Glad I found this thread Thought I just had nats but looks like the case is fungus Gnats after reading this. I had a small fungus issue at the beginning of my last grow that I guess stuck around. Im assuming you shouldnt use h2o2 with clones or seedings in soil..
time to revive this thread. I hijacked this from another site that i found this info. And almost every single person that tried this said it worked. This guy used his Iron for Ironing clothes, and steamed the upper layer of soil. Needless to say it destroyed all of them Hey everyone.....I posted this in my journal, as well in organics...but I think I will save people a lot of stress with what I found out....please rate and star this posting!!!! It seriously works.....for further details or to check my current grow...please visit the link below... I have had a running battle with fungus gnats that infected one of my plant's soils and layed hundreds if not thousands of eggs. When I first spotted the fungus gnats, I saw that there was only 3 to 5 adult ones that somehow had gotten into my house, and into my grow tent. I immediately killed all the flying ones with the hand clap method...lol and hung up yellow sticky sheets. I also hit the plants with a leaf bath of Neem oil...(learned a noob mistake of not to do this with HID lights on...burned the hell out of my leaves, but they eventually survived) I also at that time did a Bti (mosquito dunk) and neem soil soak and thought that would have done the trick. About 2-3 weeks went by and I noticed one of my plants, my Chemband, was having very weird growing leaves...almost looked like heat burn but different...no discoloration, but very wrinkly distorted looking leaves. I checked soil ph, and eveything was good...right in the 6.6 zone so I knew it wasn't a nutrient issue, plus I am giving them a full regiment of macro and micro nutrients so I knew that this was not the case. Upon watering them that week I discovered, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fungus gnats infesting the soil of my Chemband plant...no others were effected, just the one with the wrinkled, distorted leaves. Wow, I thought, these little larvae must be having there last supper on my roots...what to do now...After further frustration, reading and research I decided to up the strength of the treatments but still stearing clear of chemical pesticides, I really wanted to stay organic. I picked up some Safer End All spray, based of pyrethium and neem, and started cultivating the top 1" of my soil, with each turn uncovering hundreds of little white/silvery larvae!!!! I began directly spraying the soil with the safer making sure the top 1" was completely saturated in END ALL. It didn't seem that this was directly killing them either. I followed up with another soil soak of Neem, mixed in some END ALL, and also a 1/2 of a mosquito dunk....with my hopes up... Next day...still more fungus gnats....maybe my spraying wiped out 20% of them, but they were still all over my soil......time for stronger products...I went out and bought a single use application of AZAMAX and also one of Azatrol. I mixed up another soil drench of both AZAMax, AZAtrol, neem oil, mosquito dunk and drenched the soil. After waiting a few hours, decided to cultivate the top of the soil again, Still more fungus gnats!!!!! I mixed the same mixture of Azamax, Azatrol, Neem, mosquito dunk and also added some End All and began to "spot treat" the soil. With each turn of the soil, I would directly spray the little buggers and they didn't seem to like it, but it wasn't killing them either....very discouraging...!!!!! At this point I was searching all over the web for solutions, but nobody really had a dead set way of killing them (besides harsh chemical pesticides). Then I came acrossed one post on a gardening forum, that said that near boiling, hot water will instantly kill them. I thought about what this would do to my microbes in my soil, as well as the roots by just dumping on boiling hot water on my soil....not going to try it.....but then.......last night while pretty medicated....I thought of a solution.....I have a steamer used to iron clothes!!!!! This thing gets really damn hot and I thought it might work... This morning...pulled out the steamer.....fired it up and .........my circut breaker popped in my apartment!!! guess I know what the system can handle...which was quite a bit, 1000W of lights, plus fans etc...a 600w computer and then whatever the steamer was pulling was just too much.....Also learned a valuable lesson about my magnetic ballast and conversion MH 400w bulb....If the power goes out...this ballast and bulb take at least 15 minutes to fire up....good thing I was home...couldn't imagine being gone and having it go out on my and not refire up....My electonic lumatec ballast though fired right back up as soon as the power was restored...looks like a replacement is due soon!!! Anyways, back to the fungus gnats..... So the steamer was going, and I started to cultivate the top 1" of soil again on my infected Chemband plant's soil....a lot less larvae from previous days so I know that my treatments of neem, bti, pyrethium and azamax seemed to work somewhat, but still there was a good 100 or more larvae still crawling around....This time, with each soil turn, I would hold the steamer to the soil for 5-10 seconds and the larvae would freeze up immediatly and die!!!!! IT worked!!!! Finally somthing safe that will not harm people, or the plant, that kills these larvae on contact!!!! I worked the entire top soil of the pot killing hundreds of these things....and it felt wonderful to finally know I had the upper hand and my plant would be saved!!!!! I would highly recommend using steam to kill these larvae instantly......I know I will have to probably do this a few times to make sure that all of them are gone...but it works!!!!!!!! Please star, flag, rate this post for everyone to learn...I would hate for someone to have this amount of struggles with these pests!!!!! Just in case anyone NEEDS to know this is where i got it. http://www.420magazine.com/forums/problems-pests-disease-control/143915-fungus-gnat-larvae-killa-can-t-believe-works.html
Steam might be a better option. I nuked mine with hydrogen peroxide and severely stunted the life in my soil, good or bad. Wouldn't recommend it. I did the sand method and it has worked fine this far. Will be getting nematodes before next transplant so that I don't destroy the life I had so patiently waited to cultivate in my soil. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I only use hydrogen peroxide to kill spider mites. Let's Smoke About It...... Sade's outdoor Bigfoot territory grow
It's aside from the problem, regardless of how many times you nuke that soil with h2o2 there will always be some larvae that survive. Only way I could see it being full proof is using a very strong solution and completely drenching the soil with ALOT. I don't really know why I suggested "steam" either a typo or the OP suggested it over the h2o2, if your going to grow in soil the best option seems to be a biological control. Sticky traps only lessen the problem, no matter how little you water they still thrive and at increasing rates, I think the best way to look at FN isn't as necessarily a pest, but a member of the soil food web that just aids in the decomposition of organic matter. The problem isn't the fungus gnat it's the absence of their biological control in the ecosystem. Along with the addition of a predator an occasional top dress of neem and crab meal(for chitin or more so the enzyme chitinase) which the larvae are not too fond of, that alone should keep their numbers down to a minimum, maybe also throw some sticky traps in their too. But to answer your question yes you can try and boost it with a ACT, but the real magic behind soil grown is the accumulation of life that thrives over cycles and cycles of undisturbed soil. You will not be able to achieve that thriving biosphere if your consistently just destroying it with h2o2. It's the reason all the big growers around here are no-till. If your not worried about a thriving biosphere than you may as well be soilless and just using bottles as that's the only full proof way to avoid soil loving "pests". But honestly I had tons of fungus gnats below my soil, I'm talking the fucking soil was moving before I got sticky traps, but the bud I produced that run I can hardly find one in the bud if I tried. There more of a problem for seedlings as they have a weaker root system, but for mature plants? Not so much, just annoying as all hell. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I'm addicted to coffee. I use ground coffee to brew tasty and very healthy coffee - so I have lots of old coffee grounds. I decided to use those old grounds instead of the "sand treatment." I've found it to be effective in preventing the gnats from crawling down into the soil and when poking around the top sections ot the coffee layer - nothing moving or flying out, and it does seem to have eliminated them from those plants. The only problem with a lot of theses methods are pots that have drainage holes. Gnats don't know up from down!
I have had those stinking gnats infest my plants , I never tried the coffee method before. I tried hydrogen Peroxide once,it was okay but would not do it again . I use the sand its a must i use it all the time now on the top and bottom of my pots. I even starting to use nematodes as a precaution found it on this site 9 Best Ways to Kill Fungus Gnats on Cannabis - Sensi Garden , I have not had an outbreak since. using the todes
Gnat are a sign you over water so..............stop over watering to start ...next........let soil dry completely before watering again