I think that I have Gnats!!!

[GR8shoeBaDizzle]

lol sup Gr8. just stopping by to see how ur gnat prob is going? hope u got it under control. Me and u gonna be harvesting around the same time. see u there.

man its getting 2 close. i messed up and took a little off sample off 1 for me and mom dukes, i was out and my car just took a shit on me and i told my self on xmas that was the last sack i was gonna buy. still going strong . but im tempted. the gnats are going down slow. i let the rockwool dry out a little bit and it got rid of a lot of them, i just kill them when i see them. plus there going down pretty soon. i shut the pumps off and draind the water out of the rez, just giving it cups of water by hand till i chop. i soaked each plant pretty good.

im gonna get all that stuff hopefully 2day, damn mail made my check late. so i gonna be prepared for my next batch 4 sure. nice pics sedated. im try and get some up later in my gallery.

 

[Pink]

Thank you. I been fighting Gnats for years. I usually use a layer of sand on the top of each pot, but that is not working very well now. It used to keep them down to one or two gnats that I sucked up with the vacuum. I was always worried about using dunks because of them being toxic, but now I have read that this is not so?

 

[RuralRoute420]

.

.

sorry

cover those holes - BIG TIME, i'm truly suprised that you aren't having any troubles.

you don't want any light on your roots, duct tape them(dbl) or anything that will stop light from getting in your tray.

air-pruning - when roots die off from being out in open air to dry off

good growing - nonetheless

 

[MTF-Sandman]

It's cool FG...I've even used dunks occasionally in my bubble cloner with no ill effects on the plants. The active ingredient is Bacillus Thuringiensis sub israelensis (aka BTi) if ya wanna verify any of the info or maybe find some new uses...They've even genetically engineered corn with BT so that it's naturally resistant to certain worms and catepillars - makes me think it's probably fine for human consumption :wink:

Here's a good article on it:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/INSECT/05556.html

 

[GR8shoeBaDizzle]

thanks rr420
good stuff mtf

 

[Pink]

Thanks again everyone, and Sandman too. I'll go get dunks today and see if I can end this battle now!

 

[mark6699331]

I've used dunks for like two months now and the infestation seems the same if not worse. And with Gnatrol it would cost a fortune to fill my 50gallon rez everyweek. Its like 80$ per treatment!!! I've heard of people flushing neem through but am not sure on the dosage or saftey to roots. Also I sprinked DT on the top of pots with no luck. In the past it seems I tried putting a few inches of perlite to stop them hatching up. Anybody out there who has gotten rid of them completely??????

Please HElP?

mark

 

[10k]

mark669933,
I think you have thrips if you're seeing no results using BTI.
Using DE against thrips will get you nowhere too if you're only hitting the soil with it.
Check out that garlic spray you saw in this thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=46122

Or... give nicotine (the juice of tobacco soaking in water) a shot if you need something more aggressive, otherwise you'll have to go postal on em with a chem insecticide yukkkk. Be careful with the baccy juice if you try that, its poisonous to humans on contact or if the spray mist is accidentally inhaled.

BTI is very effective against fungus gnats, so effective that it's even worthwhile as a routine procedure for use as a preventative measure. I dont know where you get that 80 dollar figure, and btw your res shouldnt need weekly innoculations of bti.
Also...liquid BTI can go bad if stored at high temperatures for a long time, so never buy it if the store has it sitting on the shelf in the sunshine.

You can sample what you're infested with using sticky traps.
I find them great to identify pest infestations early on before they get out of control.
The lil f'kers have a color preference btw...Thrips prefer the blue sticky traps, whereas gnats go crazy for the yellow sticky traps.

 

[Pink]

Update: I bought the dunks, crumbled them up and four days later I see only one or two gnats flying around.


how often Do I need to re crumble and apply?

 

[HydroManiac]

I've used dunks for like two months now and the infestation seems the same if not worse. And with Gnatrol it would cost a fortune to fill my 50gallon rez everyweek. Its like 80$ per treatment!!! I've heard of people flushing neem through but am not sure on the dosage or saftey to roots. Also I sprinked DT on the top of pots with no luck. In the past it seems I tried putting a few inches of perlite to stop them hatching up. Anybody out there who has gotten rid of them completely??????

Please HElP?

mark

It would take a pint for a 50 gallon rez. I have a bottle of it and it says to use 1 qt per 100 gallons I got a gallon of it for like 75.00 so that would be 75.00 for 4 treatments not 1.

Sincerely HM

 

[budrezin]

man,i never put anything in the rez to get rid of something.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Update: I bought the dunks, crumbled them up and four days later I see only one or two gnats flying around.


how often Do I need to re crumble and apply?

If you've still got any straglers a week later, I'd hit em again...but they should be pretty much gone by that time.

 

[HeadyPete]

Hello everyone. Do not fear BTi. It is completely harmless to everything minus the larvae it targets. When the larvae ingests it it cause plague, kills the larvae and spreads more BTi.

It's like why you don't catch cold from your cat. Different virus/different host. This BTi naturally targets larvae and they are perfectly safe for a rez. When there is no more host, the bacteria die off.

I wouldn't be surprised if beneficial nematodes would be effective in rez water. They are very hardy and not affected by most chems and ferts. They will knock out and larvae (gnats included), fungus, mold, or other pest lurking in there.

Good luck! Remember, BTi is completely safe, organic, pest control.

 

[Neptune]

Awesome thread.


You guys saved me posting a stupid question.

I've got the crumble cakes now, and will apply imedatly! Excellent info!

 

[sativalicious]

gnats compliments of Fox Farm Ocean Forest

gnats compliments of Fox Farm Ocean Forest

I concur... a very useful thread...
I hope it is OK that I bumped it up, by posting to it now.

I am pretty sure my gnats and associated larvae were transported into my sealed environment via the Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I used it at 100%, which makes me confident the larvae came in the FFOF and not some other product.

About 12 hours after every good watering, I see hundreds of little larvae accumulating in the white tray, in which the soil container sits. Then, if no zero-t is sprayed, these larvae get larger (from a little spec to a millimeter or two) then after a couple days I have a gnats flying around.

I have been killing the larvae and gnats with this stuff called zero tolerance. I would have inserted the URL however it appears the forum policy does not allow it. (So why is there a URL feature in the editor??? ) I spray it directly into the tray and on top of the soil. I also spray it in an upward direction onto the bottom of the container; to kill any larvae that are close to popping out.

Any recommendation of which soil products and mixes that I could consider to be safe from pre-infestations? Or, is pre-infestation always going to be a part of growing in soil. I cannot believe I paid a premium price for this experience.

In general, this experience makes me want to move to hydro immediately. I want to control things in the environment (obviously, LOL!).

I'm eager as to what others may think about these issues...

Thx!
sativalicious

 

[NorCalChron]

i had gnats on my first grow.. bought some cheap rose and flower pyrethrins spray and that helped out a lot. I remember reading somewhere the gnats will just decompose and are harmless to your smoke but definatley not harmless to your roots.

im not sure there is one soil that is guranteed insect free but it really isn't too hard to take care of.

 

[Guest]

Mosquito Dunks. Cheap. Easy. Every rez change. Put them in some old pantyhose so they don't clog drippers etc. No gnats in 6 months. Maybe longer.

 

[sativalicious]

Does the nematodes approach have additional advantages (in soil) that may make it more desirable/beneficial than the Mosquito Dunks?

I am considering my first "attack" of this type to deal with the larvae in the soil. So far, I have only been killing them with Rosenthal's Zero Tolerance, after they have emerged from the soil. Yep, I'm a newb.

BTW, I understand the dunks are not harmful, etc. I'm just curious about nematodes.

I would like to have a progressively more aggressive approach. That's what I'm going for. That is, to try one thing at a time and then evaluate.

Thx!
sat

 

[Meadowlands]

This thread is just what I needed!

 

[Vdro]

so you can just sprinkle a little bit of this stuff on top of ur rockwool cubes, and every watering is ok to do until the end with that stuff on top?? ( the dunks)