I've had this problem with these little black flies for quite a while now. They remind me of fruit flies. They seem to like the dirt that my plants are potted in. They don't seem to cause any problems, but I can't be sure. i can control them pretty well using fly paper, but I'm curious to know what they are. if anyone knows, I'd appreciate if you'd share with me . Thanks.
Looks like gnats Those are common and obviously the fly paper is working...I use fly paper in my cabinet as well, but I've only seen like 3 gnats in my cabinet... That is alot of gnats on that fly paper I would also cut strips of the fly paper and lay it on top of your soil, to catch the "walking" ones that are actually on your soil too...don't water the plants with the paper still there tho
I know it sounds odd, but if you can keep the top of the soil dry, they will disappear. I tended to get them when the humidity went up and the top of the soil was always damp. Dropped humidity and water more deeply and they went away. And as far as I could tell, they were harmless, just annoying.
Thanks alot for the advice and for confirming what i thought that they were just a nuisance. I had let them go for quite a while and i think that's probably why i had so many. I'll try the strips of fly paper on the soil and I'll see what i can do about the moisture and humidity. Peace........Duff
Fungus gnats are bastards. I fight them all the time and if you don't win the battle the larvae eat the roots of your plant. I know they look harmless enough, but they come straight from Hell, trust me. Letting the soil dry out is good advice, but not enough on it's own imho. Do a search, there are loads of other techniques for ridding your grow of the fuckers. Heed the warning man!