Gnat attack :(

[Former Guest]

can you really lose plants to fungus gnats?

I think I'm getting some of the growstones gnat nix to put as a top layer covering my soil as I heard DE loses its effectiveness when it's wet? the recycled glass cuts them just the same and also keeps moisture in the soil. if you only have a few plants its not too spendy and you can scoop it off the top, sift, and reuse.

mikell, that sounds intriguing and gives me the creepy crawlies just thinking they could get loose. a moat....lol kinda reminds me of a flea circus. I bet that would work though and I would REALLY REALLY like to see someone have a thread about it.

 

[magiccannabus]

It takes a pretty extreme gnat attack to kill, but it can happen. Unfortunately I live very close to a lot of cattle production and have animals on my property. The gnats are thicker here than normal sometimes.

 

[DONAJTHEIII]

Mosquito dunks knocked them back pretty hard for me and if you use it as a preventive then I dont think youll have a prob next time. That and nematodes have keep things on lock for me. Also if you wanna stop fliers from laying eggs you can put a thin layer of triple washed sand on top of your medium they cant penetrate it to lay eggs. An azamax drench would be something I would do but all these things together should know em back. There annoying as fuck lol



AJAE

 

[EclipseFour20]

Don....I hear you! My next door neighbor overwaters her patio plants and that is the source of fungus gnats for me...her 50+ containers around the patio, pool, spa, bbq and solarium is "orgy land" for Fungus Gnats. I went for the "management" route as opposed to annihilation route. Per those yellow cards, by the time the plants go to my flower environment (I have separate veg and flower setups) the gnats are all gone. I attribute that to the BTi found in Mosquito Bits (same shit that is in Mosquito Dunks)...no drenches, no neem cake, no nematodes, no synthetics, no chems.

That said, many, many years ago when I had Root Aphids, I observed two things: If you have Root Aphids then you most likely have Fungus Gnats (not visa versa), and what ever poison used to kill Root Aphids...seems to also kill off Fungus Gnats (again, not visa versa...what kills Fungus Gnats will not always kill Root Aphids).

 

[SirSteely]

Thanks for the replies. I worry I won't be able to stop them. I live on the edge of town and there's lots of compost and manure around here.

They don't take over outside. What eats them? I want whatever it is that eats them to come inside too....

I fight with constant fungus gnats because the property next to us has a small wetland breeding ground for them. Using natural remedies was a waste of money so I developed a fungus gnat free style of growing.

1> take a 5gallon plastic pot and fit a 3gallon smartpot over the bottom of it:This seals in your roots but allows airflow.
2> top your soil after transplant with a layer of landscape fabric cut to size of pot top :seals the top and enables reuse of sand
3> top fabric with gnatgnix or sand


a completely reusable mechanical barrier that does not interfere with growing

thats my system

best of luck