What to do about gnats / flies....
 

I have a few orchids in my living room and I recently noticed a problem with gnats flying around my house.

Does anyone have this problem? What would you suggest I do?

About 3 weeks ago I sprayed my plants with horticultural soap, and most of them faired well but one of my phals didn't like it very much. The gnats went away for a little while, but now they are back.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.:scratchhead:

I had them too, tried everything, the only thing that worked well was repeat application of dish washing liquid, every two weeks for 4 applications.

I might be wrong and the others might correct me but I just added the detergent with my normal dose of fert every two weeks.

I added 10 drops for every 2.5 gallon or ten litres.

The soap suffocates the adult and the baby worm thingy but doesn't kill the eggs.

I would use the horticultural soap (expensive :(( )again or just use household dishwasher detergent (cheap :) ).

I am told it needs this every two weeks to break the egg - baby - adult fly cycle.

So I watered every two weeks with the stuff and they are gone after 2 watering but I kept going to make sure for two more for a total of 8 weeks.

For maintenance

My water application is 3 weekly watering with fert then 1 week of just a deep water flush to get rid of salts.

I now use 5 drops per 2.5 gallons to the fert on the week before the deep flushing of just water.

Dish soap has always worked well for me, also repotting.

Another thing that will help
 

Is those yellow sticky pads.

Just have a quick second before I leave for work, but wanted to take you a second to let you know what I did to fix my fungus gnat problem. There is a product called Gnatrol that you can get. I googled it quick and came up with this website, though I think witha little digging you can find a smaller cheaper jar of it. I picked up a pint sized jar last fall off ebay for about $8. This one on this site seemed a bit large and pricey to me. Would def cut into my orchid budget :).....anyhoo, here is the link and happy hunting. Oh and its safe for the orchids. Gnatrol Fungus Gnat Control

The yellow sticky pads work wonders...it traps them and the adults can no longer create any offspring. Certainly cuts down on the population ;)

You can use any type of yellow item to make one of your own...yellow plant tags smeared with Vaseline (petroleum jelly), yellow plastic plates and yellow plastic cups can be cut down to create them too. The yellow attracts them and the Vaseline traps them.

That's very cool! ;) Thanks Susanne. I recently started bringing my blooming plants inside the house and I noticed the little fly/gnat thingies in the house, too. so I figured it's something in the plants (I suspect the ones potted in moss). I don't plan to repot the bloomers so I am going to try the yellow/vaseline cure. :biggrin:

I too just had an outbreak in the last month. I hung the sticky ribbons (97 cents -Walmart, the type you pull out of the cardboard tube) and have been catching all the adults. I havent been seeing any lately.

Out of curiosity, i just checked the ribbons...about a hundred on one, and approx. 50 on the other.

Unfortunately, i have quite a few phrags that have wet medium all the time. Perfect for fungus gnats.

Be sure to keep those strips up for at least a couple months till all the larvae reach adulthood and find the strips. I replaced mine after a month to see if any news flies hit them and got maybe 2-3 flies. That's how you know your close to eradication. They didn't come back in my orchidarium after this.

About Dish Soap
 

How much dish soap to a small spray bottle and how often. Thanks for any help.

sticky traps and mosquito dunks added to some water and use it to water some

I have used mosquito bits in the potting mix and within one week they were totally gone...however, I'm converting to S/H and the substance in the "bit" looks like cork/bark.
I am concerned to put this in the Prime-Agra and not sure it's even necessary.
Has anyone used these mosquito bits with S/H?

i have not but I think you could put them in a container of water and use the water in s/h after straining out the bits....