Advanced Fungus gnat Suppresssant

I run two separate indoor grow ops. One with s beg photo cycle and another with flowering photo cycle. In order to make it a never ending supply for myself I stagger the time i put plants into flower fro km my veg box. All the while I decided to grow some herbs in the veg box just cause, why not?. My cilantro got out of control and I cut some of the larger stalks down and after it dried (maybe a week) I crumbled it and threw it on top of the dirt in a few of my pots. After notic9ng less and less fungus gnats every water, I investigated a little further. I discovered they naturally keep away lots of pesta outdoors and many gardeners use them natural aphid repellant. I'm now 4 or 5 months without fungus gnats(knock on wood) and have only my cilantro to thank. Everything in there is in amended soil, cannabis and herbs alike

The Kitty can Carry bugs into your room especially Mites. you might want to keep her out until after your done in there. not that will happen but it's very likely to. Just be careful you might have some beauties that may be hurt.

Best of luck to you and Welcome to RIU..

Bear420 said:

The Kitty can Carry bugs into your room especially Mites. you might want to keep her out until after your done in there. not that will happen but it's very likely to. Just be careful you might have some beauties that may be hurt.

Best of luck to you and Welcome to RIU..

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I also read that when I was first getting started, apparently the the most high population alien delivery service next to the farmer themselves. These are all strictly indoor cats who are frequently (4 times a year) dosed with revolution to keep clean of ticks, fleas, mites, and parasites just because I love them and want them to feel good. That said I had a sipder mite issue almost 3 years ago now and ever since that nightmare I use a no rinse misting solution of water and trifecta all natural crop control once a month. https://www.amazon.com/Trifecta-Crop-Control-All-One/dp/B0742MW5G6 Its mostly organic but users definitely need to follow instructions very carefully because of the apple cider viniegar. Vinegar kills plants fast in a concentrated enough dose. I hope nobody has to go through what I did with those little fuckers(spider mites, chiggers) or lose any crop to em. RIP Blackberry diesel, your memory lives forever

I like the kitty though, she reminds me of my male George he passed last year at 22 years old, best kitty ever. Good luck keep us posted on your progress. Good day.

So i just ran into some critters myself and think it may be fungus gnats after reading this thread, when i watered i noticed what looked to me like tiny maggots when i flooded pots squirming around, fungus gnats maybe??

Definitely a possibility. Fungus gnats spend 70-80% of their life in the larvae stage and those little shits love wet soil. They reproduce in wet, muddy conditions. Don't give em the chance. I don't know how often you feed your plants but try not to staurate the entire top layer of soil when you water and more or less just "target" water the area where the stalk comes from the dirt. I've seen some guys put a a inch layer of sand on top of the pot OVER the dirt just to keep dry and some guys just buy cases of the cheap 2 sided stickem, bug traps to put in with each grow. At the end of the day, the easiest solution would be to dry the fuckers out for a day or 2 and get your water schedule on lockdown.

On a side note, prolonged exposure to a fungus gnat colony will most certainly fuck your plants up. They will eat and destroy your shallow root system and taint the soil around them. This definitely needs to be addressed. Worst case scenario order this... https://www.amazon.com/Trifecta-Crop-Control-All-One/dp/B0742MW5G6 and follow directions very carefully. It contains vinegar, which can be toxic to most plants.

cats love peeing in plant pots be careful!

Nizza said:

cats love peeing in plant pots be careful!

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Oh I know it. I keep a few wide pots of oat grass for em now. Keeping them out is a pain in the ass, so now they have their own plants to tend to. It's the compromise I made. On some weird shit though I got an easy solution for keeping them in it of the pots tho. If you catch em being curious about your soil or the smell of your ferts, sprinkle some cayenne pepper on top of the dirt. Wont hurt the plant and the acute olfactory system on our feline friends will not let them go near it

I've had a fungus gnat problem this grow. I tried killing them off in veg, but it really isn't easy. I did get their numbers down though and I've been using the vacuum cleaner daily to kill a few. Knocking on the pots and shaking then makes the adults come out of the soil so you can vacuum them. Yellow sticky things attract them, but apparently the brown stickytape doesn't...

The adults live for a week and females can lay hundreds of eggs. From eggs to flying adults takes about 20 days.

Try keeping top 2” of your medium dry have a fan blowing over the top of your medium I use neem cake which also works great

How about covering top layre with diatomaceous earth?

I also read somewhere that a hydrogen peroxide solution will work also?? I have a bag of DE on hand and ordered sticky strips

Break up mosquito dunks, and spread them over the top soil. Also, break some up into water, and let it sit over night, then water. Mosquito dunks contain BTi, which is a bacteria that eats fungus gnat larva. It takes two weeks, then they will be completely gone.

Orange oil. Foliar/drench. No more arthropods. Period. This is a cat. Not a pussy cat.

Yellow stickies for the adult flyers and 3 drenches with Gnatrol for the larvae.

Archimage said:

Break up mosquito dunks, and spread them over the top soil. Also, break some up into water, and let it sit over night, then water. Mosquito dunks contain BTi, which is a bacteria that eats fungus gnat larva. It takes two weeks, then they will be completely gone.
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I have used these in the past and they work like a charm.

A product called Microbe Lift BMC is the most bang for the buck BTI product on the market right now.

Not all that wiggle are Fungus Gnats...

Winged root aphids are very commonly mistaken for fungus gnats. The BTI based products won't touch them and they are very harmful to your plants root system. Advanced infestations will cause the plants to appear magnesium deficient as the roots are damaged. Using the yellow sticky traps to catch and identify the buggers is key. The winged root aphids are stronger fliers than the fungus gnats. They have "dual exhaust" nubs on their posterior. So always verify the identity of the pest.

Renfro said:

Winged root aphids are very commonly mistaken for fungus gnats. The BTI based products won't touch them and they are very harmful to your plants root system. Advanced infestations will cause the plants to appear magnesium deficient as the roots are damaged. Using the yellow sticky traps to catch and identify the buggers is key. The winged root aphids are stronger fliers than the fungus gnats. They have "dual exhaust" nubs on their posterior. So always verify the identity of the pest.

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Good info man i got sticky traps on the way to be sure, i did see a few fliers in there, plants are looking like they have a deficiency currently, at first i thought it was lack of n until i discovered those little fuckers