How do you battle fungus gnats?

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
Herd people using boiling water on there soil prior to using
Not that you didnt hear this, but if you look up organic or natural weed comtrol. One or the top answers every time is boiling water. You pour it on the soil and it kills the roots therefore killing the weed.
This post was sponsored by weed-b-gone.

(Couldnt resist DV, sorry) :lol:
 

researching

Well-Known Member
DE did nothing against mine. The mosquito bits take two weeks to work but with the price, if you have 50 X 5 gallon plants to do, 20 bucks will give you two treatments at one a week for two weeks. That will get rid of them by week two, if your using enough of them on the top of the dirt. Im curious as to how much the azamax costs since ive never used it.
Truth be told I have never used DE. Only mosquito dunks in my water barrel. Maybe I wasn't using enough but I should have been considering the amount one dunk covers.

I have read a lot of success with DE so I suggested it. I was too cheap to buy it, but I have never had a large enough problem to justify buying it.
 

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
Truth be told I have never used DE. Only mosquito dunks in my water barrel. Maybe I wasn't using enough but I should have been considering the amount one dunk covers.

I have read a lot of success with DE so I suggested it. I was too cheap to buy it, but I have never had a large enough problem to justify buying it.
Dunks are really not all that effective. Crumbles go on top of the soil and as you water the soil, they work their way in and kill larvae. They work every time, it just takes a little time so if you get them early your better off.
I personally bought a 50lb bag of DE with a quart sized shaker with it. Shook it in a thick layer all over my plants soil every couple days forever. And not even a dent in the population. I still have 3/4 of a bag i paid like 60 bucks for. Stupid.
 

researching

Well-Known Member
Yeah I read dunks work. I can't say I saw a difference. What helped was letting the upper couple inches of coco dry out between waterings and a lot of yellow sticky traps.
 

AfgooCBD

Well-Known Member
Sand and yellow traps. If you want to "herd" them, place a small circular fan on the ground blowing upwards into the plant. They will all crash-land and huddle under the fan. A little Simple Green spray on the pile and wipe them up. A small layer of kids sand on the soil will break up their cycle. Worked for me.
 

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Damn that's a lot of them Afgoo! I'm a first time grower here and I'm currently controlling the fungus gnats the same way way. As soon as a noticed the population increasing I watered with a 1:5 part solution of Hydrogen Pereoxide and H20. I know this will kill beneficials in my soil but it also wiped out the larvae. Next i put a thin layer of play sand on top of the soil as a barrier. Although I don't know if I would use it again because it will just mix with your soil after watering and could make drainage worse. Sticky traps placed at the stalk of the plant really do stop the adults quite effectively. It's been a week and the population has been drastically reduced.
 

AfgooCBD

Well-Known Member
Damn that's a lot of them Afgoo! I'm a first time grower here and I'm currently controlling the fungus gnats the same way way. As soon as a noticed the population increasing I watered with a 1:5 part solution of Hydrogen Pereoxide and H20. I know this will kill beneficials in my soil but it also wiped out the larvae. Next i put a thin layer of play sand on top of the soil as a barrier. Although I don't know if I would use it again because it will just mix with your soil after watering and could make drainage worse. Sticky traps placed at the stalk of the plant really do stop the adults quite effectively. It's been a week and the population has been drastically reduced.
H2O2 didn't work for me (HP). I kinda like that a thin layer of sand blends in during watering. Actually, it would help increase drainage (think of perlite, or gravel). The sand doesn't absorb moisture. I notice that water just seeps through rather quickly with a layer of sand on top. Glad to hear the bugs are diminishing! :peace: :hump:
 
Actually, it would help increase drainage (think of perlite, or gravel). The sand doesn't absorb moisture. I notice that water just seeps through rather quickly with a layer of sand on top. Glad to hear the bugs are diminishing! :peace: :hump:
That does make sense now if I think back to my sandbox days. It also contains silicon which probably benefits the ladies also!
 

DSinatra

Well-Known Member
Like the title says I'm looking for effective ways to control fungus gnats. They are the only bugs I get. I use fox farm ocean forest and I think maybe the larvae are already in the bags. I haven't had them bad enough to do serious damage but I hate seeing them flying around and in my soil. I don't want to use anything too harsh. Right now I have sticky traps in my grow tent. Any tips would be appreciated.
Hello brother. This is a good question being that almost all commercial soil is infected with fungus gnats. I found out about those little annoying insects when I bought happy frog soil. I was infected pretty bad and read up as much as I can about them in order to eliminate them. Fungus gnats can be fatal to your plant in severe cases by eating at your root system. They breed and lay larvae in the soil. Typically when I water I water directly where the stalk of the plant and not the whole bed. I also wait until the last minute to water when the lower leafs are beginning to droop ever so slightly. Let your soil dry out a bit in between waterings making an environment they don't like which forces them to come up. Get yourself some food grade diatomaceous earth which is a fine powdery soft, crumbly, porous sedimentary deposit formed from the fossil remains of diatoms. They are like very tiny tiny shards ofor glass that cut through and dry out the exo-skeletal layer of insects particularly of soft shell/bodied instects. Be sure to water only the stalk area when you water, let the soil dry out and sprinkle diatomaceous earth as a top dress for your soil. Mix it in u to about a couple inches, then add another top dress for the top layer of your soil. Drying your soil out will force the fungus gnats to surface and make their way through the D.e. cutting them and drying them out. As the larvae hatch and come up they too will go through the same process until you eventually kill them all. This process can take up to a couple weeks maybe more as there is still larvae in the soil.
 
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