Spray The Plants With Insecticide
As well as ensuring your indoor plants are watered correctly, you can apply a pesticide. ‘Spray the compost with half-strength BugClear Ultra to kill larvae and adults,’ recommends the Amateur Gardening experts.
‘Do this outdoors, away from food and furniture, leaving the plant for an hour or so before returning it to a windowsill or some other place indoors.’
Pesticides can deter these insects
How To Prevent Gnats
Most of the time these pests are alive they are larvae in the soil so taking care of potting media, organic matter, or soil around the home is a great first step. Ensuring standing water sources are eliminated and that overwatering is not taking place can reduce the access of these gnats to suitable breeding areas. Cleaning up garden soil and removing dead plants and other organic debris can help keep populations from exploding as well. Spraying with insecticides and making the garden space hospitable for friendly insects such as spiders can also help keep the number of fungus gnats under control.
When outdoor gnat infestations get out of hand, they can make it difficult to enjoy your yard or garden space. No one wanted to deal with flying and biting gnats when they are outside trying to relax and have a good time. Controlling gnats naturally can help maintain populations, but sometimes more extreme measures need to be taken for indoor and outdoor gnats that have gotten out of hand. Please see the following FAQ for a few final tips and reminders about dealing with indoor and outdoor gnat infestations.
Can Bottom Watering Prevent Gnats
Bottom watering is the process of putting the plants into a bowl of water. This allows the roots to absorb the water. There are a few benefits to this approach, these include:
- Helping the plants develop strong roots
- Keeping the soil moist
But to understand how it affects gnats, we need to first know what makes a plant attractive to these pests. Some elements that they will look for include:
- Organic matter. This is why gnats can pose a problem for plants. They have been known to feast on the organic matter in the soil. Sometimes, they have been known to eat seedlings. In more established plants, they might eat the root systems. This is why plants that have a gnat infestation will wilt.
- Moisture. This is something that gardeners will be able to control. Gnats will be attracted to moist soil, laying their eggs inside it.
- Light. Sometimes, bright lights around your plants can be enough to attract gnats. They like to flock to these sources at night. The condition of your garden will determine whether they stick around.
Since moisture is one of the most important elements attracting gnats to your soil, the way you water the plants is important. This is why bottom can be a good choice. It is an easy way to prevent overwatering while making sure that the plants are getting enough water.
I asked fellow gardeners if they thought bottom watering would prevent gnats in potted plants. It was surprising to see that many of them did not thing so as seen in the poll below.
Recommended Reading: How To Replace Plastic Straps On Patio Chairs
Make A Trap Using Apple Cider Vinegar
Combine five tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, three drops of dish soap, and a spoonful of sugar in a mixing container. Put your bowl in a place that is most gnat-infested, like your kitchen, bathroom, or garden.
Grass gnats are attracted to the sugar and apple cider vinegar mixture, and the dish soap traps them, causing them to drown.
Tackle Larvae With Nematodes
‘If the flies are established, the larvae can be killed with biological control using nematode worms Steinernema feltiae,’ says John.
‘The worms will seek and destroy the maggots, and they are safe to use around humans and pets.’ They are to be added to potting compost: follow the packet instructions for application.
Nematodes can also come in useful for getting rid of lawn grubs.
Larvae can be eradicated by beneficial nematodes
Recommended Reading: 12×12 Hard Top Gazebo
Fogging For Gnats The Best Gnat Control ^
Now if you want to treat 5,000 sq/ft or more of yard, fogging will be the way to go. Anyone that fogs will find this method to be much faster compared to spraying liquids. Additionally, youll be using a lot less material to get the same area treated compared to liquid sprays. This is true because youll be able to stretch your liquid mixtures to cover a lot more area. Basically youll use about 1/10 as much chemical which means youll save on chemical costs and on time.
Youll also get way better coverage because mist applications get most every side of any plants being treated so gnats and their eggs wont be able to hide or be missed in the landscape.
How To Prevent And Stop Flying Bugs In Your Lawn
The excellent way to prevent these bugs from making severe damage is to get rid of them. One of the most comfortable and effective ways is appropriate watering and emptying the rain barrel you keep in your yard regularly.
Dont overwater your lawn and thus you will avoid creating a favorable environment for the development of these harmful insects. When you let your soil to dry out between two watering, it will be less attractive to bugs.
Don’t Miss: How To Plant Patio Tomatoes In Pots
What Do Fungus Gnats Look Like
Fungus gnats are so small you may not even notice they are present unless they swarm. Because of their tiny size, they are sometimes confused with fruit flies. Heres how to identify fungus gnats:
- Adult gnats are about 1/8″ long
- Grayish to black in color
- Long legs, antennae, and one pair of wings
- Larvae are each 1/4-inch long with a whitish or transparent body and shiny black head
Repellents And Homemade Gnat Traps
- Repellents: DEET, citronella, vanilla, pine oil, and dryer sheets are commonly used to repel gnats. You can also use fans on your porch to keep the air moving and discourage hovering swarms. There are also a number of repellent sprays, lanterns, and granules on the market that claim to repel gnats with varying degrees of effectiveness or toxicity.
- Chemical controls: Foggers, sprays, and insecticides designed for flying insects will work with gnats, although theyre not particularly effective in preventing future infestations. Prevention is more effective, and less toxic, than chemical controls.
You can find a variety of organic fungus gnat control products, including repellents and predatory insects, at your local garden center or at online retailers such as Planet Natural and Golden Harvest Organics.
If youre not sure what sort of insect youre dealing with, or if youre being bitten, contact your local agricultural extension service for advice specific to your region.
Don’t Miss: Small Fire Pit For Balcony
Life Cycle Of The Gnat
There are four stages of life for the gnat:
Females deposit their eggs in moist, decomposing soil to provide food for the larval stage. It takes approximately 14 days to develop from an egg to an adult. In addition, warm weather tends to speed up the cycle.
The total lifespan depends on the species. However, it usually lasts from 7 to 14 days.
Top 7 Ways To Repel Gnats: Take Back Your Yard
Finally! Warm weather is upon us and its time to head out and enjoy the good temperatures, fresh floral scents, and the great outdoors. That is until those annoying little pests start swarming around your head. Theres nothing worse than being surrounded by gnats.
They may be small, but they can easily ruin your outdoor space by flying in your eyes, ears, and mouth. Plus, it seems they get worse and worse every year.
Dont worry you can take back your yard following a few simple steps. Here are the top seven ways to repel gnats so you can start enjoying your backyard again.
Don’t Miss: Landscaping Ideas For Front Porch
How Do You Prevent Gnats
Take preventative steps to help support the effectiveness of your selected treatment methods and to keep swarms of gnats away for good.
Gnats can be difficult to control, but a combination of store-bought treatments, DIY treatments and preventative actions can eliminate troublesome gnat infestations. Whichever methods you choose, you can find the supplies you need to get rid of gnats using The Home Depot app. Search by voice or image and let our app find products for you.
What Are Gnats Attracted To
The consensus surrounding what attracts gnats is that they are drawn to decaying organic matter. This can span a wide range of items including your household garbage, or even dying plants. Heres a list of common items found in and around the home that could attract gnats:
- Fruits and vegetables, especially when overripe.
- Sugary liquids like sweet tea or soda.
- Mild acids like vinegar or wine.
- Dead garden plants.
- Sewage or sewage access pipes.
- Overly watered plants that have developed fungus.
You May Like: Wood Fire Pit Table Top
Can Gnats Harm Your Plant Life
Adult gnats are primarily a nuisance they do not damage plants or bite people. In the larva stage, they will feed on the roots of plants and the surrounding soil, but they are unlikely to cause any damage. Because the life cycle of gnats is so short, some wont even eat at all during their adult stage.
Basically, they live to lay eggs, birth a new generation, and annoy people who are just trying to enjoy the nice weather!
In reality, they are beneficial to birds and other insects as part of the food chain, and they can be helpful with pollination. Though pests like gnats can drive everyone crazy, they still do have a purpose and are valuable in keeping the natural environment healthy.
The Bottom Line On Gnats
Gnats are bothersome, common household pests that are drawn to damp areas and rotting food. To keep them out of your home, remove anything that attracts gnats such as rotting fruit, poor quality potting soil, dirty dishes, and festering trash. Setting a sticky gnat trap or a home remedy natural gnat trap can also reduce numbers and infestations as you deal with the issue.
Gnats are also attracted to poor soil with inadequate drainage outside. To resolve the issue, aerate your lawn every year, replace poor soil with fresh soil, and apply a pest killer to the ground.
Read Also: Can A Propane Patio Heater Be Used In A Garage
What Size Fogger To Get ^
For small yards 5,000 sq/ft or less, go with the MINI FOGGER. This unit has a 32 oz holding tank and is strong enough to shoot the mist 15-20 feet.
For 10,000 sq/ft or more, get one of our electric models like our very own BUGSPRAY FOGGER, FM6309 or the FM6208. These machines are able to pump a lot of chemical over a large area in a short amount of time.
Our Bugspray Fogger is the best deal of the lot. Its super powerful, able to pump material at a rate of 2-12 oz per gallon and its fully adjustable so you can control it as needed. This unit makes a great mist for yard pests including both flying and crawling insects. When pumping BITHOR, you can use it for any pest control need, inside the home as well, and do the best job ever since all surfaces will be uniformly treated. Like the other electrics, just fill the tank with water, add the product you want to apply, plug it in and fog away. We have a good video showing how it works if you have further questions but for 1 acre or less, this fogger is well suited.
The FM6309 has fixed rate of chemical flow which is generally okay. But the FM6208 has a dial setting allowing you to turn it to low, medium or high. This is handy for when you need to make delicate applications but its also good for cleaning out the unit prior to storage. Simply turn the chemical control switch to off and let the fogger use up whats in its system and you can then store it for a few days without worrying about the insides getting clogged.
What Are The Flying Bugs In My Lawn
I agree that there are a lot of harmful insects that can damage your lawn, but that doesnt mean that you should kill every bug you see around your grass, flowers, and trees.
Too often, you may kill beneficial insects while trying to destroy harmful ones. That way, you will harm your yard more severe than if you didnt take any action. Sometimes its really better to let nature solve these problems.
Recommended Reading: How To Paint Concrete Patio Floor
Drench The Soil In Potted Plants
Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium that occurs naturally in the soil. Bt var. israelensis kills the larvae of fungus gnats. Follow the directions on your product to make a Bti drench and use it to saturate the soil in your potted plants. It will coat the plant roots without harming them and kill fungus gnat larvae that try to feed on them. You can find Bti formulated for houseplants and outdoor plants.
Once the gnats are gone, let your houseplants or outdoor plants dry out slightly between waterings to discourage the adults from returning and laying more eggs. If you see gnats around the drainage holes of your pots, put small pieces of fabric over the holes but make sure excess water can still drain out.
Also, remember to refrigerate fruits and vegetables, when possible, and throw away decaying or bruised foods in outdoor trash containers.
Making Use Of Electric Bug Zappers
Using the renowned electric bug zappers is another ideal way to eliminate lawn gnats. Over the years, bug zappers have become a popular option for eliminating flying insects, and gnats arent an exemption.
Since light naturally attracts gnats, it will be easy to lure them into the zapper. New models of bug zappers are on the market, which are effective in killing gnats. You can also use these gadgets outside on your lawn.
The good news is that newer models are not overly noisy. You get to use it, and those pesky gnats wont even see you coming!
Read Also: How To Prevent Birds From Pooping On Patio Furniture
How To Deal With Grass Gnats
Tiffany Gracely
Ants, Guide
Are you annoyed by the presence of grass gnats around you and want to understand how to deal with grass gnats? Understandably, Gnats in grass can be highly annoying pests, and their presence could be a problem for you in the long run. Let us learn how to get rid of grass gnats and how to prevent a future infestation.
How To Use Mosquito Barrier To Rid Your Lawn Of Gnats:
Grass gnats, common gnats and lawn gnats the kind of gnat that gather in swarms usually around sundown. They dont bite, but are a tremendous nuisance. They dont eat. During their short life they breed, lay hundreds of eggs and die in a matter of a few weeks.
Gnats can be any number of small flying insects. They are hatched in water, depressions in the lawn, cans, puddles, sewer drains. Often gnats are caused by over watering the lawn. Dry areas rarely ever have any gnats at all.
Spraying insecticides will generally kill all those that are struck by the chemical, but soon more are hatched out and they immediately appear again.
What must be done is to: Kill those that are flying , Kill the larvae before more hatch.
You May Like: When To Overseed Fescue In Georgia
Recommended Reading: How To Build A Pergola On A Deck
Construct A Candle Trap
Fill a candlestick till the midpoint with water and place a candle inside. Switch off the lights in your house and then light the candle. The grass gnat will fly to the flame and either be burned or drowned if they fall into the water.
Grass gnats are a pest that few homes are able to eradicate successfully. When used incorrectly, do-it-yourself pest control solutions are typically unsuccessful. They might expose your family to dangerous chemicals, which is why it is of the utmost importance to be careful.
It is recommended to try to eliminate water sources from your property to prevent these pests from laying eggs even stagnant water is attractive to a female adult grass gnat.
You can attempt to reduce the amount of water you give your plants. Reducing the quantity of water you give your plants can help dry up the first couple of inches of soil, preventing larvae from maturing into grass gnats. However, if you already have a grass gnat problem, you should get professional assistance.
How To Treat Gnat Bites ^
If youve acquired gnat bites or expect to be getting bit during a field trip or other outdoor activity, bring some BITE RELIEF SWABS. This material will take away the itch and provide instant relief. Theyre packed in handy 1 dose vials and are easy to carry afield.
Each 10 pack has enough to treat 25-50 bites and works instantly to take away the discomfort of most any insect bite.
For lingering damage to the skin, GENES SOOTHING CREAM is an all natural ointment that works wonders. It will help your skin heal and during the process take away any unpleasant discomfort. Packed in 8 oz jars, apply some in the evening before retiring to help enable your skin to both heal and feel relief.
You May Like: Rooms To Go Patio Fort Myers