Fungus Knats ..not fun anymore , need advice

So i am still having trouble keeping a plant alive for more than a month , i know i have fungus knats but can't get rid of them . Plants go from nice and green healthy to discolored and yellow and die eventually . Root zone is always brown dying off roots and new roots trying to grow around them , have seen white larve crawling in my root zone ..as well as spring tails which i believe are harmless . Hve tried chemical approach with no success so was thinking of trying sand on top of my 5 gallon (sunshine mix) buckets to keep them from laying eggs in root zone ..... my buckets have several drain holes in the bottom ..will the fly's lay eggs in those holes or do they only do it from the top ? if i can keep them from cycling i might have a chance to destroy them ..

Have you tried applying neem oil? I had them really bad on an autoflower last summer and applied neem oil with dish soap every other day and within a week they were gone. Just a thought.

Try. Vinager and dawn dish soap Vinager attracts them and the soap gets em stuck. Mix in a bowl of some sort. And put it in your room. It will take time to kill them off completely but it always worked for me.

PurpleKu§h;9962392 said:

Try. Vinager and dawn dish soap Vinager attracts them and the soap gets em stuck. Mix in a bowl of some sort. And put it in your room. It will take time to kill them off completely but it always worked for me.

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What do you do fill a cup or water your plants with it ? I would not put vinegar in my soil.

Ya don't put it in your soil! Lol mix it in a serperate bowl. Vinager and dawn soap and set it level with your pots

A little neem oil does the trick for me. It suffocates them on the leaf and in the dirt, plus it's organic, and makes your leaves purdy

a bowl of vinegar next to your pots won't do shit, if the infest if bad enough. You need to kill and prevent larvae, then the flyers will disappear.

Do not use vinegar. LOL use apple cider vinegar mixed with soapy water. The sweet smell attracts and the soap ruduces the surface tension of the water and the flies fall in and drown. But that is for fruit flies. Fungus Gnats aren't attracted to sweet smelling things. Moist soil with roots is their thing. With that said your very best bet to controlling them is to let the soil completely dry out. To the point the plants start to droop. Then water. Drying out the soil helps to kill the larvae since they need moisture. If you have a soil pest like root gnats or fungus gnats it is best to use a soil drench. I like GoGnats. It's basically cedar oil. Abamectin is good too along with Azamax. For a more organic approach add Diatomaceous Earth in your soil. It's like adding millions of sharp razor blades to the soil that slices up the larvae they dry out and die. It also adds silica which helps add strength to the plant by making the cell walls stronger. Plants can then hold bigger buds. But now I'm off topic. Yellow sticky traps help catch the flying adults. These are more or less harmless to plants except the reproduce. Be aware that drenching the soil could kill your beneficial bacteria and microbes. Very important if you are using a TLO method.

Always worked for me. But best of luck to you!

I mix blended down mosquito drunks into my soil, I like proactive approaches when it comes to insects. You can also put a layer of sand on top and then bottom feed(pour the water into the drainage pan and the plant will suck up what it wants).

Funnily enough I had fungus gnats of my first grow. Also had them at the start of this my second. Im using 8 -10 gal smart pots and they haven't been able to take hold. Ive seen like 4 in the last 2 weeks. Maybe its buffering the soil with lime but has anyone using smart pots found they help with fungus gnats?

Yellow stickies for fliers.
Don't underestimate the power of using a vacuum hose for catching fliers, (I know it sounds funny, but it works well!)
D.E. can be used to kill larvae.
Sand on top will help, but adding smart pots into the mix helps even more, (because now they cannot enter through the bottom holes as they generally do.)
A cheap thing that will help: shave down your roots, shake your roots out, then replace the soil with fresh, non-infested soil.

So, tl:dr: Vacuum hose and yellow trap for fliers, replace soil, move to smart pot, use sand on top, or d.e. for larvae.

Gnatrol and never look back.

Thanks guys , lots of good info here , guess i will try all of it !! ... sand , gnatrol, neem oil ...i don't know what smart pots are or where to get them in canada ??????

I found info on smart pots and acually ordered 5 5 gal ones , i wonder if there is a material i could line some of my 5 gallon buckets with like cheese cloth or something to keep the adults from laying eggsin bottom drain holes , coupled up with sand and perlite on top surface ...

District said:

Lol...dude have you tried It. Just saying as you seem so reverent.

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yes, I know all about homemade gnat traps. I also know that if the infest is bad enough, you have to kill them at the larvae stage - as I stated.. trying to trap adults is useless, other than next to your trash can, under the sink.

dude.


neem oil is the stuff to use IMO of course. wiki is your friend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil

Thanks for all the help you guys , i'm feeling hopeful .lol .... i ordered some gnatrol,and azamax and smart pots , i also have neem oil here , i realize i can't use all this stuff at once , prolly gnatrol combined with spraying neem at first ..with sand and sticky traps ... i'm down to a couple mom's right now so its the time to do it i guess ..

Be sure to sterilize all equipment too.

The apple cider vinager does help, and the bottom watering works great. It keeps the upper levels of soil dry so they can't reproduce.

Fungus Gnats need to be treated as eggs, larva, and adults at 5 day intervals.