fungus gnats - next level assistance

[Leafmite]

I know how you feel. We had clouds of these things! We tried to get rid of them but they kept reappearing. My family was very unhappy with my plants and they knew the bugs were NOT fruitflies. Rosie, here on this forum, recommended them and when I saw them at an orchid show, I bought one. Now we might see one or two but they are usually stuck to the leaves of the butterwort.

[Joseia]

I've used Gnatrol for years successfully, a BT powder you can mix with water and drench the plant pots. You need to soak all the orchid pots and heavily water houseplants with the BT/water mix. You need to treat ALL your plants at the same time and repeat a few times over the next few weeks to break the reproduction cycle. I had fungus gnats early last spring and with repeated treatments during the spring, I haven't seen one since last May. I also use the sticky traps to monitor insect populations. I've thought about carnivorous plants, but I don't really think I have enough bugs to really justify giving up the counter space for another plant.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by mrphilips

i brought a wee sundew home from muskoka last summer - they grow along the river's edge at my parent's cottage. this variety is beautiful, but tiny and needs intense humidty - couldn't keep it alive after the fall either. maybe it's an annual.

Unlikely that humidity was the issue. I have tropical varieties and they handle my 30% or less winter RH just fine. Most dews require:

• a lot of sun or dew production stops
• low mineral water (so use rain or RO or distilled)
• moist (not necessarily wet) soil
• media that contains no fertilizer

It is possible that it was an annual ... quite a few of the northern species are. Even it if wasn't, a dormancy would have been necessary for any of the far north varieties.



Mosquito dunks work quite well though they are not an instant fix -- generally takes a week or two. You can find them at any home improvement store like Lowes or HomeDepot.

• Take a 1/4 of a dunk "donut" and put it in a gallon (3.8L)jug, fill with water, and let sit overnight or longer.
• Water your plants with the water but leave the dunk chunk in the jug and refill with water. (You can reuse it many times over until it disintegrates.)

[JKeys]

I put some apple cider vinegar, fruit juice or wine (the sweeter the better) inside a little clear plastic cup, just a little less than an inch. It just needs a drop of soap, which breaks the surface tension of the liquid. I put plastic wrap over the top and secured it with a rubber band. Then I poked a hole in the top with a pencil and widened it a little, until is was about a centimeter across. In just a couple days, there were dead fungus gnats in the cups and none on my orchids. Some fermentation process attracts them to the cups. I found this somewhere online and it worked very well.

[mrphilips]

thanks for all the input guys!
you are all so kind to help.

bunch of responses:

things i have tried:
1 - cinnamon and chamomile tea to kill the fungus and strave the wee bebies - worked, but not completely.
have been repeating a lot over the last three months
2 - sticky tape - no joy
3 - vinegar traps - no joy. a few went in, but the neighborhood filled up again shortly after.


things i will try:
1 - sticky yellow paper things
2 - gnatrol, mosquito dip, malathion or sulpher powder - will try one of them (except sulpher cause i have an allergy). i did not find gnatrol anywhere i looked, but didn't go to an actual nursery. if canadian tire or home depot don't have mosquito dip, i'll head to the nursery
3 - more carnivorous plants cause hey, they're plants and they're cool. i just bought some cape sundew seeds online and may try to find the butterwort as well.

also in regards to my wee sticky friend i tried to cultivate - i probably killed it:
1 - not enough light (i thought he got to hot so i moved him, he subsequently died)
2 - not rain water
3 - i fertilized him... i was trying to help!

i will try to not kill another specimen this summer but i won't see them for another two months or so

[dounoharm]

a few suggestions: anytime you have a problem with one plant, it is probably on the others, treat ALL plants in your whole house at one time!....also, most any treatment will have to be reapplied in two week intervals in order to kill newly hatched eggs and larvae....just do it! mostly it takes 3-5 applications....whatever chemical or concoction you use, add a bit of dish soap to it, or, my favorite, an insecticidal soap...the soap acts as a 'spreader-sticker', helping the good chemical stay put on the plant leaves longer....I use seven liquid or a systemic, mixed with insecticidal soap for most problems....you can always use the insecticidal soap alone which works pretty good for common insects like aphids or gnats....gnats like a moist soil that is breaking down, so maybe you should just repot everything....good luck!

[mrphilips]

i have to re-pot everything... it's just that time for some and lots of bugs in the other, i was just planning on doing it in may.
i'll just ramp it up i guess!
i may try to kill it all off first and re-pot without risking re-contamination.

thanks for the advice with the soap!

[vjo]

These little gnats are very annoying but they will not hurt your plants....Jean

[mrphilips]

i was under the impression that the larvae ate not only the fungus in the soil, but the tiny white heairs from the roots and therefore would eventually kill your plants.
i also though that in some cases there was a symbiotic relationship and that the roots need some of the fungus to live.

i could be wrong, i've read so many things abiout them now i have brain jelly

[Paul]

Just to make your search somewhat easier ... mosquito dunks look like this:

Shop Mosquito Dunks 6-Pack Mosquito Dunks at Lowes.com