Fox Farms having a ton of gnats

SnowWhitte said:

I know FFOF knows they have a problem with they're soil having gnats, but why haven't they done anything about it? At 20 dollars a bag on average, its kinda ridiculous to have to go through all of this just to ensure our soil is good to use.

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I had one fly out of the bag!!! It took me 5 minutes to get the little fuck out of my eyeball!!! I've come to the conclusion that the soil can't be "sterilized", because the micro stuff would die off...IMO

Use Spinosad ( 100 % organic) as per the bottle directions.

LOL I have had to put sand on top of my soil. I have some on there right now the sand will not dissapear into the soil I will post a pic in a minute

ive heard of putting h202 in your water to kill eggs and larvae. not sure the correct mixing of it im sure thats around somewhere.

The sand has been on top of the soil for a little over 10 weeks. There is a small amount of perlite on top because I reuse the sand. I have never had my sand completely disappear in the soil.

Top dress with compost. Bugs hate compost. Predatory mites are sometimes living in compost. Lil red guys. They only eat other bugs. Then die off once their food souce is gone. Over a year ago I had the worst gnat problem. I tied everything. Nothing worked for more tha. A couple days. I top dressed with compost for bennies and ironically it killed off everything. I have not had a single bug since. Ive been mixing compost I my super soil and base soil mix. I use gh Alaskan forest humus compost and home depot eco scraps. Make sure the compost does not have any poop.

Btw the only good product from ff is happy frog guano. Ff soil and nutes blow donkeys. I use pro mix bh soil. I like it much more than roots organic.

See, I want to start using Pro Mix because its so much more cheaper per cf, just haven't ventured much into soil mix's as I am a hydro guy =l Guess its time to learn.

Look into subcools super soil. Then over time your will create your own recipe. Best way to go.

I doubt it's gnats my friend... More than likely you have a type of aphid. If so, good luck getting rid of them! It's next to impossible.....

SnowWhitte said:

What to do? I've searched the web and some say get rid of everything and find a different supplier, but I need this asap as my seeds have just popped. My Hydroponic shop also has a no return policy for some bullshit reason.

This is why I stay faithful to hydroponics =X

Help!!

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It happens in good and cheap soil. Don't bother trying to suffocate them it wont work, top dressing wont work as most gnats come out of the bottom drain holes. Just use the soil the gnats wont harm the roots or the plant unless they totally take over the root system nad if that happened the room would be a cloud of gnats. Work on getting rid of them later.

Are you serious? Work on them later? Lol who wants bugs around? I had gnats too and used vinegar with soapy water. I also cut back on my watering cycle. Never listen to someone's advice when it involves leaving your issue as it is!

*BUDS said:

It happens in good and cheap soil. Don't bother trying to suffocate them it wont work, top dressing wont work as most gnats come out of the bottom drain holes. Just use the soil the gnats wont harm the roots or the plant unless they totally take over the root system nad if that happened the room would be a cloud of gnats. Work on getting rid of them later.

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I've heard of people putting a lair of coco coir on top of their soil to keep gnats away. Never really needed to try it though, so YMMV.

It isn't Fox Farms, it's your grow shops supplier. I've been buying FFOF and Light Warrior for years from the same store who has used the same supplier and never a gnat issue.

In the past I've seen FFOF bags sitting outside and in areas they shouldn't be at nurseries and grow shops, it's here and during distribution where the FFOF gets infested and 99% of the time it's not Fox Farms fault.

When I do get a gnat issue if it isn't early veg I don't care, I will just post yellow sticky tape to get the adults and dry out the pots for a good week or two, allowing pots to go almost completely dry. This seems to always cure the issue. Diatomaceous Earth works but it is spendy and I don't like using it for various reasons. I would limit that fix to early vegging plants as that's where the concern would be, other than that time period gnats are just a nuisance.

Diatomaceous earth only works when its dry. If it gets wet, it becomes clumpy and useless. If there's too much it stays very wet for a long time- root rot... letting pots dry out completely kills roots and stressses out the plants tough. Definitely do not want to do that during flower. again compost is the best and cheapest method. Plus all the bennies.