Fungus Gnat Puns

Just wanted to vent before I set off a bug bomb

Hello! I have a bit of a problem. I put off the fungus gnat issue for too long and now it’s getting unbearable… How do I treat it? I purchased the neem oil and gnat traps… Is that all that needs to be done? Or am I missing something..? Please share! Thank you!!

Since this summer i've been struggling with getting rid of fungus gnats. I first used these yellow glue stickers and put my plants on a starvation diet (one didn't get water for 3 months and still has a big infestation). Then I was told that nematodes magically fix the issue, so I tried using those, but that also hasn't been a success. The nematodes need water to survive, but so do the fungus gnats which I want to kill, and I can't give my succulents regular water treatments because it's winter and they'll get root rot, which is something fungus gnats like. At the moment they're back on the (ineffective) starvation diet (some succulents have succumbed to dehydration already), and I wrapped obviously infested plants in foil, but I doubt it will work, because I haven't scraped the first layer of soil away as it's winter and because some plants would be left with too little soil to live on.

I am now considering the use of ant venom, however I have some more expensive plants going on and i'm scared they'll get damaged. For some of my plants I am also considering to throw them away in spring, and propagate whatever I can salvage, but I can't do that with all of my plants.

So in conclusion, send help.

Edit: Thank you everyone for the lovely advice! A lot of you recommend the mosquito dunks, the suspicious white powder, hydrogen peroxide, repotting and so on, guess I'll try to find a financially and time efficient combination of all these suggestions to continue my war against terrorism gnats. I hope I'll never have to need to revisit this post and that i'll be gnat free soon :)

Hi all,

I recently started seeing fungus gnats on the soil. I had a feeling when I saw a couple flying around in my room.

I think they started appearing ever since I scrog my plant which completely covered the soil in shade so they dry out slower. The plants aren’t overwatered tho as I’m also giving them an extra day to fully dry.

I just covered the soil with Diatomaceous Earth earlier this morning.

I think it will help if I can somehow dry the soil better. I’m thinking of getting some Coarse Sand Stone/Pebbles and cover the soil. Does anyone know if they help and if its safe for the soil/plant?

Thanks!

My houseplants became infested with fungus gnats over a month ago and I still can’t get rid of the gnats completely. I have a ton of plants and my apartment is only one room (it’s very small) so when I water a plant, fungus gnats automatically appear. It’s also constantly very moist in here because I have so many plants. I spray neem oil, pesticide soap, and fungicide about once a week and I have a dehumidifier. I also use a gnat zapper trap and I have the yellow sticky traps everywhere. AND I water my plants less than I should to try and kill the gnat larvae but I cannot get rid of them. I just bought nematodes and a sand soil cover so we will see. What worked for you guys? I need help

Fungus gnats hitched a ride on my new lime tree last fall and have hung around all winter. In my smaller plants, it's been easy enough to treat with mosquito-dunk tea and surface sand, but I've found it impossible to effectively saturate the 30 gallon container where I was starting some galangal rhizomes and I can't let it dry out enough to kill the gnats.

So, I've moved the galangal shoots into smaller pots for now (they're going into a raised bed in March or April) and I've taken the large planter outside to run mosquito dunk water and hydrogen peroxide through it. I thought I'd let it dry on the porch for a while and hope that the string of <20F nights we have coming up will kill any surviving larvae. Does this seem reasonable? Is there anything else I can throw at it?

To be clear: there's nothing growing in this container anymore, so no plants that could be hurt, but I would like to use the soil for other things if possible (and without reintroducing gnats).

I hate fungus gnats so much. That is all.

I had a fungus gnat outbreak months ago. However, I thought I fixed the problem because I went about 6 months without a single fungus gnat. Then today I find a lot of tiny little gnats chilling in the soil of my Ficus Elastica Tineke.

It’s been moist for some time now, but I didn’t think much of it. Now im pulling my hair out because I had it inside a cluster of 7 other plants. So naturally, my problem is located inside 7 of my plants. I don’t even know where the gnats came from.

I know they like moist soil but Im pretty good about letting the soil dry completely between watering.

I have a couple traps set up in my cluster and I’m picking up a pesticide later this week, im just annoyed that this is happening yet again.

I've used neem regularly, I have captin jacks dead bug brew I've tried using like once a week or so, I've tried sticky traps, I've tried bottom watering, I'm losing hope that I can conquer these things. They're starting to get into my food and fly in my face, there are so many.

Does anyone have any methods that have worked well for a large infestation?

I bought diatomaceous earth, I was thinking of making a mix of that and cinnamon into sand and placing a layer of it on top of all of my plants soil. Does anyone think that'll help?

I have a variety of heartleaf philodendron, golden and neon pothos and a big monstera.

But for a while now I've had quite a few fungus gnats flying around. I know they lay eggs in damp soil, so I try to let the soil dry out, but then the plants start looking sorry so I water them.

I have some yellow sticky traps which are catching quite a few but they're still a problem.

Does anyone have any good advice?

I have a lot of house plants (about 25 in a small area) and in summer i managed to get a fungus gnat infestation. Since then i have tried everything, I have left my soil to dry but that's tricky with so many plants of varying sizes. I have tried the vinegar traps but it's not enough. I have tried the diatomaceous earth trick on the top of the soil but nothing is working. The only thing that seems to put a dent in these things are those yellow sticky traps, im catching hundreds of them but they just keep coming and coming.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm honestly going to go mad!

How often do you guys water your citrus starts and how are you curbing gnats? For the first couple of months I was watering about every 3 days or until the soil was dry and my starts looked really well. Now that i’ve put them on a heating mat I water much more and having a gnat problem that I can’t really seem to stop.

I have about 30 house plants, many of which I’ve had for several years. I have a fungus gnat issue that I cannot get under control.

I have tried a thousand things. They’ve had those yellow sticky things in each pot for several months, I’ve watered them all with weak solutions of peroxide and water, I’ve use those mosquito pellet things, I’ve let them all dry out nearly to the point of death and yet the goddamned things remain.

What in hell else can I do here? They’re driving me insane. I don’t notice them around the house really, but I see them pop up into the air anytime I water my plants and I’m wondering if they are munching on the roots or all my lovely plants.

Please, anyone that has hard information and has eradicated these infuriating beasts, teach me.

So a week or two ago I noticed some fungus gnats around my succulents. I didn’t think anything of it and figured they didn’t do much harm. Fast forward to today, I realized some of my plants have wilting leaves that are definitely not due to under watering (although I try not to overwater either - I usually wait until at least 1 leaf dries up and falls off to water) and tiny little black spots on some of the leaves. Some of the leaves also turn purplish and mushy and then fall off, but there are no signs of root rot. They are all potted in 1:1 mix of cactus soil and perlite, so relatively well draining; it usually takes 1-2 weeks for the soil to dry out depending on the plant and vessel. Anyways, I bought diatomaceous earth and Jacks Insecticidal Supersoap. My plan is to spray the insecticidal all over and then mix 1/4 cup DE with 1 gallon water and spray THAT all over too. Does this sound okay?? I also just watered half of my plants today so idk whether to wait a few more days for the soil to dry more and then apply. I don’t want to wait too long. It’s humid in my house but too cold to keep them outside. I have other 30 plants and I don’t want to lose a single one :( Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I assumed that most of us have to deal with them but this poll will reveal the truth!

View Poll

Those little flies live in soil. They lay their eggs there and they like moisture. I've tried using a homemade insecticide. It worked but I couldn't get rid of them all. I recently heard that it is possible to get rid of them sprinkling fine sand over the soil surface but I'm not sure. Please help!

I'm being over run by Fungus Gnats, lol. Can I use neem oil or mosquito bits in my Pitcher plants or Sundew?

hi everyone, I’m new to houseplants (well I’ve had them for a while but have only just started to actually take proper care of them).

I’ve never used any sort of pesticide or insecticidal soaps—I used isopropyl alcohol on a plant with mealy bugs a few months ago—so I have a lot of questions. Currently, I have one plant in quarantine that I spotted a little brown bug on a few days ago, and I just now saw a couple of what I think were fungus gnats on a monstera that is on a shelf with a couple other plants. I’d like to nip both of these in the bud and also maybe use some preventative measures for pests, as I’m bringing in new plants fairly often and getting increasingly emotionally attached to them all.

First of all, I live in Canada and I don’t even know if I can get neem oil? Google searches mostly result in various forms of Safer’s End and I know I can get that locally. Which of these is better for minor issues like a few spider mites or fungus gnats?

Can I use either as a preventative measure, or are they just for actively treating infestations? I don’t think there’s any point in quarantining the monstera as it’s been living with fellow humidity-loving plants for a while and I would imagine they too already have the gnats.

I’m really just looking for any suggestions on what I can do to make sure these gnats don’t get out of hand, and to decrease chances of new bug problems in the future. Please help! If these plants die I think I will have a meltdown lol

Hello!

I was gifted a plant from Norway that ended up causing a fungus gnat infestation in my mini monstera's soil. Got some sticky yellow stickers, which has made the problem a lot more obvious, but done little to reduce it.

Nematode time. So my question is - can I use this on all of the other plants I have in the same room, regardless of if they have a gnat infestation? I know they're all mainly coming from one plant, but I can't be certain. Is it worth spreading it across a couple to be sure I get all the bastards?

Thanks in advance!

Also, the brand I'm getting (since no garden centres seem to exist near me) is "Dragonfli Sciarid/Fungus Fly Killer Nematodes" off Amazon, I figure this will do the trick?

Any tips other than sticky traps?