Damn gnats

Had a shit ton of fungus gnats in my grow tent. Using coast of main stonington blend in 3 gallon pots. Tried Neem oil and sticky traps and still had issues. Using supersoil so wanted to try to stay organic so tried a few organics insecticides. Still a lot of gnats. Made sure my moisture was in check, and cleaned the whole tent. Bought some diatomaceous earth planning on trying that tomorrow.
1 any suggestions?

2Is it possible to put Hydroton on top of solid in future grows to keep gnats off of the soil?

3. Plants are still growing good but get some occasional “eaten leafs” haven’t really seen anything about gnats eating leafs but haven’t seen any other critters.

May add some fresh soil to tops of pots can I mix the diatomaceous earth into the added soil or does it have to be a layer on top?

I can't stress enough that y'all need to be adding sand to your potting mix.

Don_Sequitor said:

I can't stress enough that y'all need to be adding sand to your potting mix.

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To the whole mix? Or on top?

Guz315 said:

To the whole mix? Or on top?

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The whole mix, for drainage.

Gnats larvae can destroy the roots, but the gnats themselves don't really do any damage that I know of. A drench with Green Cleaner helps. Provide as much air circulation in the room as possible along with the sticky traps.

Guz315 said:

Had a shit ton of fungus gnats in my grow tent. Using coast of main stonington blend in 3 gallon pots. Tried Neem oil and sticky traps and still had issues. Using supersoil so wanted to try to stay organic so tried a few organics insecticides. Still a lot of gnats. Made sure my moisture was in check, and cleaned the whole tent. Bought some diatomaceous earth planning on trying that tomorrow.
1 any suggestions?

2Is it possible to put Hydroton on top of solid in future grows to keep gnats off of the soil?

3. Plants are still growing good but get some occasional “eaten leafs” haven’t really seen anything about gnats eating leafs but haven’t seen any other critters.

May add some fresh soil to tops of pots can I mix the diatomaceous earth into the added soil or does it have to be a layer on top?

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This thread is active and might have some info for you.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/gnat-problem-perlite-top-dressing.993265/

Gnatrol will end your drama in a few days, it’s also a bacterial but way more powerful than dunks. I was was shocked at how completely it wiped my gnats off the face of the Earth. That was a couple years ago!
Gnats can come in by way of ca#tings or manure or other compost and peat moss.
Gnatrol

Their a pain in the ass flying around, but really do no damage.
Once you have them though, their almost impossible to get rid off without a complete soil change.
As mentioned by hillbill, Gnatrol works very well for a temporary fix, but it won't kill the eggs at the root system, for that you need clean soil.
Also, diatomaceous earth or sand won't really help that much, keep using sticky traps.
Good luck

Make the ambient temp very hot right around your pots for a few days.

I'm realizing the bugs must come in the bags of potting soil I buy, I hang up a few fly ribbons around the plants and i also cut the fly ribbon and tape them down to pieces of cardboard and lay them in the pots, appears to do the trick. Doesnt get rid of them all, but so far I haven't noticed any damage to the plants, I read the strains i'm growing are fairly bug resistant.

Gnatrol ended my problem and used in water a couple times after and now every couple months and even used infested used mix and watered with Gnatrol.

hillbill said:

Gnatrol will end your drama in a few days, it’s also a bacterial but way more powerful than dunks. I was was shocked at how completely it wiped my gnats off the face of the Earth. That was a couple years ago!
Gnats can come in by way of ca#tings or manure or other compost and peat moss.
Gnatrol

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Will that have any affect on the soil (bacteria fungus etc?). Organic? Just opened a new bag of the soil and it had fly’s in it. Not sure if it just came like that or from sitting in my shed for a bit. Did some serious damage control today so we will see how it goes. I know the adults aren’t too harmlful it is the larva but I been sick I g those things up in the vacuum for a few days. Helping with the population for sure.

1) fungus gnats are from overwatering.
let the soil dry more. the soil should be getting bone dry between watering. the pot should weigh nothing. if the soils not drying fast enough you need more drainage.
if you've overwatered for weeks and built up a huge bug population it can take twice as long of proper watering techniques to get that population down.

2) you shouldn't need to
3) thats not from gnats

4) DE works mechanically it needs to be dry to slice up those buggers. so if you mix it in and then water it won't do much.

i dealt with fungus gnats and discovered it was due to me over watering. sticky traps and letting all my pots get excessively dry did the trick for me. good luck to you.

https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-plant-problems/fungus-gnats

Guz315 said:

Will that have any affect on the soil (bacteria fungus etc?). Organic? Just opened a new bag of the soil and it had fly’s in it. Not sure if it just came like that or from sitting in my shed for a bit. Did some serious damage control today so we will see how it goes. I know the adults aren’t too harmlful it is the larva but I been sick I g those things up in the vacuum for a few days. Helping with the population for sure.

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The bacteria feed on gnat larvae and do nothing to harm mix.