fruit gnats on my plants?
- Thread starter kyle1058
- Start date
they look like these similarly:
Zamzows | Garden
possibly the same thing?
I just put new potting soil in yesterday.. miracle grow organic.
Zamzows | Garden
possibly the same thing?
I just put new potting soil in yesterday.. miracle grow organic.
MG is said to have gnats. i dont use it, i used it once and had a bad fungus gnat problem. This from another thread that i posted about gnats.
Ok guys here it is, this is the deal with gnats. The larvae eat decaying material in the soil and usually your roots arent decaying the soil is so they are eating the soil. I am not saying that they wont eat the roots but unless the plant is a seedling or a new clone with not a small root system it wont effect it on a huge scale. In most of my grows i am worried about the plant getting rootbound. And as far as using ladybugs it is not going to work. Lady bugs and all its instars only eat slow moving insects that are on the plants surface. They do not burrow into the soil to eat soil insects(i.e. fungus gnat larvae), nor are they able to move fast enough to catch the adult fungus gnats in order to control them. What is the best control method is to create a barrier of non-organic matter on top of the soil surface so the fungus gnats cant get down into the soil. These products can be bought at your local nursery or landscape supply store. You can use rocks, use about a 1/2" size or smaller. Wash and sterilize the rocks first, then put a layer about 2" or more and leave on until the gnats are gone and then 2 weeks longer, or for continuous control leave on till the end. Also the black filter fabric cut to size works too, but it is harder to cover the soil perfectly and the water doesnt flow through as well as i would like. I have also used filter floss for ponds and aquariums, have better water flow through it but have soil coverage and installation issues. If you try one method and i doesnt work put black filter fabric with a layer of rocks on top. Oh yeah, spider is best bet mantis eats far too much to survive on gnats, it needs meater insects. I consider the spiders on my plants pets, and make sure they stick around until harvest.
I think this is better than having to spray anything on your plant and only kill the adults. This method disrupts the life cycle and they die out.
Ok guys here it is, this is the deal with gnats. The larvae eat decaying material in the soil and usually your roots arent decaying the soil is so they are eating the soil. I am not saying that they wont eat the roots but unless the plant is a seedling or a new clone with not a small root system it wont effect it on a huge scale. In most of my grows i am worried about the plant getting rootbound. And as far as using ladybugs it is not going to work. Lady bugs and all its instars only eat slow moving insects that are on the plants surface. They do not burrow into the soil to eat soil insects(i.e. fungus gnat larvae), nor are they able to move fast enough to catch the adult fungus gnats in order to control them. What is the best control method is to create a barrier of non-organic matter on top of the soil surface so the fungus gnats cant get down into the soil. These products can be bought at your local nursery or landscape supply store. You can use rocks, use about a 1/2" size or smaller. Wash and sterilize the rocks first, then put a layer about 2" or more and leave on until the gnats are gone and then 2 weeks longer, or for continuous control leave on till the end. Also the black filter fabric cut to size works too, but it is harder to cover the soil perfectly and the water doesnt flow through as well as i would like. I have also used filter floss for ponds and aquariums, have better water flow through it but have soil coverage and installation issues. If you try one method and i doesnt work put black filter fabric with a layer of rocks on top. Oh yeah, spider is best bet mantis eats far too much to survive on gnats, it needs meater insects. I consider the spiders on my plants pets, and make sure they stick around until harvest.
I think this is better than having to spray anything on your plant and only kill the adults. This method disrupts the life cycle and they die out.