I don't know if these will do this damage.
Might be related or not, but I did catch one of these on some sticky fly tape. I have seen them hanging around the top of soil plants, disturb the pot and they fly around a little kinda like a fruit fly.
Here is what I found on them
Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats like to feed on roots of the plants and organic matter. Adults and larvae live in moist, shady areas. The adults lay there eggs on top of the soil, near the base of the stem and takes about 4 days to hatch. The larvae will start by eating the root hairs of the plant then working their way up the plant, Fungus gnats like to eat organic matter so they will be stealing away nutrients from your plants, so its best to get rid of them completely. [color=red. Plants growing in rock wool are more prone to getting a more severe infestation than plants growing in soil. If your plants are affected during late flowering or close to harvest, please try to use the safest means of control to be safe to your health.[/color]
Prevent and Control
Prevent indoor entry of gnats by making sure there is no open windows open without screens on. Aug is a bad time for them as they are worst that time of the year.
Put sticky traps on the soil surface to trap the gnats
Put potato slices on the surface of the soil. The larvae like it and will be drawn to it.. After about 4 to 5 days, remove the potato slices with the larvae. To get rid of them you can do a lot of things like either use a NO pest strip, neem oil or putting sand on the surface of the soil will suffocate the eggs and get rid of them as well. Tobacco juice kills them, and works well for re-occurrences!
They can be in or on the soil and can fly. In order to get rid of them you can use neem oil, sand or perlite on the surface again kills them, and no pest strips catch the ones that fly. A chemical product called Zone works very well and is very powerful and works well in Hydroponics/Aeroponics!
Other Products which can be used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics and soil are:
Safer Yard & Garden Insecticide
GNATROL( used in Hydroponics/Aeroponics in the water as well as soil),
Safer Sticky Stakes,
TR-11000 Pyrethrum.
PERMETHRIN dust
Mosquito Dunks
Organic Control
Natrasoap
Pest Oil
Neem Oil
Hot Pepper Wax
Doc's Neem Pest Soap
Sticky traps
Safer's Insecticidal Soap
Neem Oil
Neem 2
Picture 4 shows the fungus gnat.
Picture 5 shows there larvae (Picture contributed by: Chocobot hour)
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