I have tiny black bugs that run along the bottom of the pot and are able to fly. They are not in overwhelming numbers, however, I am unsure as to what they are officially but I think they may be gnats. They are in small numbers as I can see but I want to keep them from breeding and causing an outbreak. What is the best method to stop these? Hanging sticky traps? or what?
Hi. Sounds like Fungus Gnats. Put up some blue sticky pest strips for the flying adults (they luv blue). Lay down a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of clean sand on toppa the soil, making sure to cover the base of the plant. Leave it there for 3 dayz. It will suffocate the larvae, and youre good to go. Freak
I have gnats from time to time, they seem to love my fresh transplats from clone to small pot since the small pots dont totaly dry out very quickly because the plant isnt using most of the space (and h2o) yet. I started using less water on the new guys and the gnats have almost completly disapeared. If you dont like sand you can also cut a "lid" out of plastic and put that around your plants and over the dirt, it keeps the eggs from ever making it to the soil. We treated a thrip invasion last year like that and it worked suprisingly well (with other tools of course). The cover will keep your problem from coming back and should be used for at least a month after your pests disappear, just to be sure.
I had some of those. Apparently the breeding cycle for them is about 10 days. I put like 18 sticky pest strips in my 2x4 foot area, and covered all the hydroton in my pots w/ sticky strips. You wanna catch as many as you can and wait a while if you're thinking of takign down the pest strips, cause more will hatch, and you wanna catch them too. I haven't tried any pesticides cause this seems to be working pretty well. Let me know if you come up w/ something that gets rid of them for good.