Organic Fungus Gnat and flying insect control: Carnivorus Plants

I tried this thread once before, but this might just be a better home. I Used to have fungus gnat problems. They ate my clones and stunted growth big time. I tried neem oil but plants did not seem to like it. I tried nematodes, and they worked.. for a while but the damn gnats came back. Not only that but they are expensive.

So why not just grow another plant that eats them? Its really easy.

Find yourself a cape sundew, and put it in a small pot or cup with pure sphagnum. Water with -only- distilled, or reverse osmosis treated water, point is, your water can't have -any- minerals or nutes in it. Also your sundew has to sit in water all the time.

If your sundew does not make dew, cover with some sort of clear plastic cup or cut two liter until dew forms, then remove.

I still see an occasional gnat or two, but the numbers have been -greatly- reduced, and the cape sundews I have are thriving. And quite hungry..

Great idea, very ecological and fun to!. If i had gnat problems this would definitely something i would consider.

Sierra Natural Sciences product 217

its great stuff

Way to be creative. Have not seen this before.

Nice, something worth trying, thanks..

Hypoaspis mites are excellent bio-control as well. They'll stick around in the soil so long as it isn't allowed to dry out, even after they eat all of the fungus gnats.

If anyone wants to know where to get some, PM me.

I especially like how the more gnats there are the faster the plant grows, meaning it catches more gnats. I also heard they really attract spider mites too, I pray I don't get those. Mine is getting ready to bloom, and as soon as she does I will be posting pictures.

Those mites sound really interesting as well. I keep seeing some tiny tiny white ones in my promix soil. I still had gnats though, so are probably just the kind that eat decaying material.

I use pray mantis in my tent Just a few per container does the job for gnat control. Your idea seems a lot more fun though.

Nander said:

Those mites sound really interesting as well. I keep seeing some tiny tiny white ones in my promix soil. I still had gnats though, so are probably just the kind that eat decaying material.

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Other common micro-arthropods are oribatid mites, which can be very small, and collembola or springtails. Many collembola (springtails) have furcula which is a tail-like appendage that allows them to 'jump' or spring themselves considerable distances. Oribatid mites and collembola both eat detritus (decaying matter) and microbes.

My sundew has been flowering in the flowering closet, but the first bloom looked the best. Otherwise I could say my gnat problems are over. In fact had to use myself as bait to catch a few mosquitoes to feed it, since it was looking pale. It's baby is doing extremely well, very dark green. Its pretty small still though so it gets plenty of food with the few gnats that are in the vegetative/clone box.

Takes ten days but do this, first get the yellow sticky things and put them all around the base of the plant, this will catch the adults. Now Go get some patatos at the grocery story. Cut them in slices about an inch thick and place them at the base of the plant. Most of the adults will get caught in the yellow sticky things and the ones that dont will lay the larve on the patatos that you must change out every four hours. Takes about a week but you have flushed all the larve and the adults only last a few days. Organic, quick and very effective.

I tried potatoes with no results, and I use grow bags pushed up against the sides of my veg box, making it impossible for sticky traps, which also have icky sticky slime that both gets on plant leaves or worse, my arms and hands. Ick. I Just have one sundew at the very base of all the bags. If you touch that, it feels like a wet tongue, and leaves nothing behind. As the plant gets bigger it will work better. Its growing pretty quick. And besides, fungus gnats are naturally drawn to a wet soggy plant like a sundew, why not buy one plant and never have to buy sticky traps again?

Plus I just like growing weird plants, why I started growing weed in the first place. I really want a blue strian. Northern berry pooped out. Not blue at all..

just sprinkle some cinnamon on the soil or drip tray. Works like a charm and the girls LOVE IT!

Picture of the large sundew in flowering closet.


And a picture of the one in the vegging box. Actually growing in one of those tiny plastic bathroom drink cups.

Nullis, I'll PM you when the system allows. Seems to be a small tech difficulty at the moment. I'd like to try the mites at some point