neem oil, sand or perlite 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 Hydroponics/Aeroponics!
Other Products which can be used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics and soil are:
Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide
GNATROL( used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics in the water as well as soil),
Safer Sticky Stakes,
TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
PERMETHRIN dust
Mosquito Dunks
Organic Control
Natrasoap
Pest Oil
Neem Oil
Hot Pepper Wax
Doc's Neem Pest Soap
Sticky traps
Safer's Insecticidal Soap
Neem Oil
Neem 2
assasinofyouth420
Well-Known Member
I personally let the soil go dry for an extra day and then water with plain water with a couple drops of plain dawn dish soap. Now I pre treat my soil this way before I use it and haven't seen a fungus gnat since.
smokey dabear
Member
yea im doin hyrdro had the same prob.use mosquito dips from home depot there lil donuts..crush them up an put them in ur rez an feed it kill larve.also use h202 for the nats on ur roots it bugs them out ...an then start foliar sprayin once a week when the lights r off on top of ur medium an lightly on the leaves....seems to work....those bugs r a mo fo
Scopse
Active Member
I just wiped out a whole colony of fungus gnats. Literally none left.
Had some Ant Killer powder under the kitchen sink that contains Permethrin 0.5%w/w (insecticide) and I just squirted the powder liberally on the floor (not in the pots or on the soil) inbetween every plant and cos those little bastards like to run about, they died pretty quickly. Once the Larvae's hatched, they should get killed before they can lay any more too.
Easy.
Had some Ant Killer powder under the kitchen sink that contains Permethrin 0.5%w/w (insecticide) and I just squirted the powder liberally on the floor (not in the pots or on the soil) inbetween every plant and cos those little bastards like to run about, they died pretty quickly. Once the Larvae's hatched, they should get killed before they can lay any more too.
Easy.
ExileOnMainStreet
Well-Known Member
I haven't had a major re-occurence since I stopped over watering.
Still, I keep sticky strips around to make sure.
Glad I didn't need an RPG. :^)
Still, I keep sticky strips around to make sure.
Glad I didn't need an RPG. :^)
Dr Gruber
Well-Known Member
Mosquito Dunks work great for me. They are easy to use and very cheap. Neem oil stinks and is a pain in the ass to use. Just crush them up and either top dress your plants(in soil) with a 1/4 to a 1/2 teaspoon and repeat every 2-3 weeks, or pre-treat your soil before planting. With hydro just crush them up and add to res.
missnu
Well-Known Member
I think I might try the mosquito things...although I think they problem is fixed with the neem oil, because what got in the rez of course was oil so it didn't mix in, but it did stick all gross like to the net pots, which to me is a good thing since that is where the nasty little buggers live, but I think I might try some mosquito things...and we are sure this won't hurt my plant right?
ExileOnMainStreet
Well-Known Member
Try mixing it with a little bit of dish soap and water before adding it - it will suspend the oil within the water, just like grease when you're doing the dishes.
It works great when you want to spray the stuff so I'm guessing it would circulate well in a hydro system but I don't have any experience with hydro....yet.
schoolmeplz
Member
i had the same prob not overwhelming...maybe 5-8 of the lil suckers that i could see and had seen ur thread on this so i went n found a small bottle of Neem Oil, looks like a mini antifreeze gallon jug at home depot for 5 bucks mixed 1 spoon to a gal of water then filled up spray bottle sprayed plants at bedtime and the next morning I saw none and havent seen any today either so the stuff works well, smells like oranges and very oily...good luck!
legaltoker
Well-Known Member
ok so i know this probably sounds stupid but how can you tell if its ''fungas gnats'' or any another kind. i have recently had a number of gnats flying around my grow room but i cant tell what kind they are...... they have kind of a short round body with what looks like white and black/brown horizontal stripes.....i've Azamaxed three times and it doesnt seem to do a thing to them.... i just picked up some NO pest strips and some white fly and amphid traps, hope they help.
bird mcbride
Well-Known Member
Filters on air intakes and water supplies are very important. Be sure to sterilize your growing medium with heat before you start your plants in it. Don't bring food, especially fruit into your grow-op. Everything I use is inorganic so it won't create any problems that stem from fermantations. In example, I don't add sugar.
missnu
Well-Known Member
If you see gnats that are small and striped you are probably looking at fungus gnats. They don't actually do anything to your plants, but their larvae are the problem causers...the adult gnats lay their eggs in the soil or hydroton rocks, and then the eggs hatch into larvae which love to eat roots and even plant stems in a really bad case. If you have em just use some neem oil...smells alright at first...but kinds the smell gets on your nerves...
eyezla
Active Member
Ok so I for sure have some fungus gnats, no big deal, I realize they are relatively harmless, and I plan to control them by getting sand to layer the top of my containers with. BUT, I looked at my soil, and as my eyes adjusted, I saw little critters crawling all over!!!! Like I said, I'm aware that I DO have gnats, and plan to address them tomo, but My levels of flying gnats aren't absurd, however, it looked like there was ALOT of things walking around on my soil surface. little bitty bugs, the super small ones were green, then some red ones that are a little bigger, and then some strait up gnats with wings walking and flying around. They are too big and too fast to be spider mites....I have no idea, my only guess is baby gnats?
Are these other non flying bugs just baby gnats, or another type of insect that i'll need to address?
I"m stumped as to why they are thriving if they are gnats. I just transplanted to new pots that the roots havent filled out yet, so my soil only needs water like every 4-5 days, BUT, the top dries out quickly, which is where they supposedly lay eggs. So the top soil only is moist and optimum for the gnats like once every 5 days...Could they still be thriving deeper below the surface?
Are these other non flying bugs just baby gnats, or another type of insect that i'll need to address?
I"m stumped as to why they are thriving if they are gnats. I just transplanted to new pots that the roots havent filled out yet, so my soil only needs water like every 4-5 days, BUT, the top dries out quickly, which is where they supposedly lay eggs. So the top soil only is moist and optimum for the gnats like once every 5 days...Could they still be thriving deeper below the surface?