Indoor I have fruit fly looking bugs in my soil...uh oh!

[growbewan]

ok heres the deal, i just went to my grow room to do a typical inspection of the young girls, and noticed a bug walking around the soil of one of them. in further inspection, I saw at least 5 of them in a matter of seconds...shit! anyhow, a little research shows that theyre a common bug called a fungus knat, which appearently have absolutely no harm to plants themselves. I DO however want to get rid of those little shits, but my plants are only 6 days out of soil, and I dont want to harm them AT ALL or stunt them..WHAT DO I DO??

 

[growbewan]

I mispelled it, its a fungus GNAT

 

[AndyBotwin]

Fungus gnats are pretty easy to control, especially if you get them early. I recommend buying some mosquito dunks and putting them in something like a 5 gallon bucket. This is what they look like:

Let them sit at least overnight, preferably with some air bubbles mixing the water. Then use this water on your plants the next couple of times you water them. It will kill the larvae in the soil and your problems will be over. You can also add a fly strip to kill the adult ones that are flying around. I previously tried breaking up the dunks and putting pieces in 1 gallon jugs, but I've found it to be much more effective to just use a big bucket.

There are other solutions like putting DE powder or sand on top of the soil, but the fans can blow that stuff around & I really don't like a messy tent. I also try to avoid spraying things on my plants if I can, so the dunks are my preferred method.

 

[KindredSpirit]

Dr. Bronner's Magic Peppermint All-In-One Soap!! Add 1 tsp / gallon of Dr. Bronner's and 1 tsp of pure vegetable oil / gallon to your water and water it into the soil. I would also mix up 1 tbsp / 0.5 gallon of Dr. Bronner's and put it in a spray bottle to knock the ones out of the air that you see flying around. But be careful not to spray the leaves of your plants, as it will leave a thick film and can cause necrosis on the leaves. You can use the same dilution as you use in the spray bottle to pour a 1/2" thick layer on a plate or shallow bowl and put it on the floor of the grow room. The gnats will go there for a drink and get stuck in the surface tension. Fly paper rolls hung in and outside the grow room will also help. I'm battling them right now in my grow room and have realized that a persistent "all of the above" approach is needed to knock them out. Females can lay 200-300 eggs.

Also, the fungus gnats are in fact doing harm to your plants. The females lay their eggs in the soil. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the super-fine root hairs of your ladies until they sprout wings, go bang, and lay more eggs in the soil.

Hope this helps :smokebuds:

 

[KindredSpirit]

Good call, Andy - didn't know about the mosquito dunks. Do they make organic versions of those dunks?

 

[AndyBotwin]

Good call, Andy - didn't know about the mosquito dunks. Do they make organic versions of those dunks?

As far as I know, the dunks are organic. They don't contain chemicals, but rather a bacteria that feeds on mosquito and black fly larvae. Bacillus thuringiensis v. israelensis (B.t.i), which is the same ingredient in Gnatrol which is organic. From what I've read they do not kill myco, but they can cause problems for ladybugs and other friendly insects if you use those.

 

[growbewan]

WOW GUYS! ive been so stressed out for the past half hour you wouldnt even imagine. this is my first grow and i thought d-day just struck! and after i posted this, i did some more research and found out exactly what you said Kindred, that the larvae eat root systems and seedlings, so with these plants being so young, id better get to it! Thank you guys so much for the help, it was greatly needed, i dont know what id do if it werent for your advice!

 

[growbewan]

oh yeah, one more thing, its obviously gonna be another day before the mosqito dunks actively saturate the water, will this be ok for my little baby's? like i said, theyre only 6 days old!

 

[AndyBotwin]

oh yeah, one more thing, its obviously gonna be another day before the mosqito dunks actively saturate the water, will this be ok for my little baby's? like i said, theyre only 6 days old!

The bacteria in the dunks has no effect on plants or animals, so no worries there. They're made to use in wildlife ponds that contain plants, fish, amphibians, etc. I have some soil that I knew from past experience had gnats in it, so I used dunks when I watered it in and planted the seedlings. They did fine.

 

[KindredSpirit]

No worries bro :smokebuds:

The extra day should be ok. In the meantime, you can hunt down some of the adults that are flying around. If you don't have access to fly paper strips, but do have some Guerilla Tape, I've been able to catch a decent amount of them by just hanging some strips of Guerilla Tape. It's not as sticky as fly paper, but it's still pretty damn tacky and has done a surprisingly good job of trapping any gnats that land on it. Obviously, fly paper strips are preferred - but, any port in a storm....

@Andy: Good to know brothaman, much appreciated :thumbs: I was concerned about what the dunks would do to the myco.