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Biological controls #14 macrocheles robustulus control of fungus gnats

Team Microbe

Team Microbe

Active member
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mix neem meal with earth worm castings and top dress your containers with this. I use about 2 tbsp per 25 gal pot, it works 100% of the time in less than 2 weeks
 
moses wellfleet

moses wellfleet

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Team Microbe said:
mix neem meal with earth worm castings and top dress your containers with this. I use about 2 tbsp per 25 gal pot, it works 100% of the time in less than 2 weeks
Click to expand...
I cant get it, only the oil. Also I recall Microbeman saying neem could fuck with soil life. I have all kinds of beasties lurking in my mulch so I don't wanna nuke the lot of them all at once, It would be a bit rude, they are guests in my house!
 
A

Aphotic

Member
moses wellfleet said:
I cant get it, only the oil. Also I recall Microbeman saying neem could fuck with soil life. I have all kinds of beasties lurking in my mulch so I don't wanna nuke the lot of them all at once, It would be a bit rude, they are guests in my house!
Click to expand...

It can also mess with seed germination if too much is used, I believe dyna has the proportions needed to mess up germination sonewhere on thier site. I'm using CCs ratio of neem in my soil mix, so its already on the heavy side. Yet I still got gnats, neem\ewc were applied several times throughout my last grow when ever they popped up, it worked for months and months, then with this last bout, it did not. So back to mosquito bits. When I get the cash ill be purchasing some beneficial insects again. Which reminds me I need to figure out what plants to plant in my planters to keep them alive whenwhen there's no bugs to eat :)
 
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moses wellfleet

moses wellfleet

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It seems the gnats are developing resistance to known methods of control there has been a rush of posts about gnat problems lately... time to call in the marines!
 
A

Aphotic

Member
The crazy thing is,when they came back this last time, it was like a plague. The neem didn't even slow them down.

I don't know how that double posted, sorry about that
 
A

Aphotic

Member
moses wellfleet said:
These voracious predatory mites are to be used in conjunction with steinerama feltiae, beneficial nematodes, against fungus gnats/sciarid flies.

I will update this thread once I have finished testing them. Until then here is a very cool video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5l0E68BTtsU
Click to expand...

Beneficial nematodes are the bomb, you can use them as a foliar spray too, just keep your humidity up for a while after applying, and they can tackle leaf miners, spider mites, etc.
 
Team Microbe

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
moses wellfleet said:
I cant get it, only the oil. Also I recall Microbeman saying neem could fuck with soil life. I have all kinds of beasties lurking in my mulch so I don't wanna nuke the lot of them all at once, It would be a bit rude, they are guests in my house!
Click to expand...

Ahhhh, I see now. Ya the oil wouldn't do much for the soil, in fact it may do more harm than good. I have to order mine online where I live, but it's the backbone of my entire garden to say the least.

"Neem is famous for a limonoid known as Azadirachtin which is carried over to neem cake.Which is a gold mine for fighting plant super-villains like pests and nematodes. This compound is “da bomb”, because it literally obliterates pests in every way imaginable. It serves as an anti-feedant, pest repellent, insecticide, nematicide and pest growth disruptor. BUT the best part? Neem cake does NOT affect beneficial insects, predators or pollinators. The anti-feedant properties block the firing of “sugar” receptor cells in pests, which prevents the stimulation of hunger.
These compounds radically decrease reproduction rates of harmful pests. They inhibit production of eggs in females and cause a high rate of sterility in males. The compound also disrupts growth hormone secretion and as a result prevents these pests from molting.
One of the most popular uses for neem cake is to control parasitic nematodes via antifeedant properties. (These parasites puncture the plant cell walls and siphon out cell contents. This leads to decline in plant health, plant death and opens the door for fungal or bacterial invasion.)

We often times forget about the foundation and dwell on the details. Soil health is essential to grow healthy, high–yielding plants as well as for overall soil fertility. Over utilization of fertilizers tends to rid the soil of it’s beneficial microorganisms that assist in breaking down organic matter into nutrients for plants. Not all fertilizers are created equal.

Neem cake provides a rich source of vegetable proteins and carbs for soil microbes. This in turn leads to higher nutrient assimilation for the plant. As neem cake decomposes over time it produces organic acids that reduce alkalinity of soil and creates ideal environment for nutrient availability. (Optimal pH range is 6.5 - 7.) It increases soil carbon levels which helps with increasing water holding capacity, nitrogen availability and higher water infiltration rates. It also improves the overall soil texture."


I top dress with it at least a few times each cycle with great success...
 
A

Aphotic

Member
moses wellfleet said:
These voracious predatory mites are to be used in conjunction with steinerama feltiae, beneficial nematodes, against fungus gnats/sciarid flies.

I will update this thread once I have finished testing them. Until then here is a very cool video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5l0E68BTtsU
Click to expand...

I keep a small set of worm bins in my house made out of 27gal plastic totes, when spring came around, and the fungus gnats emerged, my worm bins got infected, so I sprinkled some neem meal on the top of the coco/peat in the bins, and that seemed to do the trick. About a week or two later when I was adding some food scraps to the bins, I noticed these really tiny, fast moving insects, light tan in color. I tried to search the web, and forums for what they might be, and I couldn't find anything like them.

All throughout my last flower cycle, I would add worms and work castings from my worm bins. Instead of buying worms to start my bins, I collected them throughout the spring, as I would find them under pots, and pieces of cardboard in my outdoor gardens. Along with the worms, I collected woodlice, centipedes, and what ever else came along for the ride with the gathered worms. The small tan insects from my worm bins soon found their way into my grow rooms, and their population exploded, I began to worry.

I checked my plants often and never noticed any insect damage or stress from the infestation in the soil. They also never ventured up onto my plants as far as I could see. After I was done harvesting and had chopped up the stems and leaves from the crop to place on top of the soil, the fungus gnats came back in force. I'm currently in the middle of the worst infestation I've ever had, it's like a biblical plague.

I don't have the money yet to buy benificial insects, and I had planned on buying the nematodes and predatory mites you mentioned in the beginning of this thread. All I have on hand is a big container of mosquito bits, so I've been applying those, and some more neem meal. I have noticed though that I don't see as many of the tan little bugs after applying neem meal. I've been searching forums and the net, for other controls, and other peoples experience with BTI. I've used it before on small outbreaks, with success, but never anything like my current infestation. I found another thread on another site, detailing an infestation like mine, and they were using mosquito bits to control them, and they also have tons of the tiny tan insects just like mine in their soil, and they had identified them as the predator mites you had mentioned in the beginning of this thread. I hadn't watched the video link you posted before, or I would have made the connection instantly if I had.

So now it all makes sense, the mites population explodes when the fungus gnats come back, in really stoked that I have those little buggers helping me fight, and I didn't even have to buy them. I can't wait until I have the nematodes as well.

Thanks again for the info, hopefully both our infestations will be gone soon!
 
Mikell

Mikell

Dipshit Know-Nothing
ICMag Donor
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Interesting. I enjoyed reading that.

It would seem more and more neem meal/oil (or Coots new Azamax product) has a place but was overhyped as a cure all.

I have a population of scimitus (applied two years ago) that rises and ebbs with the FG's. Before work took off, I had assumed they were long gone for lack of a food source and the transition back to coir/conventional.

Good thing I would never topdress coir with neem.
 
Coughie

Coughie

Member
I have had repeated success using Hypoaspis miles to treat fungus gnats..

And surely "repeated" and "success" dont seem like they'd go together - how could you be successful if you had to repeat it, right? - but I was bringing in both soil and plants from outside - figuratively outside (from friends) and literally outside (on the back porch)

The number of fungus gnats decreases over a period of 2-3 weeks, until one day you realize that you cant find any
 
heady blunts

heady blunts

prescription blunts
Veteran
never seen these offered from my biological suppliers. where are you ordering them from?

i can also +1 hypoaspis miles (now Stratiolaelaps scimitus). they are cheap and they will quickly become native to your garden. i released them once last year and they are still present in abundance.

i'm always recommending the nematode steinernema feltiae. if you add a scoop to your pump sprayer (dechlorinated water of course) and apply a thorough foliar they will destroy any flyers they land on. also nymphs, larvae, and eggs.

then i use the rest of them in a root drench. they get at the eggs and larvae in the soil. also relatively cheap.
 
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