Ich habe diesen Sommer den Fehler gemacht, meine Pflanzen nach draußen zu stellen, und es war ein wirklich nasser Sommer. Seitdem ich sie im September ins Haus gebracht habe, kämpfe ich mit aller Kraft gegen Pilzbefall. Ich habe alle betroffenen Pflanzen in einem Raum aufbewahrt. Ich verwende derzeit: – zweimal pro Woche eine 1:3-Wasserstoffperoxid-Mischung – verwende Klebefallen, die ich mindestens einmal pro Woche wechsle
^ Trotzdem sehe ich, dass immer noch Tonnen herumfliegen.
Was kann ich sonst noch tun? Ist das ein Kampf, den ich nicht gewinnen werde? Ich fühle mich im Moment total von ihnen besiegt.
Von: Old_Worry9510
22 Comments
BioAdvance houseplant insect killer and get yourself a couple Zevo. This worked perfectly for me. FYI I don’t have kids nor pets near my plants. Zevo off-brand refills are cheap on Amazon.
Try bottom watering! They don’t lay eggs if the top of the soil is dry.
DE on the soil helps kill the larvae who can’t get through it and live. Traps for the live ones, and yes, they are annoying as ever.
I have used mosquito bits and made a tea with it. Do that a couple times along with those traps. Works well.
Generally your soil doesn’t drain well enough, if you’re getting fungus gnats. Depends on what you’re growing though.
Micro-lift bmc. Best stuff you can get for Gnat control. It’s the same bacteria as mosquito dunks or bits, but it’s in liquid suspension, so you don’t have to prep it. Just add 1 to 2 drops per gallon of water, make sure to use filtered water, or use a declorinator product like a fish tank water conditioner. Chlorine kills the bacteria, making the product useless. This applies to mosquito bits and dunks as well.
I’ve managed to get rid of them a few times before by spraying liberally (including/especially the soil) with pyrethrum. It’s naturally derived from flowers and is safe to use on something you’d later want to harvest for food. Give it a shot.
If that’s no good, I’ve heard from others (haven’t tried myself) that a thick layer of diatomaceous earth on top of the soil works too as all the little diatom fossils slice up the larvae and the flies die out within a couple of weeks. Best to use gloves and try not to breathe it in when applying, imagine it’s a bag of microscopic razer blades.
Others still have recommended some kinds of nematodes that naturally prey on the larvae and wipe them out but I wasn’t able to find anything in shops locally so I’m not really sure.
Good luck!
Peppermint essential oil spray definitely got rid of my gnats
I used mosquito dunks and it got rid of them completely in a few weeks. You crumble one (may even have used half) into water, leave them to soak overnight, then water your plants with that water.
Keep using the sticky traps to monitor the amount of gnats. You’ll notice they start to reduce.
I’ve also heard nematodes work really well, but didn’t need them in the end.
Isolate the infected plants then water with a mixture of water/hydrogen-peroxide and let potting mix dry before re-watering.
Could also repot the plant if it’s small and you have clean potting mix – still recommend isolating afterwards to make sure there aren’t any lingering eggs.
There are lots of options to manage gnats.
1. Water less
2. Water with BTI, like gnatrol or mosquito bits
3. Diatomaceous earth on top soil
4. Nematodes
I had a really bad infestation last year. I tried neem oil, regular insecticide, nematodes, H2O2, sticky traps, and the UV trap, all to very little effect. Despite them catching or killing tons of the gnats, there were so many that they just couldn’t keep up.
I went to the mosquito dunks which finally worked. The problem with the dunks is that they are so granular that when you break them apart and drop them in water, they just fall apart. Then if they land in the soil they can further mold. I tried a few different ways of filtering them including using coffee filters but they either didn’t filter very well, or in the case of the coffee filters, just clogged very quickly, making the juice not worth the squeeze.
Then someone on one of these posts recommended this: [Amazon.com: MICROBE-LIFT BMC2 Biological Mosquito Control, Liquid Treatment for Decorative Water Gardens, Fountains and Ponds, 2 Fl Oz : Patio, Lawn & Garden](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007UTE55A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) and I haven’t looked back. While the dunks eliminated probably 98% of the gnats, since switching to this, I simply have not seen any at all. Furthermore, using it couldn’t be simpler. I just add a couple of drops to a gallon of water, and away I go.
As far as it’s safety to use around crops, I can’t tell you definitively, but while the label gives all kinds of warnings for full-strength skin contact, it also says “Microbe Lift/BMC can be applied to areas that contain aquatic life, fish and plants. Micro-Lift/BMC can be applied to areas used by or in contact with humans, animals, horses, livestock, pets, birds, or wildlife.” You’d for sure want to do further research.
Let the soil dry out fully and then only bottom feed. That soil looks soaking wet.
I have had two infestations now. The first one, I tried for months and ended up needing to throw away my plants.
My most recent infestation, I tried literally everything – hydrogen peroxide, mosquito bit tea, mosquito bits on top soil, sticky traps, insecticidal soap, etc. Nothing worked, so I went nuclear and finally got rid of them for good.
I did some research on the best soil mixes for each plant, and got new everything, because I suspected that the gnat eggs may have been in my Miracle Grow soil. I used some combo of lava rocks, perlite, orchid bark, and potting or cactus soil. I made sure to rinse everything and I baked the soil to kill any possible eggs. I removed all my plants from their pots, dumped the soil, and thoroughly rinse don’t the roots to ensure no soil was left before reporting. I topped the soil of each plant with a thick layer or perlite and added new sticky traps to each plant. They’ve now been fully gone for a month.
It was expensive and time consuming, but honestly I spent way more money and time trying to get rid of them with all the other stuff I tried so this was worth it in the end.
easiest way to actually get rid of them is just stop watering. the top layer of soil needs to get dry. they cant lay eggs and survive if the top layer is dry. its really that simple. i fought them once. never again after just not watering for a while
Quarantine. Remove the pest ridden one while you treat.
Definitely try nematodes if they are an option, they worked really well for me.
Dunks and more traps
Beneficial nematodes! My husband threatened to throw all of my plants away because they got so bad. Used the nematodes, the traps, and the zevo light and they were gone in less than a week. I treat all of my plants with nematodes every 6 months now just to be safe. I order this brand from Amazon [natures good guys](https://a.co/d/5iMHl9Z)
Easy fix: put a layer of sand (~1/2”) on top of all exposed soil. (A bag of “play sand” like for kid’s sandboxes does not contain asbestos and can be found at hardware stores like Home Depot.) Your gnat problem will vanish quickly as sand is too dry for gnat eggs to stay moist enough to hatch. Water carefully as usual and move sand to cover any soil that gets exposed again. I bring geraniums and succulents inside every autumn and this is my go-to method for a gnat free home. 🪴
Had a similar outbreak to you, perhaps worse. Nothing but those traps and covering the soil worked for me.
It takes a while, but they’ll slowly reduce in number as they get caught. Each and every pot with one trap, watering from the bottom.
Covering the top layer of soil with perlite, or some other grainy substrate, helps stop them reproducing. It doesn’t need a thick layer, just enough to cover the soil. Perlite looks pretty… until it’s watered from the top, then it goes yellow.
I assume they land on the perlite, see it as an unviable way of entry, flying around instead. Some will get through the gaps of course.
Good luck! 🙂
Get a plastic cup, put half apple cider vinegar in, half water, and a few drops of dish soap, you don’t need more than a few tablespoons of acv and water, then put a piece of plastic wrap over the top and stab it with a pen. They’ll want to crawl in to eat the “fruit” and the soap lowers the surface tension so they can’t stand on the water and it’ll drown them.