this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
24 points (96.2% liked)

Houseplants

4621 readers
73 users here now

Welcome to /c/houseplants @ Mander.xyz!

In between life, we garden.



About

We're a warm and informative space for plant enthusiasts to connect, learn, and flourish together. Dive into discussions on care, propagation, and styling, while embracing eco-friendly practices. Join us in nurturing growth and finding serenity through the extraordinary world of houseplants.

Need an ID on your green friends? Check out: !plantid@mander.xyz

Get involved in Citizen Science: Add your photo here to help build a database of plants across the entire planet. This database is used by non-profits, academia, and the sciences to promote biodiversity, learning and rewilding.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.



Resources

Recommendations

Health

Identification

Light Information

Databases

FOSS Tools



Similar Communities

DM us to add yours! :)

General

Gardening

Species

Regional

Science


Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Plants & Gardening

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Memes


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
24
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Polkira@lemmy.ca to c/houseplants@mander.xyz
 

I have a fungus gnat problem with my houseplants, I've kept them relatively under control using Mosquito Dunks in my watering can since August and some yellow sticky traps but I can't seem to eradicate them. I was considering buying nematode pot poppers but I've never used them before so I was wondering if anyone had any tips for application. All my plants are still relatively small so I don't have many large pots for any of them (most are between 4-10").

Any and all recommendations welcome, having pests is really taking all the joy out of having plants. I'm in Canada so a lot of pesticides aren't available to me.

UPDATE: I figured I'd update this post incase someone comes looking for solutions and sees this. I ended up going with a top layer of silica sand (2-4 mm in size) on all of my pots. I continued with the BTI water, let my plants completely dry out between waterings, and bottom-watered most of my plants. I haven't seen a fungus gnat in about 2 weeks so I think I have been successful in eradicating them. Will update again if this changes.

Update 2: I take back the update, they're still here... I'm so over the freaking gnats.

Update 3: Just updating this post in case someone stumbles across it looking for answers. What worked for me was switching most of my plants to semi-hydro and I now have a Pinguicula Morensis that eats any stragglers that come in with any new plants. The plants that are still in soil are watered so rarely that the gnats are not really an issue.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Vimes@ttrpg.network 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had the same issue w being unable to eliminate them entirely for ages. Putting a layer of sand over soil in pot was what finally completely resolved it for me (in addition to continuing all the other stuff you mentioned).

[–] Polkira@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'll give it a shot! How thick of a layer? Like a cm or 2?

[–] Funkymatt@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I also had success with sand on top, a couple cm is fine- just enough to completely cover all visible topsoil. You may also want to start bottom watering if you can and leave the top undisturbed since the sand will migrate when you top water. You may need to reapply sand periodically so get a decent sized bag.

You may need to rethink your watering schedule for a bit too, fungus gnats love wet soil. Those yellow cards can help track population, change those out regularly (another pro tip is to cut them down to smaller pieces since you're not actually trying to control the population with the cards)