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Are these Fungus Gnats?

C

chimei

Member
Looking for some help. Must have brought some bad soil home, noticed a few of these flying around a couple months ago, fast forward to today and am unable to rid my self of these. Want to make sure these really are fungus gnats.

Tried neem oil first, then peroxide, then mosquito bits, then Microbe Lift.

The Microbe lift seems to have made the most difference but the cycle just does not seem to be broken yet, been treating for them for around 3 weeks now - Microbelift only one time, last.. but giving time in between the different treatments I listed above, it takes time for the soil to dry enough to try the next one. Initially around 3-4 weeks ago I caught at least 4-5 really big ones on sticky traps (I assume the ones doing the laying)

I have not seen a big one since on the sticky traps, I was really hoping the Microbe Lift was going to do the trick, used distilled water with that, and like 5 days later, still seems like there are 30+ new ones still being caught daily on the sticky traps.

Was going to get sand next and water again with microbelift, then put an inch of sand on the soil for each plant.

What do you think? Is that a good next step, and are these definitely fungus gnats? Or am I fighting the wrong insect?

Thanks

picture.php
 
AgentPothead

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Those look like fungus gnats, but would need a really closer picture to be sure. I know the bti in mosquito bits only works against the larva stage of fungus gnats, but that combined with the sticky traps should eventually take them out.
 
C

chimei

Member
AgentPothead said:
Those look like fungus gnats, but would need a really closer picture to be sure. I know the bti in mosquito bits only works against the larva stage of fungus gnats, but that combined with the sticky traps should eventually take them out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I figured from what I had read that the bti in both the mosquito bits (and the microbelift - Massive amounts comparatively) only works on the larva, between the bits and microbelift, I have had them drenched in bti containing water for like 1.5 weeks now, and the # of new ones each day still seems to be high, so I am getting discouraged.

Does this help more to determine?


picture.php

picture.php
 
C

chimei

Member
troutman said:
Kill them. :biggrin:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the idea. :)

I was even considering bringing a no pest strip in. (I really can't bring myself to that though) My next step was going to be sand, I had also read that the other thing that contains bti, gnatoral or whatever it is called, is even a higher level then this microbelift, but figured I could just put more of the microbelift in the water to come closer to the levels of bti as the gnatoral one.
 
AgentPothead

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
Those definitely look like fungus gnats. The average generation is 17 days I think? So that's like what 2 or 3 generations? I would continue for another 17 days dosing as you are. I haven't used sand as covering, but have used lava rocks. I also think diatomaceous earth makes a good top cover if you are experiencing gnats. Anything to dry them out or prevent them from easily getting to the surface is a good idea. If it still seems to be getting worse a week from now they are probably coming from some place else and living in the pots is my guess.
 
Last edited:
Scrappy-doo

Scrappy-doo

Well-known member
Hi Chimei :wave:

Yes those are fungus gnats.

You're in soil I take it? I've just won a year and a half battle with those little bastards. BT products always worked well for me until I started using organic soil. It was completely useless. Makes no sense to me why but I ended up having to use different methods which I'm happy to relay to you.

Can you tell me about your setup? Just a few plants or lots? What type of containers? Cloning setup? Gnats can breed in more places than just your top layer of soil.
 
C

chimei

Member
Scrappy-doo said:
Hi Chimei :wave:

Yes those are fungus gnats.

You're in soil I take it? I've just won a year and a half battle with those little bastards. BT products always worked well for me until I started using organic soil. It was completely useless. Makes no sense to me why but I ended up having to use different methods which I'm happy to relay to you.

Can you tell me about your setup? Just a few plants or lots? What type of containers? Cloning setup? Gnats can breed in more places than just your top layer of soil.
Click to expand...

1.5 years!! No I hope I can nuke them before then.

Yes, soil. In only like 3 pots, all within a very small area. That is what is bugging me, I figured I would have irradiated them by now. Everything I have applied to the soil I have found written in some form or another as killing them in their larva stage.

The 3 pots I believe they are not just in the top layer of the soil, but at the bottom near the drain holes. I seem to find them gathering at the bottom. I put sticky traps at the top and bottom and seem to get just as many at the bottom.

I have a pretty simple setup, I do take cuttings but that is only a couple and have confirmed there are none present in the cuttings fortunately. I have also confirmed they are not coming from some other source. I know where they came from, they came from a bag of dirt I had gotten for my cuttings a few months back, the moment I realized that, I got rid of the dirt and stupid me I should have treated the 2 small cups that had cuttings that used that dirt before I transplanted for vegetation. I then basically ignored them (beyond normal attention) and meanwhile they were busy building a family. So by the time I really notices and put down sticky traps, I think I caught like 4-5 adults. So that could be possibly 1500 eggs right? I assume I am breaking their "cycle" because I have not found any more adults of that size like I did in the beginning, and I hope the small ones can't lay more eggs. If they can, then I should probably just give up now.


So what was your trick to finally getting rid of them?
 
therevverend

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Even starting fresh from seeds the bastards will show up if conditions are right. Lots of organic matter in moist soil. Don't know if they're fungus or soil gnats or whatever but if they hang out in the top layer of dirt that's what you've got.
Not hard to get rid of the sand and fly paper should work. Maybe add diatomaceous earth to the top of the sand.
 
G

Guy Brush

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
420giveaway
Sand doesn't work. They creep into the holes on the bottom of the pot. What will work is nematodes "steinernema feltiae". No chemistry needed.
 
Scrappy-doo

Scrappy-doo

Well-known member
Yeah for a while I just lived with them but when it got so bad that all my flowers had dead fungus gnats in them I said enough is enough.

3 plants? OK this is going to by much easier for you than it was for me.

First thing, it depends on how bad your infestation is. Predatory nematodes work very well to knock down the population and if you're not overrun they can solve your problem completely all by themselves.


If your badly infested like I was, I found success with 2 different methods that were used in 2 separate gardens.

Method 1

1- Dig out the top layer of soil in your pots and get it out of your home. The top 1 or 2 inches or until you start to see roots.

2- mix a solution of 1 part 3% peroxide to 4 parts water and water your plants with it. The peroxide will kill any additional larvae on contact.

3- Get some sharp sand (quartz sand). You can find it at any pool store, it's sold as 'pool filter sand'. Regular sand will not work. Sharp sand is very difficult for them to work through. Add a layer in place of the soil you removed at least 1/2 to 1" thick, especially all around the edges of the pot.

4- Put each pot into a plastic bag and secure above drain holes with a rubber band. Alternatively you can use womens panty hose if you'd like to water them without having to remove the bag.

You can water by dipping your pots into a bucket, or you can use a watering can which if your gentle will diffuse the water enough to not break the surface layer of sand and mix dirt into it. You can also put a layer of fabric over the sand such as landscape fabric so that the sand layer is not broken when watering with a cup. The sand is heavy so if you lift your pots to judge when they need water keep that in mind. I ended up just tipping the plant and pouring the sand out into a big bowl, watering, and then putting the sand back in.

Method 2

1- Get a wet/dry vac

2- Order nematodes (optional) and 'hypoaspis miles' predatory mites.

3- use the wet dry vac and suck up every one of those little fuckers you can find. Kills them instantly and I find it quite enjoyable! I put just a thin layer of sand on top of the soil just to make it easier to see them. Be VERY CAREFUL around your foliage! Those things will suck a whole branch right up before you know it. I won't even use the vac on small clones or seedlings. Had an accident once with a clone. Poor thing was gone before I could blink.

4- Apply the nematodes and mites. Nematodes aren't necessary but they will speed up the process.

5- Vaccuum daily until there's only a few gnats visible when you do your daily gardening. At that point the mites will handle the rest.

That's about it.

Keep any soil, compost, or castings in a trash bag closed up tight. Gnats will also lay eggs in any standing water you have laying around. Cups of water with snips in it, a bubble cloner, a bucket of water, anything moist or wet that's around for more than a week make sure you empty it or remove it. 2 week lifecycle on these things. The extra work is an inconvenience but it's temporary.
 
C

chimei

Member
Guy Brush said:
Sand doesn't work. They creep into the holes on the bottom of the pot. What will work is nematodes "steinernema feltiae". No chemistry needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I had read about those before, but also read that everything I have tried so far works also, so I did not want to risk throwing more money at this and have it not do anything. The nematodes are also more expensive then anything I have tried so far. And it sounds like I won't have any for later if I ever get them again.. guess I should look on the brighter side, this is the 1st time I have had them like this.. I think I had them maybe 10+ years ago, but I think at that time I used the no pest strips before I knew how bad they are for you.. in hindsight I should have just broken it down/disposed and cleaned and started again. I am going to try the sand also just to see what impact that has. Maybe they will only be at the bottom of the pots then, at least that is 50% less.

I just don't get why they keep emerging from the soil, it's like all these things that I have read work, did barely anything to egg/larvas. There are no more adults that I am trapping, it must be that they layed all these eggs, I can't even guess how many I have trapped so far, maybe 800?

Oh I forgot, I also tried SM90 first. That did nothing also. It does seem to kill the flying ones if sprayed on them. (1 to 4 ratio of SM90)
 
C

chimei

Member
Scrappy-doo said:
Yeah for a while I just lived with them but when it got so bad that all my flowers had dead fungus gnats in them I said enough is enough.

3 plants? OK this is going to by much easier for you than it was for me.

First thing, it depends on how bad your infestation is. Predatory nematodes work very well to knock down the population and if you're not overrun they can solve your problem completely all by themselves.


If your badly infested like I was, I found success with 2 different methods that were used in 2 separate gardens.

Method 1

1- Dig out the top layer of soil in your pots and get it out of your home. The top 1 or 2 inches or until you start to see roots.

2- mix a solution of 1 part 3% peroxide to 4 parts water and water your plants with it. The peroxide will kill any additional larvae on contact.

3- Get some sharp sand (quartz sand). You can find it at any pool store, it's sold as 'pool filter sand'. Regular sand will not work. Sharp sand is very difficult for them to work through. Add a layer in place of the soil you removed at least 1/2" thick especially all around the edges of the pot.

4- Put each pot into a plastic bag and secure above drain holes with a rubber band. Alternatively you can use womens panty hose if you'd like to water them without having to remove the bag.

You can water by dipping your pots into a bucket, or you can use a watering can which if your gentle will diffuse the water enough to not break the surface layer of sand and mix dirt into it. You can also put a layer of fabric over the sand such as landscape fabric so that the sand layer is not broken when watering with a cup. The sand is heavy so if you lift your pots to judge when they need water keep that in mind. I ended up just tipping the plant and pouring the sand out into a big bowl, watering, and then putting the sand back in.

Method 2

1- Get a wet/dry vac

2- Order nematodes (optional) and 'hypoaspis miles' predatory mites.

3- use the wet dry vac and suck up every one of those little fuckers you can find. Kills them instantly and I find it quite enjoyable! I put just a thin layer of sand on top of the soil just to make it easier to see them. Be VERY CAREFUL around your foliage! Those things will suck a whole branch right up before you know it. I won't even use the vac on small clones or seedlings. Had an accident once with a clone. Poor thing was gone before I could blink.

4- Apply the nematodes and mites. Nematodes aren't necessary but they will speed up the process.

5- Vaccuum daily until there's only a few gnats visible when you do your daily gardening. At that point the mites will handle the rest.

That's about it.

Keep any soil, compost, or castings in a trash bag closed up tight. Gnats will also lay eggs in any standing water you have laying around. Cups of water with snips in it, a bubble cloner, a bucket of water, anything moist or wet that's around for more than a week make sure you empty it or remove it. 2 week lifecycle on these things. The extra work is an inconvenience but it's temporary.
Click to expand...

Thanks! You gave me some really great ideas that I am going to try and include in my fight here.

The other day I had pulled out the shop vac and started vacuuming them up from the surface because I was so pissed off looking at them.

I guess I have to hit them from as many fronts at the same time as I possibly can.

So do you know, the little tiny ones like in my picture (I know they look big, but it's a macro shot) can they lay more eggs? The ones I found (like 4-5) around 3 weeks ago, were huge in comparison, maybe 6 times fatter. But still small, just allot bigger than all the ones I am catching on the sticky traps.
 
troutman

troutman

Seed Whore
Right now I don't have bug problems. But I'm burning one of these mosquito coils
as we speak for 15 minutes every week to make sure bugs don't move in. It is
better to scare away the bugs then wait to see if they'll appear.

I bet fungus gnats would hate these mosquito coils also.
51kyPFAhYUL._SY355_.jpg
 
R

RB56

Active member
Veteran
This has worked for me for several years. Used to be a constant problem. Now I get about 1 flyer every few months on the yellow traps.

Gnatrol is very effective but needs to be applied every few days for a total of 3 or 4 applications to interrupt the herd.
 
C

chimei

Member
RB56 said:
This has worked for me for several years. Used to be a constant problem. Now I get about 1 flyer every few months on the yellow traps.

Gnatrol is very effective but needs to be applied every few days for a total of 3 or 4 applications to interrupt the herd.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation, I was going to try that next if the microbelift did not work, Gnatrol is supposed to have the same BTI as what I am currently using, but at a MUCH higher concentration from what I understand. Some article I found claimed mosquito bits were like 1 and microbelift was like a 3, and Gnatrol was like a 10 as far as the concentration of BTI.

Out of curiosity, since you have used Gnatrol and can speak to its effectiveness, do you use it with ferts and with tap water? My plants have been near starving because I did not want to risk mixing in ferts and using my normal tap water and risk harming the thing that is supposed to kill these gnats. (BTI)

The next treatment I do, I am using ferts and tap water and taking my chances because my plants need some food.
 
R

RB56

Active member
Veteran
chimei said:
Thanks for the recommendation, I was going to try that next if the microbelift did not work, Gnatrol is supposed to have the same BTI as what I am currently using, but at a MUCH higher concentration from what I understand. Some article I found claimed mosquito bits were like 1 and microbelift was like a 3, and Gnatrol was like a 10 as far as the concentration of BTI.

Out of curiosity, since you have used Gnatrol and can speak to its effectiveness, do you use it with ferts and with tap water? My plants have been near starving because I did not want to risk mixing in ferts and using my normal tap water and risk harming the thing that is supposed to kill these gnats. (BTI)


The next treatment I do, I am using ferts and tap water and taking my chances because my plants need some food.
Click to expand...


I was really recommending the procedure in the link. That has eliminated the problem for me a eliminates the need for Gnatrol, although that may be useful to destroy the infestation while you move to prevention. It's been several years since I needed Gnatrol. I recall mixing it with water and dosing the plants separate from routine watering and feeding.



I haven't seen it in this thread, but a normal response to questions about fungus gnats is let the pots dry out. Really? Not really compatible with ideal growing conditions. If you are growing in soil, coir or other similar media and adding nutrients with your water, drying out also risks concentrating the fertilizer to damaging levels.


Prevention rules!
 
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