I've been having trouble with fungus gnats lately. I've sprinkled neem on top and then tried mosquito dunks crushed and sprinkled on top also. Its either not working or I'm using them wrong. I was thinking if I cover my soil with newspapers it would get rid of them?
Don't use the news paper it has ink and it's not organic. I use a neem and karanja at 4 Table spoons for 2 1/2 gal of water. Apply once a week for at least 3 weeks. That should break their reproductive cycle. Works for me.
I thought the ink is made from soy and newspapers are made from trees? I just got a worm farm and read about using newspapers as bedding so I figured it should be ok. Do you have any experience with mosquito dunks? It takes a few weeks to work, I'm wondering if I sprinkled enough on my soil.
Sprinkle it in water and let it soak overnight. Then water your plants. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
a fan blowing across the surface of the soil will get rid of them better then anything (and ive tried everything). gnats are pretty shitty fliers, a little wind and they will be gone.
The one absolute all organic, set it and forget, gnat repellent is by far Gnatnix. Completely reusable, cost effective, and amazing results.
When using Bt i, the active ingredient in mosquito dunks, it will only kill the larva, but not the flying gnats. Bt i is a larvicide and only works on the larva in the soil, not the flying insects. Yellow sticky traps will get rid of the flyers. A simpler product to use than the dunks is Gnatrol (Bt i) it is liquid and is mixed into the irrigation water and is a higher concentration of active ingredient than the dunks, it is cheap and comes in water soluble granules or liquid form. IPM sprays using Spinosad will also control the flyers. http://www.amazon.com/Valent-Gnatrol-WDG/dp/B003E7... http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-oz-28g-Gnatrol-OMRI-sele... PW
Ill try the dunks in water again and spinkle more on top of my soil. Then set my fan to blow on the soil and see how it works. Does BT multiply after its been in the soil, considering theres a food source? Ive never seen so many gnats in one spot before. I can even vacuum them with my exhaust lol. My soil must be heaven to them.
You're right. Just stay away from colored "circulars". The black and white should be perfectly fine. J It will also give them some reading material. Edit - I stand corrected - it appears even the colored ink is just fine. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-11-11/news...
Lol……short term relationship, exactly what I'm looking for with deez gnats. I will be fermenting them real soon hopefully.
You need to change your watering practices. You have gnats because of frequent shallow watering and soggy soil on the surface of the pots. PW
Thanks for catching that, posting too early in the morning //static.grscty.com//public/style_emoticons/default/eek.gif I listed the wrong subspecies. Gnatrol is Bti, I will edit and correct the above post. Bti is for gnat larvae and Btk is used for caterpillar larvae PW
there is a company called microbe lift that sells a liquid concentrate BT. I would recommend this you treat the reservoir water with it and it's good till you use it all. Never have problems with gnats over here using this. And also allowing a proper wet and dry cycle for your medium will help too.
Thats whats happening. Do you think spot watering would do me better? I'm using a soil bed, I've been thinking about watering in the same spots and hopefully the soil will wick up the water to the other areas not being watered on. I've never tried it.
I've stuck a layer of newspaper on top of my soil, then tore a little hole to put in some sticky traps and it has knocked most of the adults out. Hundreds of them are stuck to the cards, theres very few of them flying around now. I think the ones flying around are the larvae that made it. If things work like they should, the BT from the dunks should take care of the larvae and within a few weeks of keeping the top soil dry they should be gone. Yes, I'm not in the spot to do a SIP right now though. I like the idea, its like hempy buckets. You'd still have to water in the top for your amendments and compost to soak in. I have been using a sprayer to moisten my top soil so the amendments will soak in. Thats why I had the outbreak in gnats. Dont know what I was thinking.
Just an update for anyone thats interested. Its been about 2 months and I haven't seen a gnat in several weeks. All I did was let the mosquito dunks sit in a bucket of water over night and watered it in. I got a few sticky traps and the adults all flew to them like hot cakes. At least 1000 of them. Newly hatched ones walk to them also. A few weeks later and they were all gone. Cost $15 and I only used half the mosquito dunks.