Hi
@susina
1. Yes they are gnats
2 and 3. You will have to pause your normal watering schedule for a couple days – but it’s worth it. When the soil has dried, make a mixture of 3% hydrogen peroxide and water at a 1:4 ratio. This won’t injure your plants, but it will turn into oxygen and water (that, as you know, are beneficial to the soil). This will keep the gnats away while simultaneously helping your plants out.
To help speed up the process of ridding your plants of this pest, bring in a fan and have it blowing over your soil to help dry it up more rapidly. It also helps keep the tiny fungus gnats from flying around properly, therefore reducing the amount of eggs they are able to lay. A commercial product like Bug Blaster will always to the job. If you want to make sure to kill them all buy something like Bug Blaster.If you want to be particularly thorough, you can apply some food-grade diatomaceous earth over the areas of the soil that are exposed. This will kill the fungus gnat larvae, keep future infestations from occurring again, and will speed up the eradication process. Diatomaceous earth is organic – it’s simply made of fossilized shells! It kills insects effectively by cutting into their exoskeletons and draining out their bodily fluids. Luckily for you, it is not dangerous for people or pets – you could even consume it and be perfectly fine.Another way of destroying larvae that are living in the soil is using an actual pest treatment that contains the Bacillus bacteria. Bacillus sometimes referred to as “BT” or “BTi,” is a type of bacteria that creates a larvae-harming toxin. It essentially disallows them to eat. Good luck mate 👍