itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
Hayduke, you've been very helpful indeed. Thanks.
Do you know what gets wetter as it dries?
Do you know what gets wetter as it dries?
HELP!!! Gnat Problem
- Thread starter RedKasper
- Start date
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
You're a towel! LMAO
itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
Sounds fine. Good luck.
Do you really want to find out? You've got 5+ weeks left. They'll multiply FAST. Its not THAT difficult to contain them.
They'll land all over your buds and get stuck on the resin. You'll be smokin 'em. LOL Yuck.
doobnVA
Well-Known Member
Where I live, fungus gnats are abundant pretty much all the time. I knew they were going to give me problems, especially since I used a moss-based potting mix to start my seedlings (they LOVE this stuff).
So anyway, fast forward a few weeks and just as I suspected I'm starting to see gnats flying out of the pots when I water....I'm not down with any kind of pesticides, really, and I'm poor so I wanted to see if I could find a "home remedy" for fungus gnats that actually works.
After absorbing as much crap from Google searches as humanly possible, I read many different remedies. The most appealing to me being cinnamon on the soil, and watering with a diluted skim milk and water solution.
Supposedly the cinnamon is just repugnant to the gnats. They don't like it, so they stay away. The milk supposedly has some anti-fungal properties, but the fat in milk isn't good for the plants. Skim milk seemed like a reasonable alternative.
I also hung up some sticky fly traps (those curly yellow ones, because I heard the gnats like yellow).
I'm not sure if it was a combination of the cinnamon and skim milk, or if one worked and the other didn't. I wasn't as scientific in my experiment as I probably should have been, and used both remedies at once. At any rate, I'm gnat-free, and I'm positive it wasn't the sticky trap because there are no gnats stuck on it.
So anyway, fast forward a few weeks and just as I suspected I'm starting to see gnats flying out of the pots when I water....I'm not down with any kind of pesticides, really, and I'm poor so I wanted to see if I could find a "home remedy" for fungus gnats that actually works.
After absorbing as much crap from Google searches as humanly possible, I read many different remedies. The most appealing to me being cinnamon on the soil, and watering with a diluted skim milk and water solution.
Supposedly the cinnamon is just repugnant to the gnats. They don't like it, so they stay away. The milk supposedly has some anti-fungal properties, but the fat in milk isn't good for the plants. Skim milk seemed like a reasonable alternative.
I also hung up some sticky fly traps (those curly yellow ones, because I heard the gnats like yellow).
I'm not sure if it was a combination of the cinnamon and skim milk, or if one worked and the other didn't. I wasn't as scientific in my experiment as I probably should have been, and used both remedies at once. At any rate, I'm gnat-free, and I'm positive it wasn't the sticky trap because there are no gnats stuck on it.
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
I would not go that farThey'll land all over your buds and get stuck on the resin. You'll be smokin 'em. LOL Yuck.
Good to know, I think cinnamon is the answer. I would be afraid of the milk as it gets more acidic as it sours.
how much cinnamon did you apply?
Phenom420
Well-Known Member
All I'm going to say is don't use a bug bomb, it's poison, your going to wind up smoking some of the chemicals on down the line.
Nematodes, order em, they are the best, not to mention they are never a threat to you or your pets.
I know gnats are annoying, they are horrible where I live in general, I wanna take a flame thrower to those fucks as I got problems again....
Im going to get nematodes and do it right, sand does work well but is a bit annoying and done use sand that is from limestone it causes ph issues.
Nematodes, order em, they are the best, not to mention they are never a threat to you or your pets.
I know gnats are annoying, they are horrible where I live in general, I wanna take a flame thrower to those fucks as I got problems again....
Im going to get nematodes and do it right, sand does work well but is a bit annoying and done use sand that is from limestone it causes ph issues.
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
Agree with everything stated. Good heads up on the sand also.
I have hatched a few of these little bastards...
"ehhh, you lookin' at me?"
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itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
NICE!! That little guys looks like he wont take no chit from no gnat!Agree with everything stated. Good heads up on the sand also.
I have hatched a few of these little bastards...
"ehhh, you lookin' at me?"
And i'd like to add something about the sand that people might find helpful. To avoid any PH problems, only use sand from a garden shop meant specifically for top dressing plants. They have it at Kmart, Home-depot, and that other big lame store that I refuse to mention. Its sold as "decorative sand".
Also, when you go to water... (and this is the only negative to using the sand) You can't just pour water in the pot. The sand and soil will mixx up and you wont have a nice layer of sand on top anymore. What i do is scrape some of the sand aside till you hit the soil, then pour the water in slowly. Then recover the soil with the sand. When I didn't see anymore bugs i just watered normally and let the sand and soil mix.
True Stoner
Active Member
What the hell are gnats and if not using soil can i get them??
I got Ortho Max spray from home depot and you can spray them directly on the plants about 10 inches away.
LITERALLY i used it twice. And gnats are all gone. They dont even return. I also put paper towels in corner of the grow spaces soaked in the spray as well . No bugs at all.
Gnats==fruit flies.
LITERALLY i used it twice. And gnats are all gone. They dont even return. I also put paper towels in corner of the grow spaces soaked in the spray as well . No bugs at all.
Gnats==fruit flies.
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
As Ortho Max makes about 20 different products, I can not be sure which one you used. However, the history of this company, and the barren grow room suggest that this stuff is EXTREMELY toxic. Please use due care with these poisons...they are not friendly and persist in the environment. If you want to kick the shit out of FG's and are not worried too much about your own exposure, try Pyrethrins. A bomb called Total Release XR can be used as a spray (not locked for total release) and will kill everything. It breaks down in 2 weeks.
Lastly Fungus Gnats are NOT fruit flies. This is a common mistake. Fruit flies, or Drosophila sp., are the bugs you get around a bag of empty beer cans or over ripe fruit. They are the work horse of genetics because they only have 7 chromosomes with well defined gene locations. They do not harm MJ as they are looking for something a little sweeter (their genus name, Drosophila, means "lover of dew"...)
Fungus gnats, unlike fruit flies, have a larval stage that feeds on root hairs in the upper root zone, and can damage young plants especially.
Again this is not the cheapest way, but it is the safest, and in my opinion the most natural. You will not risk harming yourself, your family, your friends, patients, dog, cat and especially fish. It is not a silver bullet...but nothing is. Even the Ortho Death will eventually break down and the FG's WILL return...they are ubiquitous in the environment. FG's have also been showing resistance to pyrethrins in commercial mushroom farms, and they will adapt to the poison of the month from Monsanto....those with fewer than 6 legs are much slower to adapt with long life spans and relatively few offspring...suggesting an insect connection to the Vatican!
Bla Bla Bla....I mean to be talking about NEMATODES!
They feed on the larvae, and if done in a couple of well timed doses (I dont) you could break the life cycle completely...until the next bitch smells your garden and follows your exhaust!
Personally I use the nematodes twice in the life of the plant. Once when they are small and then ideally once when I up-can before flower. I do a perpetual grow, so the timing varies with my motivation to go dump 15 bucks on nematodes.
The garden is not void of FG's but my thumb and a sticky fly trap keep the numbers very low.
Another trick is "Tanglefoot" sticky trap around bottom of pot holes...tap pot when the bottom is dry and they run out to see what is up...for the last time.
Lots of people swear by sand...never tried it.
Hope this helps do more than induce sleep!
cinnamon...awesome! this would be a great natural (and cheap) way to be rid of the little bastards. about how much cinnamon are we talkin' here? so you think the skim milk solution is effective and wont harm the plants?
Wavels
Well-Known Member
IMO the easiest and most effective way to kill and prevent fungus gnats from breeding in your soil is to simply sprinkle a little bit of Diatomacous Earth on top of your soil.
It causes the little bastards to "bleed out" upon contact .
What is Diatomaceous Earth?
Diatomaceous earth is a remarkable, all-natural product made from tiny fossilized water plants. Diatomaceous Earth is a
naturally occurring siliceous sedimentary mineral compound from microscopic skeletal remains of unicellular algae-like plants called diatoms. These plants have been part of the earth's ecology since prehistoric times. It is believed that 30 million years ago the diatoms built up into deep, chalky deposits of diatomite. The diatoms are mined and ground up to render a powder that looks and feels like talcum powder to us. It is a mineral based pesticide. DE is approximately 3% magnesium, 33% silicon, 19% calcium, 5% sodium, 2% iron and many other trace minerals such as titanium, boron, manganese, copper and zirconium. Diatomaceous Earth is a natural (not calcined or flux calcined) compound. Diatomaceous Earth is a natural grade diatomite. However, the continual breathing of any dust should he absolutely avoided.
How does it work?
To insects DE is a lethal dust with microscopic razor sharp edges. These sharp edges cut through the insect's protective covering drying it out and killing them when they are either dusted with DE or if it applied as a wettable powder spray. If they ingest the DE it will shred their insides.
http://www.ghorganics.com/DiatomaceousEarth.html
http://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Earth.html
http://www.earthworkshealth.com/
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/diatomaceous-earth.html
It causes the little bastards to "bleed out" upon contact .
What is Diatomaceous Earth?
Diatomaceous earth is a remarkable, all-natural product made from tiny fossilized water plants. Diatomaceous Earth is a
How does it work?
To insects DE is a lethal dust with microscopic razor sharp edges. These sharp edges cut through the insect's protective covering drying it out and killing them when they are either dusted with DE or if it applied as a wettable powder spray. If they ingest the DE it will shred their insides.
http://www.ghorganics.com/DiatomaceousEarth.html
http://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Earth.html
http://www.earthworkshealth.com/
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/diatomaceous-earth.html
Hayduke
Well-Known Member
I always forget about cinnamon...and diatomaceous earth!!!!!! what an excellent suggestion! My granola crunching friends used this for a bad flea problem...not fast but effective!!!
Saw a big bag in Grandma's garage (used for pool filters) might even help the cal-mag-iron issues with RO water!
Saw a big bag in Grandma's garage (used for pool filters) might even help the cal-mag-iron issues with RO water!