HELP...Gnats? Fruit Flies?

I doubt I have fruit flies, but that is what it looks like buzzing around my soil. My plant is not even poked through the soil yet, so not too worried about the plant. I bought a new kind of soil this time. It is Scots organic. All of a sudden, after week, I see all these little gnats flying around the soil. They are not anywhere else, just the flower pot (indoors). Any idea what they are, harmful?, or how to get rid of these little buggers?

Thanks!!

Patch Buddey said:

I doubt I have fruit flies, but that is what it looks like buzzing around my soil. My plant is not even poked through the soil yet, so not too worried about the plant. I bought a new kind of soil this time. It is Scots organic. All of a sudden, after week, I see all these little gnats flying around the soil. They are not anywhere else, just the flower pot (indoors). Any idea what they are, harmful?, or how to get rid of these little buggers?

Thanks!!

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probably fungus gnats...ans they will hurt your plant even if its not up yet...they feed on the roots...neem oil or there s some fungus gnat stuff you cant flush the soil with to get rid of them...plenty of other posts o RIU address gnat problems

skinnyone said:

probably fungus gnats...ans they will hurt your plant even if its not up yet...they feed on the roots...neem oil or there s some fungus gnat stuff you cant flush the soil with to get rid of them...plenty of other posts o RIU address gnat problems

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Cool, thanks.

OK, could not find neem oil locally, but ordered some online for expedited shipping. I did, however, find some Ortho® EcoSense™ Insecticidal Soap at Home Depot. Just doused the soil with that, and all the gnats seem unhappy now and no movement. Anyone ever hear of or use this? (Picture attached)

Patch Buddey said:

OK, could not find neem oil locally, but ordered some online for expedited shipping. I did, however, find some Ortho® EcoSense™ Insecticidal Soap at Home Depot. Just doused the soil with that, and all the gnats seem unhappy now and no movement. Anyone ever hear of or use this? (Picture attached)

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yea that might work fine...I would flush soon though

get some gognats and use it as a soil drench

I used gognats for my thrips and it works well...

Guys-

If I'm not mistaken the poster stated that his plants were not even popped up out of the soil yet... so neem oil and drenches are NOT a good idea. Seedlings are very delicate and easily affected by anything out of the oridnary. A couple of fairly harmless things you can do:

Since the seedlings are not even up yet, its easiest to vacumn lightly around the pot itself, remove those flying buggers. You can also put up a sticky fly strip, they will get attracted to it and hopefully get stuck for good. AFTER your seedlings are about 2" tall, you can put a 1/2 -1" layer of clean playsand on the top layer of the pot. The gnats have larvae in the soil and they won't burrow out of the sand as it hurts thier tender little bodies. Basically this breaks the life cycle of the gnats and they will die off. No sprays, no nasty chemicals needed.

MacGuyver4.2.0 said:

Guys-

If I'm not mistaken the poster stated that his plants were not even popped up out of the soil yet... so neem oil and drenches are NOT a good idea. Seedlings are very delicate and easily affected by anything out of the oridnary. A couple of fairly harmless things you can do:

Since the seedlings are not even up yet, its easiest to vacumn lightly around the pot itself, remove those flying buggers. You can also put up a sticky fly strip, they will get attracted to it and hopefully get stuck for good. AFTER your seedlings are about 2" tall, you can put a 1/2 -1" layer of clean playsand on the top layer of the pot. The gnats have larvae in the soil and they won't burrow out of the sand as it hurts thier tender little bodies. Basically this breaks the life cycle of the gnats and they will die off. No sprays, no nasty chemicals needed.

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yes what he said....i wasnt thinking about them being seedlings definitely dont want to drown them

diatomaceous earth works well for knats and other insects that crawl in soil. it is a mechanical insecticide and works by inflicting microscopic cuts on insects that are exposed to it. DE is organic, naturally occurring in the earth, and is actually beneficial to plant life; providing several micro nutrients. Apply when soil is dry on top. If soil is wet/moist the DE will absorb the moisture rendering it useless. So when the soil is completely dry on top simply dust tops of containers and watch them knats scrabble. Timing is essential when working with DE. All plants need to be treated at the same time, meaning you will need to have all plant containers dry enough to accept the DE. To kill adults, juveniles and larvae the DE should be left on plants for a minimum of 5 days. That way you will kill all active pests and pests hatching. Goodluck

Thanks for all the info!!

I have had fungus gnats for months now and now I have some other kind of gnat that congregate in the center of leaves and on buds. They dont move or anything they just sit there. Ive been using azatrol unsuccesfully.

Try this stuff Works Great With My Infested MG organic..lol Killed those nasty things quick.. Its all natural organic. safe for eating tried both and both work good

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=187198-1321-100-004&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3018756&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim


OR

http://www.lowes.com/pd_129963-316-0119685_0_?productId=3090013&Ntt=indoor%20insect%20spray&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=indoor%20insect%20spray$y=0$x=0#



kiss-asskiss-ass

Garden Safe 24 Oz. Houseplant and Garden Insect Killer Spray

Organic Laboratories, Inc. 24 Oz. Ready-to-Use Organocide Insect/Fungicide

Mountainfarmer said:

diatomaceous earth works well for knats and other insects that crawl in soil. it is a mechanical insecticide and works by inflicting microscopic cuts on insects that are exposed to it. DE is organic, naturally occurring in the earth, and is actually beneficial to plant life; providing several micro nutrients. Apply when soil is dry on top. If soil is wet/moist the DE will absorb the moisture rendering it useless. So when the soil is completely dry on top simply dust tops of containers and watch them knats scrabble. Timing is essential when working with DE. All plants need to be treated at the same time, meaning you will need to have all plant containers dry enough to accept the DE. To kill adults, juveniles and larvae the DE should be left on plants for a minimum of 5 days. That way you will kill all active pests and pests hatching. Goodluck

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Loving the idea of microscopic cuts on the freeloading little bastards. grrr. damn bugs and the absolute necessity of their existence

Patch Buddey I'm going through the exact same thing. Which method did you employ and how were the results? I hung the sticky fly strips with little luck do to the buggers staying in the soil. I then cut some cardboard strips and attached pieces of the sticky strips to them and layed them on top of the soil. That worked really well but it obviously doesn't stop the life cycle. it keeps the problem from getting too out of hand but they are always present. I want to kill them off completely. Oh yeah, I also used the same insecticidal soap from Home Depot with no results.

skinnyone said:

yea that might work fine...I would flush soon though

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mine are all about a foot and a half and the bugs seem to be attracted the the bottom of the root and soil plants all look great but also considering flushing as well first time growings so not sure on how to flush your plants and when?

Ive been battling these flying fuckers for a long time, and didnt even know the larvae ate the roots, they are pure evil. Gognats works great but you have to drench everything at once, cuz the adults just fly off and lay more eggs after the go gnats dries up. I use a 3 step approach, drench with go gnats, you will see all the youngins crawl to the surface and freak out and jump everywhere, then hit them with a pesticide spray called doktor doom it will kill on contact as opposed to the gognats which just seems to make the soil highly uncomfortable for a while, and then use those yellow sticky fly traps so the adults dont fly back and lay more eggs ( only a buck for five). On a side note, only use doctor doom while in veg, dont want that stuff on your nugs! I was also told to let the soil dry out completely, as wet soggy soil is exactly what fungus gnats favor, so instead of drenching all the time, drench once and spray the surface until the whole container dries out again, and then reapply. I used neem oil, killed spidey mites, not the damn gnats! I tried predatory nematodes, I thought it worked for a little bit, but maybe it was just a placebo affect, has anyone tried these before, maybe I just didnt apply them right?

gnat off did it for me or better still use clean coco instead of soil.............