Earthbox Fungas Gnats

PartTimeUnicornstarted grow question 2y ago

Anyone have tips or tricks for dealing with fungas gnats in earthboxes? Everything I top dress the population just surges. Thanks!

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Other. Bugs

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Polyphemusanswered grow question 2y ago

DE is not very effective with flying bugs. DE has to be dry to kill them. The bugs have to physically come into contact with it for it to kill them. Putting it on top of a substrate amounts to a muddy mess that allows very little water through, which means it'll take 30mins to water 1 pot properly. Encircling your grow area with some DE can help stop anything that crawls over it, but again.. it's a fucking mess and horrible for fan motors and such. you'll kill a duct fan if you keep spritzing that shit around. Don't vacuum it up unless you want to throw out that vacuum. it puffs up in a cloud very easily, so it's going to slowly ruin any motor that is exposed to it. Your lungs aren't fans of it either. I'd wager 1M USD on a bet taht DE vs bti with an ongoing infestation, because it is a foregone conclusion. 99-100% of the infestation would be gone within 1 life cycle or about 3 weeks with Bti. DE isn't even going too put a noticeable dent in the population in 3 weeks. Side bet -- 1 Sticky trap would catch more adult gnats than any amount of DE strewn around your floor or on your pots.. making a fucking mess and doing very little. FWIW, neither a sticky traps or de is going to be effective against an infestation nor stop one from escalating. A sticky trap will however speed up the process. Really isn't rocket science to see why it helps, Bti prevents larvea from surviving and traps kill adults thet already matured before you put bti down. Otherwise you have to wait for the adult gnats to naturally die.. why add a week or 2 when you don't have to?

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auto_flooanswered grow question 2y ago

I had them before and they can be pretty bad for plants ,what I did :get yellow sticky traps,bottom feed ,and sand on top soil will help .hope it helps. 👍🏼

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Scrubbyjimbobanswered grow question 2y ago

If your DE is getting soaked, then you're clueless how you acquired gnats in the first place.....dry that sh!t out lol. I've only got gnats once and it worked like a charm. Better tip to avoid gnats, don't use soil! Hydro is cleaner. Sticky traps are better at catching you than bugs, plus they look tacky. You can make gnats traps yourself easy with apple cider vinegar and dish soap. A little dish of it in the corner or windowsill. We use that all the time for fruit flies and gnats.

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BerrySweetHighanswered grow question 2y ago

Hello my friend, you can simply put a inch bird sand on the top of the pots. The musquitos can not digg through the sand so they will die. You can use yellow sticky tape to catch the musquitos and you can use nematodes to kill the larvae. But long story short, inch of bird sand on top of the soil, they are all gone in 2 weeks. Inclusive the larvae because they can not fly out of the pot. But if you want to kill them straight away nematodes for the larvae and yellow sticky tape for the musquitos.

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AutoflowersSucKanswered grow question 2y ago

Bottom water your plants. That will supply your soil perfectly, and at the same time leave the top inch of soil dry as a mouse fart, which will discourage them from laying eggs and they will die out. Couple that with yellow sticky traps to speed the process.

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Polyphemusanswered grow question 2y ago

If DE gets wet, it's ineffective against buds. de isn't effective killing larvea in soil that gets wet.. you'll jsut have a white, muddy mess that lets very slow flow of water through it and watering will be a pain in the ass. putting it on the ground and any insects that crawl over it will not live long. it has to be dry. they have to physically come into contact with it, which means less effective with flying things. i tried it when i was new and it was a total mess and very much regretted it.

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Polyphemusanswered grow question 2y ago

Bti will actually work.. it'll take a while if it's mid-infestation. Also, put up some sticky traps to kill at both ends of life cycle. mosquito bits are a dtop dress that you water in and then there are mosquito dunks that you put in a reservoir and they just float around -- not good for irritaion plumbing* the bits are fine obviosly. that's 1 brand.. anything with Bacillus thurgungenisis (subspecies israelis), ignoring my spelling errors, is the same. Can use it pre-emptively too. Whether the vendor does it or the manufacturer, soil and other substrates are often stored outside, so the infestation often comes with the soil from the store... top dresss a pot to start any grow.. keep it up for about a month (top dress every 2-3 weeks ,so only 1-2 applications) and if you don't see anythign flying arond by week 5-6, can stop applying it. This way you avoid the problem before it starts.

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Scrubbyjimbobanswered grow question 2y ago

Diatomaceous earth will kill both the larvae and the gnats themselves when they try laying eggs in your soil.

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