fungus gnats! am i doomed?

[captinknots]

can you treat these when growing organic? ive got some fliers!!! only neeming right now. knocks em down but they come back fast!

seems to be a bitch to fight, especially if not using poisons! fuck me running!

 

[VerdantGreen]

not a big problem, most grows will have them. letting the surface of the soil dry out well inbetween waterings will help as will keeping your soil a little drier overall is possible

. cups of juice or similar will drown some.

the treatments based on Bacillus thuringiensis are very good - mosquito dunks . i have a liquid product (UK) called gnat off based on Bacillus thuringiensis and it works very well.

 

[louie]

Ive had great success handling them with nematodes.

 

[mtbazz]

Im dealing with these now...do a search, youll find lots of useful info.

In my flowering area I hung up one of those sticky strips (they are non toxic) to catch the fliers. To get to the larvae in the soil I add Hydrogen Peroxide to my water...

"Fungus gnats can also be easily controlled with a simple product you may already have at home. Fungus gnat larvae will die on contact with hydrogen peroxide. Be sure to use the ordinary 3% solution hydrogen peroxide with no added ingredients. First, allow the soil to dry out for a few days so the top two inches of soil is dry. This is where the larvae of fungus gnats reside, and they cannot survive in dry soil. During times of drought, the larvae will actually suspend their development, but once the soil is moist again, they will resume growing and eating.

Once the top layer of soil is dry, mix one part hydrogen peroxide with four parts water. Using this solution, water your plants as you normally would. The fungus gnat larvae will die on contact with the hydrogen peroxide, but the solution will not hurt your plants so long as it is mixed correctly. It would take an awful lot of hydrogen peroxide to harm the plants. When the hydrogen peroxide is watered in it will fizz a bit, but in a very short time it will naturally break down into nothing more than oxygen and water molecules which the plant will love.

Continue to monitor the fungus gnat population with yellow sticky traps, and reapply the hydrogen peroxide drench weekly as long as you continue to find adult fungus gnats buzzing around your plants. As extra insurance against the gnats, you can water your plants with the hydrogen peroxide mixture once a month to prevent further outbreaks of this little pest."

 

[redneck shogun]

No way am I putting peroxide in my precious mix. Funny though I haven't had a problem with them since I started building my own soilless and recycling. I need some wood to knock.

 

[mtbazz]

Suit yourself....there are other benefits also. Ive been using H2O2 in my indoor soil grows for years with only positive results.

http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/peroxide-garden.html

 

[Dorje113]

x2 on nematodes. Wipes them out for about $10.... they are a microscopic worm-like animal that will eat the fly's eggs/larvae.

 

[FrijolElVerde]

The organic way, LOL

 

[The Strain Man]

yeah just put some perlite on top of the soil about 2 inches and bottom feed they will be gone in about a month .they'll be sitting there like what the fu#k do we do now lol

 

[schwagg]

X2 on the BT! works great. i keep a dunk floating in my rain barrel.

 

[I'm Dykster]

DE will get rid of them...also sand on top..i usually top with greensand and DE...

 

[Smoke Stack]

Use Monterey Garden Spray with (SPINOSAD).....
Hands down, real good stuff!

 

[dachieftan]

what I used to get rid of em cost less than $5. I top dressed the soil w/ cinnamon. Little buggers hate the stuff. Have you ever tried a tsp of straight cinnamon? It is horrible! An easy way to win $ if you can dare some1 to do it though. Hehe. However, you really need to cut down your water regiment if you implement this technique. What is the point of applying cinnamon to choke out the gnats if you are just going to water it down and let it sink in your soil? I have not noticed any detrimental effects with this technique. However, I wouldn't say I was infested like my friend was. He tried the cinnamon with a room full of the fungus gnats and it didn't work as well for him. I told him to combine it with greensand but he resorted to the mosquito dunks instead and that definitely worked for him.

 

[NUG-JUG]

Damn Captinknots you post a lot! Talk about a trial by fire! lol That's cool it helps us all learn.

The mosquito dunks sound like a definite knock out method, I've had success with spraying neem every 2 days over a couple weeks\letting the soil dry out. Start out with that then go to the dunks imo. Spray water the days in between the sprayings of neem. The spraying kills the gnats that are flying. A good 1 gallon pump sprayer is a nice thing to have. Good luck!

 

[ddrew]

Sticky traps are good for control

 

[Cush]

I like using Einstein's neem oil with a few drops of mild soap mixed in. During veg I spray the entire plant. If I have them during flower I just spray around the tops and sides of my 5 gal buckets and it still works. It can seem a little slow to act, sometimes 2 weeks to kill them all off but it works.

 

[rick shaw]

I would start with Gnatrol,active ingredient Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis.Put up those sticky yellow traps to catch fliers.Now you have to water less often/or use a soil mix with better drainage.I had it happen to me I switched from rockwool to coco coir.

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

I would go with the gnatrol...you can get it on ebay.

I have eliminated fungus gnats with just two waterings and have noty seem them in years.

minds_I

PS, I also use H2O2 @ roughly 600 ppm or 3% H2O2 @ 20 cc per liter with nothing but good to report...I also bottom water mostly.

Lovely white abundant roots at harvest time.

 

[captinknots]

thank god you guys are not as doom and gloom about the topic as the guys in the infirmary.

sorry, i have been posting so much. once i switched to organics i really underestimated it. i really just read a sweet mag article and thought, oh, this sounds easy. yeah it is, but dont try anything your own way till you learn the basics!!!
the cloning issues and gnats are just a bonus!!! lol

so im going to go the route of multiple deployments....

ill have pest strips for sure. Can you use BT and nematodes together? or is that a conflict?
i checked out BT online, and it seems like something that will be at my garden center, im gonna go walk around there and see if they have nematodes as well.
my other garden lady recommended them (nematodes) but they were $13 and i wasnt sure how many 5 gallon pots i could inoculate with it. i looked in the cup and it looked like vermiculite. the direction say to add that cup to a gal of water, add a bunch of vermiculite to it, and then top dress your pots.

how many of those things do you think i would need to inoculate 50 5 gal pots and as many 1 gallons?? like $100 worth or 8 of the packages?

whats your experience about how far this stuff goes and how to apply it?

 

[schwagg]

that's a really good question! "Can you use BT and nematodes together?" i've always wondered if one will eat the other so it's a waste of one of them.