Mutant Fungus Gnats

Hey man, I'm an arch enemy of fungus gnats - I hate the bastards and will do whatever I can to kill momma, poppa, and babies .

The neem should have absolutely worked. I can't vouch for the neem you purchased but I can vouch for the Ahisma product - it's pure and its fresh and it works like a charm for moi. and it is deadly for the larvae.

Here's something else to think about; prevention. How cognizant are you about keeping your grow room closed up and/or how sensitive are you to entering your grow esp after being outdoors and before a proper shakedown to ensure none of the little bastards are riding on your clothes to get in? Fungus gnats are everywere including 5-star restaraunts, the grocery store, and your kitchen. They're just simply everywhere. Yes there are a few different flavors of Sciaridae but the neem specifically should work the same on any of the different species. What you are gunning for is the larva. Pretty much forget about the adults because they are gonna die in ~10 days. They are for sure a nuiscance. But the larva are the ones doing the damage to your plants as they are consuming any organic matter in the soil and are possibly feeding on tiny root hairs. So, the larva are the ones to attack to prevent a recurrence.

Stick with the neem. Take two tbsp of the neem cake and dissolve it in about 8 oz of water. Extract the fluid and mix 50/50 with plain water. Use this as your drench the next time you need to water. You've dicussed letting the medium dry out and that's an excellent practice as well but you - have - to - kill - the - larvae. The azadirachtin in the neem should kill them. I can only vouch for Ahisma brand neem. IDK about any other lable although I seem to recall that India is supplying pretty much the whole world with neem products. The tree only grows in certain parts of the world. Anyway, try those things and whereas it surely a nuiscance, prevention is key, and neem is absolutely required in the organic kit bag.

Good luck and rest assured you are not alone with your battles with fungus gnats. They're bastards every single one of 'em. They all must die!

 

You're so mean, trying to eradicate the species...*lol*

Good luck man. Listen to Possum. He knows.

jerry.

 

LOL... fuck a fungus gnat and his brood

There used to be a really, really, really nice fellar that posted in The City that went by the handle LumperDawgZ. He was a really nice guy that LumperDawgZ. Anyway, I give credit where credit is due and this fellar LumperDawgZ told me specifically and The City at large about neem and karanja cake about 2 yrs ago I reckon. I "listened" intently to the advice he offered, followed up on it, and I've never, ever, had a problem with gnats since. Oh, they're there occasionally and when you see one you already have an infestation, but neem cake used properly will kill the little bastids and keep everything in check.

So, I'm a parrot in this instance . Any knowledge of neem or karanja as an ammendment to our organic grows IMO the credit goes to this nom de guerre LumperDawgZ IMO. But thnaks for the props man! Muchas gracias

When I get good advice I keep it, share it, and use it! Hope everyone else does the same. Free the fucking Weed Guvnor.... please

 

I'm not confident enough in my depth of knowledge on the subject(s). LD just posted in the last few days in another thread that if given the choice of two he'd take karanja but for reasons not specific to gnat control. Besides insecticidal properties neem has many other benefits as a plant nutrient AND a soil ammendment, as well as properties essential to metabolism and healthy physiological processes. Karanja fits into the non-insecticidal properties but offers all of the others plus a few extra if I recall correctly. Anyway, find his post about karnaja. I think he explains it pretty well.

The gnats will find their way into your house and ultimately your grow space. They have an innate ability to find soil organic matter or just plain organic matter in your kitchen. Rest assured fungus gnats are the absolute bane of restaraunts as well as greenhouse growers and closet MJ growers. The fuckers are just everywhere. Prevention is key to every kind of grow room problem but for fungus gnats unless your room is sealed and you walk through a vacumn sucker thingy before you go into your room your probably gonna see a fungus gnat at some point. That is where the neem kicks ass above and beyond. The actual property in the neem is azadiachtrin (SP) and it is organically unique to neem. As for your mosquito dunks, if they do not contain bacillus thurengitist Israelis (sp) they probably aren't working for you.

Don't let fungus gnats drive your decision on containers. It's either/or, better/best. The results will come as a result of us doing our jobs properly and not so much which container one uses. Just get a plan for the fungus gnats in place. That's it really. They're gonna come one way or the other.

 

Not good rick.

 

sticky traps are wonderful and i used them all the time, before getting some neem. They help to break the reproductive cycle big time.

 

My suggestion.

Or pans of sugar water in the grow room, they seem to really excel at drowning . We had some cousins of your mutant gnats a few years back on/in the soil of every house plant we have. (around 20 ) and after trying various neem products, and almost every other thing you've tried, found that we had to put them all in the garage overnight the night of our first frost with the garage door (the the outside) cracked. It got cold enough to kill their klan off slowly, and I believe we only lost one cactus.
I realize you can't do this to your ladies though. Just wanted to tell you that we found it very hard to kill them off too.
The eggs were in a bag of vermiculite we got at home depot, those big box fuckers. we had replanted literally every plant in our house in the spring time, and a plague, as you called it, began within our home. Damn near thought of all the little fuckers as pets by the end of the infestation.

 

Try Liquid Ladybug to kill the adults and SNS-217 to kill the eggs.

 

I don't know if this will help, but I was talking to someone at Arbico Organics about the beneficial nematodes and they said that they need to be used within 10 days. Since they're an online company I assume they're not stocking the product, but getting it directly from the manufacturer. I wonder how long the beneficial nematodes had been sitting on the shelf at your local hydro shop and if they were still viable? Or, did you possibly get the wrong species?

You would want the Steinernema feltiae
Beneficial nematodes control soil dwelling garden and lawn pests

Personally, I think the neem is the way to go. I see no reason why you couldn't do the sand or soil drenches to your finishing plants. It's not like applying anything to the buds directly.

Lastly, I would continue the fly traps, if only so there's fewer flies to pick out of your sticky buds when you go to harvest.

Good luck, you have my sympathy on this one.

You may want to consider stopping your perpetual harvest and clearing out the room. It sucks, but it would give you a chance to really get things under control and start fresh. It's hard to keep fighting something that has such a stronghold in your garden.

 

Maybe I've been just lucky. I definetly have fungus gnats, but not to any extent - they simply dont seem to bother me. There could be a half dozen flying around the soil - especially when disturbed, but thats as far as they seem to go.

I'm sorry to hear that you have so many. The few that I have, and have had around for years now have never "infested". There just seems to always be those few and thats it.

maybe you need the Good Stuff - the good neem that comes from here -

Neem, Neem Oil, Karanja Oil, Neem & Karanja products

I'm no neem pro, but from what I understand - this is the Real Deal.

Good luck man.

jerry.

 

azamax is a great product. because of it i have been spider mite, thrip, whitefly, and any other "leafy" insect free for two years.

azamax isnt very good to use as a soil drench, because of the petroleum extracts they add to it. i personally havnt seen effective results using it to fight fungus gnats, either.

fungus gnats are more of a nuisance than they are a destructive pest. if numbers get out of control, they can really harm you. the flies arent the harmful ones to your crop - its their larvae. fungus gnat larvae eat roots.

i have also used cups of sugar and vinegar to catch the bastids, no success. i find this method is more of an old wives tale than an effective way to go about catching them. if you really want to kill them, pour bleach down all your drains, because the gnats nest in the drains + get killed by the bleach.

one way to control the populations of gnats is to let your soil dry out more in between waterings. the soft bodied larvae have a tough time survivng in the dry, rugged soil. it wont kill them, but it helps on keeping their numbers lower.

as possuum stated, Bacillus thuringensis is a great way to control fungus gnats. Gnatrol is a product that contains this bacteria. the BT bacteria not only kills fungus gnats but also affects mosquitos and blackflies. after 2 applications it will kill any bugs in your soil. the key to killing all of them is getting the flyers too.

one product i use and swear by is BotaniGuard ES. Botaniguard is a beneficial, insect eating fungi. Beauveria bassiana gets on the exoskeleton of the bugs (i guess soft bodied bugs dont have them...idk you get what i mean) and grows on their skin, eating them alive. this fungi gives them the White Muscardine Disease, and they eventually die.
the fungi can get stuck all over their body, and if they come in contact with eachother, theres a pretty good chance the disease free bug will be infected.

here are two grasshoppers killed by B. bassiana.

Beauveria bassiana is very similar to Cordyceps bassiana, which i believe causes green muscardine disease. Cordyceps bassiana actually grows in ants brains, and effects certain pheremones. the ant becomes almost delusional; it climbs to the top of a plant, clamps down on a spot, and rests there forever. the fungi than devours the ants brain and it starts to grow out of it.



Metarhizium anisopliae also is a similar fungi which causes the green muscardine disease.

this predator fungi method is organic, interesting, and my favorite way to manage pests.

hope all goes well friend!

 

Sounds like a severe problem. While you are using a large variety of methods one thing i have noticed was your general grow room environment. Your humidity is way too high and you need more exhaust out of your tent. I made a tent from panda plastic as well and it insulates moisture very well. If you supply them with such a great home they'll go nuts despite what you use to fight them. I'd just ride this run out then purge your room and "sterilize" your next soil mix with preventative measures like neem cake etc. Then get that humidity below 50

 

A few comments. ahimsa's bundle is something like 150$ for 2 gallons of oils and 10lbs of cake. I'm using the cake it kicks all the other neem products out of the rink. unlike all other neem products, It's concentration is toxic, not merely repellant. This from my recent experience. So do youself a favor and buy that.

secondly I've used sns 217. DONT COUNT ON IT. weak stuff, and 20$ only get's one application. WEAK!!!!! i'm sure it works if you want to spend 200$ and burn through it within a few weeks, but for killing gnats, I'd rather do a DIY SNS aka fermented plant extract. Same goes for azamax. just overrated and overpriced. IDK maybe it's better for hydro but in my experience it doesn't kill gnats or mites. Whatever.

two more things. The sugar water does not kill gnats. it attracts them and I place a 16 oz tray of heated water with 3 tbs sugar (mixed) near the intake. The gnats seem to smell it this way and go right for it, Now you need to add a non-scented (or sweet scented) soap- the foam kill them replace foam every 2-3 days. Trust me they dive right in and if you get a handle on the adults it will help majorly. I also use a handvac to catch the ones in the air

lastly letting your medium dry out is a good idea but somewhat impractical since we water from the top. Well gnats like living in the upper few inches of the soil, so just flood your tray (say 1'' of water for 4'' pot's) to water your plants this way.

Anyhoe hope i didn't repeat any one. aight later.

 

yeah keep on truckin. good to know the quikrete sand nd takedown works well...
the neem cake works really well when you mix in the top soil. It can also be brewed as an ACT but DAMN it stinks after a day when you go that way... I've heard it's the sulfur.
I think nematodes are legit, they should be refrigerated, and getting them to release into the media from the sponge via an ACT is key. I don't know. but you'll know they're working when there are no gnats for several weeks (the larva seem to live that long). unfortunately they'll die when the gnats and other soil insects are all gone, but i don't see anyone adding more soil bugs to keep their nematodes alive.

anyhow, happy murdering! catch ya around ricky anny.