Fungus gnats can be a big problem.
Not only because they fly around your computer screen and land in your coffee, but they are just plain annoying. Fungus gnats seem to peak during April and October when interior environments go from heaters to air conditioning and air conditioning to heaters. If not acted upon immediately, they can spread to other plants and become a huge problem.
So, what can you do to stop gnats in their tracks?
The first thing you will want to do is find out which plant is the host plant. To identify the suspect plant, place yellow sticky monitoring cards near the top of the soil of plants.
As there are many ways to get rid of gnats, the best remedy is to physically remove the insect and disrupt the reproductive cycle. First, remove 1″ of soil from the top of your host plant. Remember this is where eggs are laid. Then create a barrier so the remaining eggs cannot get out of the soil and female gnats cannot lay eggs in the soil. After the soil is removed, scatter over the top of the soil a layer of agricultural grade Diatomaceous earth, followed by a layer of silica sand. Make sure there is no soil showing. When watering the plant, water into the liner to keep the top of the soil as dry as possible.
You should see a remarkable difference within 24 hours. Prevention is the goal to keep from having gnat outbreaks.
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