Fungus gnats??? Please HELP!!!! =(

Hey all, it's been forever since I've had any problems but I am really scared and worried! This is my 7th grow (white berry/Ak-47/strawberry cough/mataro blue) in DWC using 5gallon buckets, canna aqua nutes in a tent on my indoor porch w/Co2 (giving all details in case I'm doing something to help these things thrive!) I've had a couple mites come in from time to time cause I have a dog and 2 cats but I just hit em once with mighty wash and those fuckers are gone but anyway...My girls are in their 3rd week of flowering and I just checked to see if they needed a drink and there are little gnats flying all around my root zone on my most beautiful, biggest AK-47! I thought maybe root aphids because they are on the root zone too, but they look like mini gnats. The water level was quite low and the upper part of the root that was half dry was where these horrible bastards were at. I am going to grab some yellow pest strips first thing in the morning but besides that what can I do to help this? I've never seen anything like this and I don't want to do anything crazy with chemicals but I need some advice please! Thanks for listening =)

I read that a guy used a hydrogen peroxide dip, to eradicate fungas gnats, in DWC. He just filled a bucket with water, and the peroxide, and sat the plant in there for awhile.

Thank you, I actually just read that too so I will be grabbing pest strips and a giant bottle of peroxide tomorrow...hope it helps. Does anyone know what causes this??

I use mosquito dunk chips soaked in my water for soil. Maybe they work in DWC. Its a bacteria that kills the maggots.

Im using a pyretrhin based product directly on the soil to supress them.

Thanks, the pest strips and peroxide have done the trick so far, and thanks but I don't grow in soil. =)

make sure light can't get into your buckets...as light on the water will grow algae..and the gnats will be drawn to it.

emulsify neem oil in your nutes.................or use 1 aspirin per gallon once a week to keep bugs and disease away........

del66666 said:

emulsify neem oil in your nutes.................or use 1 aspirin per gallon once a week to keep bugs and disease away........

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sweet tip! I never thought i could use aspirin!

mate get a half a potato cut it nice and fin chuck it down and put a few fly strips down if soil then place on the soil they will nest and mess sxxt up if left from like start to flower i had alot ov the little fxxxers last crop ChemDawg towards the end as you do every start off the year but this year ther was lots 100% working chemical free way to free your self from the prob man.And in future use like beneficials at the very start fungi,'s ,enzymes ect and yourl never have probs man but the fungus knats will always be a prob unless you do some additional strips tatoes ect cus they like to nest in the soil as thers plenty food especially if its good treated soil moist dark perfect for them to breed aspirins is a bad idea man itl kill all your beneficials in the soil man it comes down to chemistry the coarse is the conditions in the grow room and a good breeding year like a very cold winter will bring lots ov knats in the january febuary allthru summer if nice summer they love the moist shaded summer feel man like if ya walk down apath thats well shaded in the summer thers loads hit ya in the face they just love the environment bro .peace FUGITIVE 360

afgan420 said:

sweet tip! I never thought i could use aspirin!

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absolutely, ive been using for several months and it seems to work........

I use predatory nematodes.. nom nom on the gnat larvae.

green lacewing, they are true insect cannibals. If u see these u should try to put them in the room. I found one in my room when I had thrips and it had got in there itself.

My friend just had this EXACT problem plus an infestation of mites... and We've found a natural way that has seemed to have killed everything.
All you need is Neem oil and Habanero peppers.

First you need to make a Habanero pepper spray. This kills any bug on contact and will keep the bugs from wanting to bite your plant. Its 100% natural, the plants seem to respond well to it and its safe to use until the end of flowering. You spray it on the top of the soil, stem, underside of the leaves, and around the bottom of the pot by the water holes (Gnats will hide in there).

Here's how to Make the spray, but I recommend using 15 peppers for best results
https://www.rollitup.org/bugs/475307-how-kill-spider-mites-100-a.html

Then you need to make a Neem oil Spray, and Neem oil watering mix.

Neem oil spray-
1 Tablespoon per 20oz in spray bottle
Spray this on the top of the soil, stems, around/underside of the leaves and anywhere you can to help kill any bugs that have jumped off

Neem oil watering solution-
2 Tablespoons per gallon

Water the plants with the Neem oil mix every other watering and spray the sprays every other day or so depending on the severity of the infestation. You will want to repeat everything for at least 2 weeks to make sure anything that may have hatched is killed. My friend's got BAD and he did this about a week ago and has not seen any bug since

My friends had them (and have got rid of them b4 me) by using perlite to thickly cover the soil, after some spraying. This barrier stops them getting to the damp wet soil. I need to try this next, plus watering with Neem. I seem to be getting the adults but new larvae/lice keep occurirng. My neem mix was only 1 ml/ litre or 4ml / gallon

lahadaextranjera said:

My friends had them (and have got rid of them b4 me) by using perlite to thickly cover the soil, after some spraying. This barrier stops them getting to the damp wet soil. I need to try this next, plus watering with Neem. I seem to be getting the adults but new larvae/lice keep occurirng. My neem mix was only 1 ml/ litre or 4ml / gallon

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Totally true, I forgot to add that its best to cover the top 1"-2" with a fine sand mix (or anything similar to sand) to prevent them from burrowing down to lay eggs.

i just picked up a trap . it looks like an apple but i think it works like a yellow jacket trap . They come with some liquid you dump in i assume this it the bait . I'll make sure along with my fly strips i have a few of these hanging from my screen table .

I'd recommend fly strips to monitor the problem but not to fix it.

so i got some new soil for some clones and i think this stuff brought in some gnats, lil fockers flying around right by the base of my mother because i added some soil to fill the top of the 5gal, besides the strips do people think the habenero spray really works?
otherwise ill be getting some neem oil today and fly strips...
any other suggestions would help....thanks

BearDown! said:

so i got some new soil for some clones and i think this stuff brought in some gnats, lil fockers flying around right by the base of my mother because i added some soil to fill the top of the 5gal, besides the strips do people think the habenero spray really works?
otherwise ill be getting some neem oil today and fly strips...
any other suggestions would help....thanks

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You have to use the fly strips and some sort of soil drench if you arent going to use predatory bugs.. The fly strips will catch the adults but by that time they already had a fuck fest and laid down their larvae so babies and juveniles will keep coming back, I have used gnatrol and azamax and they work fine, I have even used the diamatacious earth powder as a top layer, the past couple of grows I been using predatory nematodes all of these work well. Gnats are more of a nuisance than crop destroyer but you definitely want to keep them fuckers to a minimum.

Lots of soils / cocos sold from grow stores have had thier bug problems its a common problem.