Photo courtesy of Mid-Florida Research Education Center
Gnats are really fungus gnats.
Fungus gnats drive you crazy inside the house when gnats show up in huge swarms of gnats from your potted plants
or flower boxes in the house.
Gnats like lights and head for your house windows where you first notice the gnats at play. Fungus gnat larvae live in
fungi or the dirt your plant is in.
Gnats are harmless to humans and animals.
ORGANIC PEST CONTROL to get rid of gnats:
- Inspect plants carefully before you buy them to see if you are going to get some of them tagging along.
- Use sterilized potting soil to stop fungus gnats.
- Problems that bring gnats include too much water, water leaks as well as poor drainage. Letting the soil dry will kill the gnat maggots.
- Houseplants taken outside may
become infested.
Inspect and throw any out if there are way too many gnats growing up in them.
- Remove all old unused house plant pots with dirt that are inside your house.
- We repeat...sanitation in your house is key to pest control for all kinds of flying insects as well as all other pests.
DEVICE PEST CONTROL:
- Electrocution-light fly traps will
attract and kill many gnats.
- Use yellow sticky cards (traps) for fungus gnat capture and killing.
CHEMICAL PEST CONTROL:
- Adult fungus gnats are killed easily with spray or
aerosols labeled to get rid of gnats or get rid of flying insects. Repeat as needed.
- Mushroom growers use diazinon, methoxychlor or naled (Dibrom) to get rid of gnats.
- Greenhouse growers use Bacillus Thuringiensis
Berliner var. israelensis (Gnatrol, Vectobac).
- Licensed pesticide
applicators only use a restricted use pesticide, oxamyl
(Vydate).
BUT YOU CAN USE THIS EASY WAY TO CONTROL GNATS AND GET RID OF GNATS:
The fungus gnat prefers the
upper soil to lay the itty bitty gnat eggs. Just add a half-inch layer of play sand to the top of your plants pots in the house and you are good to go, because gnats won't dig through the sand to lay those gnat eggs.
