Fungus gnats (and some other fly) killing my buzz....

Hey RIU, Im battling my first fungus gnat attack and am pretty much failing I feel. I found larvae in a couple of my plants in flower room, 2 of my mother plants and one of my other veg plants.

I drenched the soil with Azamax (about 20ml/4L water). I did 2 drenches per plant about 10 days apart as per instructions.
The mothers don't seem have larvae in the soil/coco anymore when I dig down a couple inches but they are in rough shape. Pale, damaged leaves etc...Dont know if they ever bounce back. Ive flushed and fed them since azamax.

The other plant is OG Kush, I trained it and main lined it, was just about to put in flower and the leaves started curling up, found larvae in soil, drenched it....that was 10 days ago. See pics, do you think I can save it or is the root damage possibly too bad?

Also, question 2....I know I have gnats, but now I have these other broad winged flies buzzing around.... are these drain flies?? See pics.

Help pleeease!!


Gnat...

Larvae....


What is this little bugger?? Im mostly seeing these around the house now and only the odd Gnat. I kill at least 1 or 2 of these a day now


OG Kush that was looking super healthy 3 weeks ago...now looks like this.

New growth is the worst, droopy, raised leaf edges, veiny...


Hurtin mothers:



Hurtin leaves on the Green crack


Thanks for any input!

I saw you liked a post about killing fungus gnats. Did you get it figured out?

dtl420 said:

I saw you liked a post about killing fungus gnats. Did you get it figured out?

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Yeah I hope so... Haven't seen a gnat for a couple days. Don't see any larvae in any of my hp or coco... Fingers crossed!! Still curious if my OG is gonna bounce back... New growth still looks bad.

dubble Js said:

Yeah I hope so... Haven't seen a gnat for a couple days. Don't see any larvae in any of my hp or coco... Fingers crossed!! Still curious if my OG is gonna bounce back... New growth still looks bad.

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Might just be over watered (that's usually what attracts the gnats to begin with). Did your treatment require a root drench?

dtl420 said:

Might just be over watered (that's usually what attracts the gnats to begin with). Did your treatment require a root drench?

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Yeah the Azamax said you can either drench or foliar spray... I drenched til I had some run off.

If your leaves were that color from the fungus gnats you would see a lot more flying around. Azamax isn't very effective as a treatment in my experience. More of a prevention and isn't cost effective to water in. Get some yellow sticky traps, reduce your watering frequency and apply some compost tea or an enzyme product to eat the food the gnats r living off. The cloth bags tend to keep the gnats around because they can eat fresh root tips without having to dig in the soil. Top dress with some neem seed meal or some Frass. If you really dont want them around the Monterey once a year pine water-in is the best exterminator. You can also water in OG Biowar. It will have multiple uses besides eliminating the gnats.
There's lots of routes you can go but if its not a swarm they aren't really an issue.

jemstone said:

If your leaves were that color from the fungus gnats you would see a lot more flying around. Azamax isn't very effective as a treatment in my experience. More of a prevention and isn't cost effective to water in. Get some yellow sticky traps, reduce your watering frequency and apply some compost tea or an enzyme product to eat the food the gnats r living off. The cloth bags tend to keep the gnats around because they can eat fresh root tips without having to dig in the soil. Top dress with some neem seed meal or some Frass. If you really dont want them around the Monterey once a year pine water-in is the best exterminator. You can also water in OG Biowar. It will have multiple uses besides eliminating the gnats.
There's lots of routes you can go but if its not a swarm they aren't really an issue.

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Hmm OK thanks for reply, so you don't think all the damaged leaves on my mom's where I found larvae is caused by gnats? Or the wilted out of kush where I found larvae?
I have yellow stickies out but haven't caught one gnat, haven't seen one for 3 days fortunately!
I'm going to do some research on all those products you suggested now

dubble Js said:

, so you don't think all the damaged leaves on my mom's where I found larvae is caused by gnats? Or the wilted out of kush where I found larvae?

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When I had a fungus gnat infestation the plants just simply lacked vigor. Which was probably just because I watered too much. Gnats won't do too much damage, they're just more of a pain in the ass. The larvae will eat small tender roots, but the plant wasn't showing any real leaf symptoms. I suppose if they got bad enough, or went on long enough they could cause significant damage to the root system.

What I would do right now is just give them a few days to dry out. When oxygen returns to the soil they should perk back up. If you practice proper watering habits it will no longer be a habitat favorable for the gnats and they should stay gone. You may see a few from time to time, but they can't populate if you let the top couple of inches of medium dry between watering.

I don't think the bugs you pointed out could make the whole room look like that without a significant presence. Have brought anything new in recently? Been over to someone else's and touched their plants? Do you or your workers smoke tobacco?

Gah. Hate the bugs.. but like other people say, water less often and more heavily if you need to. My grows have been clean, fortunately, but I learned something from growing vegetables. You can spray a Neem oil based spray (way cheaper than Azmax) after the watered soil has dried and it will stay effective until the next watering. If you can get on a 3-day per water cycle, you can clear them out pretty fast.

To be honest azamax never worked for me. However when I started using pyrethrum and diatomaceous earth all the bugs were gone in a few days. I mist my plants with pyrethrum until drenched in water. Then I put DE in the soil and never saw a bug again. Be aggressive with plagues.

jemstone said:

I don't think the bugs you pointed out could make the whole room look like that without a significant presence. Have brought anything new in recently? Been over to someone else's and touched their plants? Do you or your workers smoke tobacco?

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No tobacco.. The only thing I've changed recently is I started using general organics gro/bloom/Calmag instead of the gh line, and am using promix hp(which is possibly where the bugs came from).
Coincidentally.. the plants I found the larvae wigging around in, are the plants I Azamaxed, and are now the plants that are in bad shape. I fed once between 2 Azamax applications, with 4 or 5 days between the waterings.

bakertoad said:

Gah. Hate the bugs.. but like other people say, water less often and more heavily if you need to. My grows have been clean, fortunately, but I learned something from growing vegetables. You can spray a Neem oil based spray (way cheaper than Azmax) after the watered soil has dried and it will stay effective until the next watering. If you can get on a 3-day per water cycle, you can clear them out pretty fast.

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OK good to know, I'm going to try and find some neem oil. I can see how Azamax would add up $$ big time. It calls for 23ml per gallon... Adds up fast with a drench.

elfo777 said:

To be honest azamax never worked for me. However when I started using pyrethrum and diatomaceous earth all the bugs were gone in a few days. I mist my plants with pyrethrum until drenched in water. Then I put DE in the soil and never saw a bug again. Be aggressive with plagues.

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Thanks. How much DE do you put on top of the soil? Or do you just mix it all in? Haven't used pyrethrum or DE before.

dubble Js said:

Thanks. How much DE do you put on top of the soil? Or do you just mix it all in? Haven't used pyrethrum or DE before.

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DE needs to stay dry to be effective. It will tear apart any insect or small bug. Since I had thrips, I used one tbsp of DE around the stem. Thrips will pupate in the soil and go back to the plant. This helped me prevent them from acessing the plant. Then I killed the remaining ones with pyrethrum. This is the organic way. The chemical way is also effective. There are plenty of specific bug sprays for you to use. But I advise against using neem oil. Neem will prevent plagues but when you have one already going on, it will do next to nothing. You have to know the plague to combat it effectively.

Ok, good to know. And yes I also prefer organic methods. Do you always mix DE into your soil or just when a pest may be lurking?

On another note.. Couple more pics of my green crack.... She's not happy.

dubble Js said:

Ok, good to know. And yes I also prefer organic methods. Do you always mix DE into your soil or just when a pest may be lurking?

On another note.. Couple more pics of my green crack.... She's not happy.
View attachment 4074353 View attachment 4074354

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Only when I get a pest. A thin layer covering the soil is enough. If you water wait for a bit to dry and reapply. Gnats will die fast and you will reduce their numbers greatly. I find this combination really effective. I struggled 6 months to get rid of thrips, when i watered with pyrethrum and used DE they were gone in 3 days. Problem with DE is that it gets wet and becomes useless, but you can reapply and a bit goes a long way. If i were you i would mist and water with pyr and then apply DE. The surviving gnats wont be able to clim to the soil without getting destroyed and the pyr will kill the ones in the roots. Dontknow how gnats work but it should be enough.

Cool thanks elfo.

Here's a closer pic of one of the gnats. They seem to be gone now! Now just to try and get the plants to bounce back..... I went and picked up the full General organics GO box line... I was just using the grow/bloom/Calmag before and it may have been causing nute deficiencies...

A few days back, we discovered larvae of the fungus gnats on our houseplants. A panic moment for all of us!! We then used the nematodes as they destroy gnats in their larvae stage to control these plant pests. The trick was effective but not for the long time period. As the infestation grew worse, we decided to consult exterminator in Vacaville CA to come to our rescue. They told us the correct methods and tricks to get rid of these nasty pests!

AllanVaught said:

They told us the correct methods and tricks to get rid of these nasty pests!

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What douchebag reply.