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Fungus gnats are a common houseplant pest, but you can get rid of them for good
I hate fungus gnats. And I'm not one to use the word hate lightly. Luckily, they are more annoying to us than harmful to our plants.
You always know when you have fungus gnats because if there's one thing they love more than our plants, it's our breath, as they're attracted to carbon dioxide. If you have flying bugs all up in your face, about the size of a fruit fly but that look like tiny mosquitoes, you've probably got fungus gnats.
When I first got into the indoor plant hobby in a big way, I started off as an over-waterer. Fungus gnats quickly moved in, appreciative of the moist soil my bad habit caused and maintained.
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Fungus gnats are common outdoors, so watering indoor plants outside and leaving them to drain is one way you could be inviting the pest in. Storing potting mix outdoors, especially if it's damp, is like setting up a fungus gnat motel.
These tiny midge-like pests love moist soil with decomposing organic matter. Using a soil-less potting mix that drains fast and retains a low moisture level helps put up a "no vacancy" sign in your plant's pot.
My go-to for soil-less potting mix is a New Zealand brand called Bio Leaf. However, it's not the flying adults you need to worry about (although it's the adults that may drive you mad). It's the larvae stage that can harm plant's roots if they get to high enough numbers.
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Since they fly, it can be hard to pinpoint which plants are infested. A trick to pinpoint the source is raw potato. Cut a potato into slices and lay them flat, pushed down slightly into the top of each plant's soil. Remove them after about four hours and look for tiny white to translucent larvae with brown heads chomping on the potato.
Now you know which plants to treat, there is a long list of treatments you could try, from cinnamon to apple cider vinegar. I tried all the home remedies first without much luck.
The first thing that helps is to not be like me, so water only when your plants really need it. Don't be afraid of letting them dry out. Of course, that's no good if the plant in question loves always-moist soil (read peace lilies). But where you can, don't water unless really needed.
Once they've set up home, the secret to evicting fungus gnats is to attack two stages of the lifecycle at once. Otherwise, treatment tends to only reduce the population but never get rid of them entirely. I target adults and larvae at the same time.
One adult can lay up to 200 eggs in their short life (they live for seven to 10 days), and the whole lifecycle from egg to larvae, pupae to adult can be as short as three to four weeks.
Fungus gnats don't just look like mini-mosquitoes, their treatment shares some similarities too. I use a combination of sticky traps to kill the adults, and mosquito granules as biological control to kill the larvae. Another popular treatment is hydrogen peroxide.
I used to get those bright yellow plant sticky traps, easily found at most hardware stores and garden centres, and cut them up. Laying them flat, sticky side up, on the surface of my plants, ready to nab every gnat before it can lay more eggs.
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However, in my hunt for something more aesthetically pleasing, I've found more stealthy green sticky traps called uBloomd which don't scream "I have pests" like the yellow ones do.
To target the larvae, I use BTI. In New Zealand, you'll find it sold under the name EasyTrap Mozzie Bits or Mozzie Dunks, but in Australia you can find Mosquito Bits on Amazon. Using about four tablespoons of BTI granules per 4.5 litres of very warm water, I brew what hobbyists call mozzie tea. Scoop out the granules an hour later and water the soil of your plants with your brew once cool. The BTI will get to work killing the larvae for the next couple of days.
You will need to keep those sticky traps in place for a while. Every adult you trap significantly reduces the population. Every time you water, make a fresh brew of mozzie tea as the granules only target the larvae, not the eggs. Continue both for at least two lifecycles (six to eight weeks), and you'll finally be able to enjoy your own cups of tea in peace.
- Before you buy or DIY and launch the attack, do a test treatment first. And yes, that includes testing natural and home remedies too. If you know your plant is on the sensitive side, pick a small area to treat first, at least a couple of days before the rest of the plant. Some plants are sensitive to oil-based treatments, more so if the plant is also water-stressed.
- Watering before treatment is recommended. For most treatments, you also want to keep plants out of direct sunlight or turn grow lamps off while treatment's still wet on leaves.
Anna Gervai runs an online one-stop-shop for houseplant hobbyists,Love That Leaf.
This story originally appeared on Stuff.Read the original here.
- https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/fungus-gnats-are-a-common-houseplant-pest-but-you-can-get-rid-of-them-for-good/ar-AA1g9zRN?ocid=00000000
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