Tiny gnat looking bugs on plants

fatjrewing said:

im 3 weeks in flowering and gnat looking bugs on top of soil, flying around plants,and some are dying right on the new forming buds.how to get rid of those lil f#@ks .help please

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Fungas gnats. To kill the adults get a spray with pyrethrins (made from chrysanthemum flowers) and cover the soil with it. Fox Farm "Don't Bug Me" is an example. Using yellow sticky strips close to the soil can also catch hundreds of adults and helps the cause. Next, drench the soil on the next few waterings with a BTi solution (eg. Gnatrol). That kills the larvae eventually. Expect to fight them for at least a week or two this way. BTi is Bacillus thuringiensis isrealensis that is also in mosquito "dunks" and some other mosquito killer formulations. Good luck.

thx snake for the info.i just got the yellow strips to catch them

they usually are in the soil to begin with. i always used plenty of sticky traps in my grow room and over a short period of time those adults that didn't die off on their own got caught in the traps. personally i know nothing about pesticides because i've never had to use any.

they live in soil the best way to get rid of them is to dry out ur soil, and water only when plants are showing stress and i mean this by when u c the leaves no longer pointing upward but rather starting to dropp then water do this for a week in combination with the yellow strips and a spray to the underside of leaves in the dark cycle with " end all " used on tomato plants and ull b kool

Just put a thin layer of kids play sand on top of your dirt and be done with it,they wont hang around since sand is not a happy place for fungus gnats to breed simple as that.

anyone else done this?

Pookiedough said:

Just put a thin layer of kids play sand on top of your dirt and be done with it,they wont hang around since sand is not a happy place for fungus gnats to breed simple as that.

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I hate the gnats and I have them too. Would be interested in the sand if it worked because I don't like using pyrethrins (allergic).

The sand works they wont lay eggs in sand and it wont hurt your plants.Dosent have to be much either just a thin layer those gnats lay eggs that make larvae that eat decomposing material "aka"your soil no soil exposed no eggs,no larvae,no gnats.I know it seems to simple to work but it does,after the adults that have already hatched die out or are trapped there will be no gnats.

i had a gnat problem a few weeks ago, i used hydrogen peroxide, which i diluted more with water on the soil, let the soil remain dryer longer than normal, and had a few ladybugs around my plants for a few days, I'm not sure if the ladybugs helped, but doing those things i went from have lots of gnats to none at all in about a week.

I have the fungus gnats too!!! and they piss me off! haha.... just throwing this out there, but i've noticed that my soil is sticky like sugar was in it... (no i didn't put sugar, just using an example) I'm gonna try flushing out the nutes and using a layer of sand. cause they've been here for a couple of weeks and just killing them only leaves dead gnats around...

I just tried neem, and h2o2 last night. If i dont c an improvement by next watering, im gonna dose another h2o2/neem solution. If no improvement by then il use the sand. BUT if i can get rid of them with out the sand, il post back up here to let yall know.

im really hoping this sand thing works cuz these fuckers arnt takin my plant!
lol now where am i gunna get sand from...hmm

Are these little fuckers destructive? Do they attack the roots? They're called "Fungus Gnats", is that because they are attracted to a fungus in the soil? I have some in my room, OK, a few more than some. Do I need to kill them? If they aint gonna hurt anything, I'll let 'em be.

i was told they really dont harm plants i managed them with fly strips contained 90% these fukers are the reason i went hydro

they do harm your plants while you only have a few the plant can grow with them.
at a certain point the adults and larvie will eat more than the plant can produce daily. they are leaving pathogens in your soil and the dead ones are decomposing in the media.

killing the files will help but you need to keill the larvie in the media also.

D.E diotametous earth (sp) will cut open the endoskeltons of adults when the touch it. this product with larviecide, (gnatrol, or misquito dunks) will stop the life cycle.

make sure if you have these buggers to use enzymes to help clean your roots and soil of harmful patogens and dead root media

keep in mind these gnats are not eating dead plant material!

alg007 said:

i was told they really dont harm plants i managed them with fly strips contained 90% these fukers are the reason i went hydro

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if you get them in hydro its even worse!

Ya i have a really bad gnat problem, i heard cinnamon help but havnt tried it cause i dont want cinnamon in my bud lol, i saw a few about sand and sticky strips, def gonna try that
...... thanks guys

The sand really worked, overnight the plants are pretty much free of the gnats. Is it safe to leave the sand or should I remove the play sand?

I just planted two germinated seeds into soil, yesterday. I then covered the soil with plastic wrap and placed into my grow. Well this morning I removed the plastic to air the plant a bit, well when I removed the plastic covers from the plants about 5-6 of the little buggers bombarded my face and went up my nose and in my eyes~! So I immediately removed the two new plants (that I had set up with my other 6 plants, all with a different- non-bug soil....) the other 6 were uncovered and I observed one of the escaped buggers flying around em.... now I'm worried I just introduced a flippin metropTlitis of bugs into my grow..... W......T.......F....... I just bought this "new" soil!!! Jezus just like a bad date, never good when you go home with bugs...... IMHO!