Fungus Gnats

J

jochhe1998

Active Member
2com said:
Or, you thought they were gone.

Yup.

@jochhe1998 One thing I forgot to mention is a physical barrier. That's game over for them, you done have to worry about them entering or leaving the medium at all.
Go search for an informational video/site on fungus gnats, get their average or minimum size in mm, look for a material (synthetic material) that is the right micron (mesh size) to be just enough smaller than the gnats.
When you transplant (eg: from a solo cup to a 1gal, whatever - I don't know what you've got going on) you line the pot with a cut piece of the material/fabric; enough so that when you fill it with medium and put your transplant in and back fill it, that you can bring the "extra" material up and over the top/surface of the medium and up tight to the stalk of the plant. Tie/wrap it around securely. --Yes, you'll need to tie it with a material that will allow stretch as the stalk grows. I can't remember the name of the stuff I used. But if you want, I'll find it. Eg: of fabric would be "row cover", or even some kind of mosquito netting (provided the mesh is small enough).

Everything I've suggested is from personal experience, and all of them work. It's not complicated or difficult just because I gave lengthy "directions". It's easy and pretty cheap.

Note: you said you were using synthetic nutrients in coco. That's why I'm not suggesting various beneficial bacteria/microbes, and other critters, or "health soil biology". Especially when you've been, and want to continue it seems, using h2o2...

You've got tons of suggestions and angles to choose from and now it seems things are getting off the actual topic.

Anyway, hope you can wipe'em out. They're just extremely annoying.
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2com said:
Or, you thought they were gone.

Yup.

@jochhe1998 One thing I forgot to mention is a physical barrier. That's game over for them, you done have to worry about them entering or leaving the medium at all.
Go search for an informational video/site on fungus gnats, get their average or minimum size in mm, look for a material (synthetic material) that is the right micron (mesh size) to be just enough smaller than the gnats.
When you transplant (eg: from a solo cup to a 1gal, whatever - I don't know what you've got going on) you line the pot with a cut piece of the material/fabric; enough so that when you fill it with medium and put your transplant in and back fill it, that you can bring the "extra" material up and over the top/surface of the medium and up tight to the stalk of the plant. Tie/wrap it around securely. --Yes, you'll need to tie it with a material that will allow stretch as the stalk grows. I can't remember the name of the stuff I used. But if you want, I'll find it. Eg: of fabric would be "row cover", or even some kind of mosquito netting (provided the mesh is small enough).

Everything I've suggested is from personal experience, and all of them work. It's not complicated or difficult just because I gave lengthy "directions". It's easy and pretty cheap.

Note: you said you were using synthetic nutrients in coco. That's why I'm not suggesting various beneficial bacteria/microbes, and other critters, or "health soil biology". Especially when you've been, and want to continue it seems, using h2o2...

You've got tons of suggestions and angles to choose from and now it seems things are getting off the actual topic.

Anyway, hope you can wipe'em out. They're just extremely annoying.
Click to expand...
Dude, this is ingenious.
 
J

jochhe1998

Active Member
Also, update for everyone.

I guess you could consider this a bit of a case study since I tried almost every popular solution to gnats.

The only thing that worked was adding microbes back into the soil and using BTI!!

Plants are as happy as ever. Thank you to everyone who offered their advice!
 
ZuuTeD614

ZuuTeD614

Well-Known Member
jochhe1998 said:
Hey guys,

Have 8 3 gallon plants in coco. Week 4 -5 of flower, synthetic nutes, neem spray once a week for ipm. Had a bit of a fungus gnat problem so I did the standard procedure. Dried out the medium, flushed with hydrogen peroxide, sprayed neem, dried out the medium again, flushed again, sprayed neem again.

Gnats are still present which is usually never the case after that combo.....

My new tactic is to just permanently run hydrogen peroxide in my drip irrigation. My thought is, if the gnat eggs could never hatch because of the peroxide, I won't slow down my plants growth by having to dry out the medium every time. And in two to three weeks all the larger gnats who weren't leaving anyway will be dead.

I tried looking for some info on this before but couldn't find anything. Let me know what you guys think!
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I don't care what people said, I went to my nearest Walmart and bought Organic ready to use "Neem Oil" it's a spray bottle. I used it once I notice the pest use it one time sprayed my soil underneath leaves and a nice coat on top at lights out and it did the trick. It also prevents spider Mints and other pest. So I recommand.
 
GUTINSTINCT209

GUTINSTINCT209

Member
Best thing hands down to have 0 gnats or root aphids is Bacillus thuringiensis or "mosquito dunks" i crush it up the mosi dunks in a ziploc bag and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of dunk powder per 3 gallon pot. Mix it in soil or coco and you wont see even 1 gnat GUARANTEED!! Do this in every pot. its safe for plants too
Some folks do the mosquito bits but i prefer the dunks.
 
Humboldtcalikidd

Humboldtcalikidd

Well-Known Member
jochhe1998 said:
Also, update for everyone.

I guess you could consider this a bit of a case study since I tried almost every popular solution to gnats.

The only thing that worked was adding microbes back into the soil and using BTI!!

Plants are as happy as ever. Thank you to everyone who offered their advice!
Click to expand...
For microb life what did you do
 
DCcan

DCcan

Well-Known Member
GUTINSTINCT209 said:
Best thing hands down to have 0 gnats or root aphids is Bacillus thuringiensis or "mosquito dunks
Click to expand...
You are conflating 2 separate types of insects that require different treatments.
Bacillus thuringiensis (BTi and BTk) has limited to no effect on root aphids.
Usually that's how people figure out they got root aphids instead of gnats, is when BT doesn't work.
 
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TexasCurryMama

TexasCurryMama

Active Member
I tried the sticky papers and they help; however, I didn’t get rid of them until I used and organic fungus and mite killer. Even then it took 2 weeks to kill them all. They are like a bad penny!
 
J

jochhe1998

Active Member
Humboldtcalikidd said:
For microb life what did you do
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Humboldtcalikidd said:
For microb life what did you do
Click to expand...
Just microbe teas, I'd throw anything organic I figure would have high microbial life in a bucket with molasses and aerate it.

Usually put Worm castings, biochar, compost, manure, sea weed extract, bat guano or anything else along those lines. Whatever I have around really. I know cannabis prefers fungally dominated microbes so I add mycorrhizae to the tea as well. If you can get fungally dominated compost It's supposed to be really good as well.

I also put the BTI in there as well, I figured the bacteria in the BTI would also multiply in the tea - maybe someone in here knows if this is true or not.
 
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