whats the best way to get rid of these gnats that keep flying out my dirt.

[chemicalburn]

1. Allow your soil to dry out a lot before your next watering.

2. Put a 1/2" layer of perlite or hydroton over the soil to keep them from laying eggs in the soil

3. Hang a sticky trap or two in your grow space to get the gnats still flying around..

Leave the door(s) to the space open for a couple hours, and they will most likely fly out...

If all else fails, use a hair dryer to heat up the top soil (this will get messy, blowing some dirt off the top....) and that should kill any eggs/larvae..

while you are vacuuming up the dirt from the blow dryer use the hose (if your vacuum has one) and hunt any remailing gnats...

[DrJay2001]

We've been driven half crazy from these fungus gnats. We added predator nematodes to the soil, used Mycostop in new soil, hung tons of stickys and sprayed the top of the soil with pyrethrin (useless).

What worked best for us is to really let the plants dry out between feedings. That and we put our stickies face down on the soil to catch (and monitor) any of these devils trying to escape.

Fungus gnats do their damage not so much from flying around but from their larval stage in the soil where they go after the plants nutrients. I hate them! And they fly up your nose! And you get your hair stuck on the stickies!

Yours,
Dr. jay

[Pactivist]

I really hate it when i'm trimming along happily and find a gnat stuck to one of my nugs, it makes me wonder how many i have missed already. I don't want to be smoking the little bastards. I have used a neem oil drench with some success, spraying the plant and drenching the soil really knocked their numbers down. Hey Dr Jay here is a novel idea to save your hair, I use small bright yellow plastic bowls, which i bought at the crocery store, and i fill them with a little bit of my runoff after watering. I add a couple drops of dishsoap to the runoff water, and leave them sitting around my room, between plants. the gnats seem to flock to this and get stuck. no sticky! could be messy with water spills and all but it works for me. peAce

[:tup:]

Originally posted by DrJay2001
And they fly up your nose!

Up your nose, you say? Thats gotta suck. I had these a few rounds ago. They surely did some damage but all was not lost. I have since added Sevin®dust to the grow room in very very liberal amounts and have yet to see a gnat elsewhere. Once they make it to the pots, let them dry out, do all of the above and I have also heard & seen a layer of sand about an inch or so on top of the soil. Good luck and happy growing!!!!

bought nemitodes today lets see how that work along with dryer pots

Just wondering if these gnats are more annoying or detremental to plants they definately get on my nerves but are they doing harm to my plants?

[chemicalburn]

baccas125 - in answer to your last question:

Originally posted by DrJay2001
Fungus gnats do their damage not so much from flying around but from their larval stage in the soil where they go after the plants nutrients.

[chuckyoufarley]

i water from the bottom so the top 1"or1.5"is always dry and it stopped the gnats they are a pain in the ass don't taste very good either.
peace burn a fatty

[KRS Juan]

Just to second the good doc, pyrethrins are absolutley useless against gnats, unless you hit them directly with tons. You will never get the eggs or larvae.

Venus Flytraps are also useless as the gnats are not attracted to them whatsoever. As an experiment I put 4 of them in my grow room, and while they loved the hps, they didnt eat a single gnat.

Layer of perlite: This probably works well as a preventative, but once your infested this doesnt help. Believe me I have tried up to an inch on each bucket.

Drying out: All my plants need water on different days, there is always gonna be wet soil for them to move to.

I tried Pactivist's dish method last night to no avail. Sure each dish had a gnat or 2 in them but I didnt hurt the population much.

Sevin®dust you say? Is this something i can find at home depot, or only hyro shops and such?

I live within sight of the pacific ocean and in the middle of an estuary (SP?) and I am starting to think my only recourse is to go hydro, since the gnats are a part of the ecosystem here. Anyone know if ladybugs like gnats too, maybe I'll pick some of them up.

-KRS Juan-