Gnats in a hydro grow?

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Beer42O

Well-Known Member
I opened up my grow box and saw a small group (maybe 3-5) small black nats flying around. They looked exactly like fruit flies.

I did a lot of research and think they are fungus gnats.

Everything i read are fixes for soil grows. Gnatrol looks the best but i dont know if it works for hydro

Long story short what can i do in a inclosed hydro grow to rid of these gnats? i know fly strips but if these are fungus gnats they are eating my roots and laying larva. I change the res 2 times a month and even if i didnt its only 6 gallons and they drink 2-3 gallons a day so the water cycles every other day...

I will confirm that there are more gnats in the am when lights come back on, but i have no idea how else they got in there unless they are indeed fungus gnats.

Thanks in advancebongsmilie
 
B

Beer42O

Well-Known Member
I couldnt sleep so i went to check on them. I only opened the door for 30 seconds or so and made sure there wasnt bright light on them... I shook the plants and bashed on the plastic res and nothing flew around... couldve just been a few randon gnats that got trapped in there?

Time will tell...
 
potroast

potroast

Uses the Rollitup profile
Two words ... yellow sticky traps. :eyesmoke:

You can use them as monitors to tell you what is flying around. Hold off on the gnatrol until you know you have an infestation. Stick em and get them out of there and you're set.

HTH :mrgreen:
 
B

Beer42O

Well-Known Member
potroast said:
Two words ... yellow sticky traps. :eyesmoke:

You can use them as monitors to tell you what is flying around. Hold off on the gnatrol until you know you have an infestation. Stick em and get them out of there and you're set.

HTH :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
yea im going to get tape on my way home from work today. I went down there this morning and i saw 1 flying around. I shook the plants and banged the res so i know there was only one... But they are coming from somewhere.

So there have been about 5 sightings over the past 2 days.. lol.
 
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Beer42O

Well-Known Member
anyone else? Is tape really my only resolution at the moment? I've heard of soap, peroxide etc... but all seem to be remedies for soil.
 
B

Beer42O

Well-Known Member
Just an update. I was using aluminum foil to cover the unused holes for pot cups in my grow box. I also was using a ultrasonic fogger. The fog got in-between the aluminum and the platic top. This water build up was starting to turn slightly to algae, and this is where the gnats were. I didnt see any larva, just gnats and few of them. Looks like i caught these fawkers before they made offspring.
 
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Beer42O

Well-Known Member
grrr, they were gone for a month now they are back!... ugh.... pissing me off. Atleast i know how to get rid of them, again....
 
marchold

marchold

Well-Known Member
I had gnats for a long time, I tried all the natural stuff, Predator Nematodes, Gnatrol, Other Gnat predators. Soap based insecticides. They just kept coming back nothing was working well. I spent a lot of $$. Then I tried this stuff X-Clude I got it here: X-Clude Encapsulated Pyrethrum, pt - Worm's Way

What I found is that the gnats tend to stay low close to the base of the plants so I can mainly spray this stuff on the pots and on the base of the stems. The leaves will turn brown from this stuff so I avoid getting it on my plants. Every 2 months I will see a few gnats and I spray some and they are gone. I try to get a lot of it in places the gnats like such as humid spaces between plastic. I spray the walls and surfaces of the grow room near the plants.

It seems like I keep getting gnats because one of my ebb-flow trays is not level and gets standing water in it. It seems they can be controlled by keeping things dry.

Also from what I understand they are not a big problem. I just spray the stuff because they annoy me. Since none of it ever gets on any buds I think it is safe.
 
xogenic

xogenic

Well-Known Member
try blowing a fan round the base of the plant stem and have the yello sticky sheets at the opposite side to the fan and trap the little buggers also for pest controll best stuff i had was "Pest Off" i used that for a few days with 2 used tab butts and that helps to discourage the bugs from setteling also after a day or 2 i used a weak strength version of it i think it was 10 ml to 1 ltr instead of 25 ml

added some tab butts and left it over night and used it for a week only giving a little spray in the morning and the night over the top of my coco medium.

so far so good nothing has come back yet and it has bee just under a month stoped using the spray now also they recomed doing it after a week also to kill off any un hatched little f**kers
 
B

Beer42O

Well-Known Member
thanks for the replies guys! These guys sure are annoying little mother fawkers!

marchold said:
I had gnats for a long time, I tried all the natural stuff, Predator Nematodes, Gnatrol, Other Gnat predators. Soap based insecticides. They just kept coming back nothing was working well. I spent a lot of $$. Then I tried this stuff X-Clude I got it here: X-Clude Encapsulated Pyrethrum, pt - Worm's Way

What I found is that the gnats tend to stay low close to the base of the plants so I can mainly spray this stuff on the pots and on the base of the stems. The leaves will turn brown from this stuff so I avoid getting it on my plants. Every 2 months I will see a few gnats and I spray some and they are gone. I try to get a lot of it in places the gnats like such as humid spaces between plastic. I spray the walls and surfaces of the grow room near the plants.

It seems like I keep getting gnats because one of my ebb-flow trays is not level and gets standing water in it. It seems they can be controlled by keeping things dry.

Also from what I understand they are not a big problem. I just spray the stuff because they annoy me. Since none of it ever gets on any buds I think it is safe.
Click to expand...





I notice too that they are mostly located at the base of my trees where the trunk meets the pots.. interesting. I think i will try that spray +rep


xogenic said:
try blowing a fan round the base of the plant stem and have the yello sticky sheets at the opposite side to the fan and trap the little buggers also for pest controll best stuff i had was "Pest Off" i used that for a few days with 2 used tab butts and that helps to discourage the bugs from setteling also after a day or 2 i used a weak strength version of it i think it was 10 ml to 1 ltr instead of 25 ml

added some tab butts and left it over night and used it for a week only giving a little spray in the morning and the night over the top of my coco medium.

so far so good nothing has come back yet and it has bee just under a month stoped using the spray now also they recomed doing it after a week also to kill off any un hatched little f**kers
Click to expand...


I already have a fan setup to blow the lower portion of the box. I find these gnats are super adaptive. I see them hunker down and grab for dear life and they dont blow anywhere.. But this gives me ample time to squish a lot of them as they are preoccupied with not blowing away and dont see my fingers coming to smash them! haha
 
xogenic

xogenic

Well-Known Member
give the top of the medium you are using a little rake around with your fingers should loosen em up.

you would think with something so small they would be piss to get rid but the little buggers dig deep

also a common missed place

make sure to get under the rim of the pot they manage to latch on under there pretty good

i used a cotton bud a few times during my murderous rampage to make sure there were no more
 
xogenic

xogenic

Well-Known Member
i actualy found myself saying die die to the little buggers whilst laughing under my breath lol

scared myself
 
B

breedtheweed

Active Member
fungi gnats and the other one that feeds on algae are a bitch to controll I managed a greenhouse and nursery and best ways to control them are to keep it dry --
 
B

Beer42O

Well-Known Member
thanks. I find that touching/moving everything atleast once a week seems to help. The tip of checking under the lip of the pots was key too.
 
FLoJo

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
i have had the same problem, i would see 50 or 60 flying around lol it got pretty bad...

i got the mosquito dunks, some yellow and blue sticky traps and have drastically reduced their numbers. upon close inspection i will usually see about 4 or 5 on my babies but with about 85 plants that aint bad.. just keep after em, youll be good. just be glad you dont have spidermites, these guys do about 1/100 of the damage as the mites and are about 1/1000 easier to get rid of
 
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