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a guide to COCO and Fungus Gnats (little black flies)

Chevy cHaze

Out Of Dankness Cometh Light
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Does anyone know more about if the BTI toxins make their way into the plant and therefore the buds ?
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Thank you Sir that's good enough for me !
I thought so, but always better to get confirmation
NP! I have seem some people freak out cause it has the word "toxin" in it, but it's just toxic to animals with a basic PH balanced digestive system and a specific enzyme, and humans use acid based digestion.
 

Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Bti (specifically Gnatrol) goes further for your dollar and stores well. Nematodes don't and vary in availability.
 

Dropped Cat

Six Gummi Bears and Some Scotch
Veteran
Pasteurize the coco/soil before use.

Inoculate afterwords.

The only time I had an outbreak was with seedling
potting mix that was employed without treatment.

Being lazy is not an option.

lol.
 

JJ Lowe

Active member
Has there been any studies on the effects of BTI when combusting and inhaling into the lungs? Or any chemicals for that matter.. It's a complete different biological/chemical process combustion and inhaling vs ingesting it through your digestive system. Best option, use chemicals sparingly around the grow and implement clean growing practices with mechanical barriers, aka yellow stickies.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Has there been any studies on the effects of BTI when combusting and inhaling into the lungs? Or any chemicals for that matter.. It's a complete different biological/chemical process combustion and inhaling vs ingesting it through your digestive system. Best option, use chemicals sparingly around the grow and implement clean growing practices with mechanical barriers, aka yellow stickies.
As far as I can find no there are none dealing with the combustion of it. A bunch dealing with it in water supplies and it's been found to be non toxic. I also found papers saying they found it on stored tobacco leaves. Isolation of Bacillus thuringiensis from Stored Tobacco and Lasioderma serricorne (F.) & Occurrence of Bacillus thuringiensis on cured tobacco leaves. If it's on tobacco leaves, somebody has been smoking it at some point. You are right that not enough research has been done on the combustion of pesticides, I figure tobacco is the closest mainstream thing that people do smoke. If it's considered non-toxic on tobacco, I would assume it's non toxic on weed, but realistically it needs it's own research done. Which costs money. Which isn't coming on a federal level, only from private funding. So yeah. It might be a while still.
 

Wingnutt

Member
A lot of suggestions on here work. They all require an extra step or work along the way. I'm lazy. I switched my enzyme to SLF-100 a few years ago and it has knocked down my problem by 98%. I see the odd lazy flier, but no more worms crawling through pots or swarms in the flower rooms.
I've mentioned this before and the "science" people want me to explain the how and the why. I can't. I'm a simple gardener. I do know that switching from Hygrozyme (Monsanto owned anyway) to SLF-100 was the ONLY change I made during that time and the problem practically cured itself.
Now, I got an unintended test a couple weeks ago. Hydro store was out of SLF-100 and gave me a screaming deal on Hygrozyme so I substituted - figured a month off wouldn't matter. Boy was I wrong. I'm already seeing little swarms around each pot as I water and it hasn't even been two weeks yet. Can't wait to get my SLF back.
I find the price of SLF comparable, if not cheaper, and doesn't need to be used with every watering.
Easiest problem I've solved in 10 years. Don't ask me why. I have no reason to lie to you. Those of you that try will not be disappointed.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
What dilution rate do you use with the slf-100? It seems to cost 1$ an ounce so a 32 ounce bottle is 34$. I could go like 4 years with 34$ worth of mosquito bits.
 

Wingnutt

Member
What dilution rate do you use with the slf-100? It seems to cost 1$ an ounce so a 32 ounce bottle is 34$. I could go like 4 years with 34$ worth of mosquito bits.

Yes, I am sure mosquito bits are cheaper but the enzyme does way more than just take care of fungus gnats.

When I made the statement I was assuming that the majority of coco growers are using an enzyme. Most enzyme's aren't cheap and SLF seems to be no more expensive than others (pond enzyme's excluded). So, by simply buying SLF instead you could kill 2 gnats with one stone, so to say.

I use a smaller amount of SLF with every watering, instead of once a week as the bottle recommends. I have enough thing to remember so I try to simplify.

In veg I use 2-2.5ml/gal depending on the size and health of the plants.

In flower I use 3-3.5ml/gal pretty regularly. I might double the SLF with 50% strength nutes once a week.

I find the price to be worth it and I try to watch my dollars at the hydro store. I do find the discount at higher volumes much more agreeable. I usually buy the 2.5 gallon bottle and it lasts me a good 6 months plus, making around 50 gallons of nutes a day.
 

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
That makes no sense to me you say you don't use other methods cause of laziness, but then you say you are mixing 50 gallons of nutes a day? You can put BTI in with your soil as you mix it and you never have to do anything else besides water it as usual. I'd also wager the majority of people growing in coco are not using any enzymes whatsoever, and the ones who are are mostly using them towards the end of the grow to break up dead roots if they want to re-use the coco. Your first post says you don't need to use it every watering while your second post says you do use it every watering. Using 2ml a gallon at 50 gallons a day means a 2.5 gallon jug would last 3 months. 3ml a day lowers that to 2 months. How are you getting 6 months out of a jug? That averages to just over 1ml a gallon.
 

RicoT

Active member
Before I tore down my grow gnats were the bane of my existence.. And it seemed like as soon as they got bad enough, every other kind of pest swarmed in too and started killing shit.

Based on this thread, I definitely won't be growing again without Gnatrol.

edit: was thinking about this and wonder if ogbiowar wouldn't be an equally as effective, but better all-in-one ipm measure...?
 
Last edited:

Weezard

Hawaiian Inebriatti
Veteran
I still use dryer sheets.

Cheap, and effective.
Have not even seen a fungus gnat in years now.
 

bucketgirl

New member
Not sure if someone already posted this link to the relevant manic botanix article:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160602114456/https://manicbotanix.com/fungus-gnats-in-coco-coir/


(I posted the wayback machine cache since this site seems to be down often)

TLDR: The article found best results with Spinosad over Gnatrol, but doesn't elabortate on the reasoning for the ineffectiveness of bti in trials. I like this info though because though there is some amount of exception and room for opinion, it's unusally well-sourced compared to the anecedotal evidence and wives-tales suggested elsewhere.

I have followed this article and have been trying Spinosad with some success but it can't prevent them from coming back. I mix Montery at 55ml/g and apply once during dark cycle (I don't bother rinsing it out, just continue with normal feeding after), then again in 5-7days later, the idea being to kill larvae then kill any more larvae from the fliers that were left. I use yellow sticky sheets to monitor FG levels to measure effectiveness. I also filter my intake air ducting ith dryer sheets.

God I hate those little black fuckers.

Anyone else experimented with Spinosad?
 

Fuel

Active member
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Pasteurize the coco/soil before use.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A dedicated micro wave work well too. Each time i forgot to do it, these fuckers come back.
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