hi,
i just discovered that there's thousands of tiny flies in one of the pot (and around) of one of my plants. please let me know what can i do to get rid of them? i don't know what type they are, hope the pictures can provide enough information! they are so small that don't come out in a picture in the actual pot, can only be perceived in a video but i can't upload video here it seems. in the video they look like hundreds of ants working in the surface of the soil.
tnx!

Those look like fungus gnats. They will spread and kill your house plants so definitely need to take care of them.
I had an infestation (similar to yours) from a bad bag of potting soil. I lost several plants before I figured out how to treat them...here's what I did:

Beneficial nematodes - you can find these at nurseries and some farm and feed stores. There are also a few good brands on Amazon but make sure to read reviews. These little guys feed on the larvae until they are gone, then pass away.

Yellow stickies (see photo) - i can't recommend these enough. Not the prettiest addition but work very well at catching the adults flying around. They also catch just about everything else...mosquitoes, house flies, ect. You can find packs of these on Amazon for cheap.

Let your plants dry out as much as possible. These gnats love damp soil and need it to reproduce. They usually live in the top few inches of soil so after treating with the nematodes and watering in well, let your plants dry out a bit.

I really hope this helps!
~C

(Edited - misspelled "gnat" lol!)

Are you finding any flying gnats near the plant?

I would change the soil. You probably don't want dead bugs in your house any more than you want live ones. Are you able to add a pic of the plant in question?

hi, thanks for the replies, very helpful!
i have looked for nematodes near me, doesn't seem there's a store that has them so the only place i can get them is from the internet, amazon has a bunch of options, trying to figure out the better option out of those in terms of price and such.
yes there are a bunch flying around the plant. the plant is in good condition so far, it's a 6 feet tall dracaena colorama that i barely saved from overwatering about a year ago and has just now started to slowly recover, so i have been messing with that plant a lot. another thing is that i have about 20 other plants in the same room so i'd hope to not have the gnats spread to all of them
thanks again!

Investigate BTi and products containing that which you can add to your watering can.

Those pests are definitely Fungus Gnats, which are usually present in extremely moist/wet soil. You didn't upload a photo of your Dragon Tree (Dracaena reflexa var. angustifolia 'Colorama') to show the pot and soil and I'm curious as to whether the pot has drainage holes in the bottom?

Fungus Gnat larvae can be present in some bagged potting soil. The larvae feed on moist organic matter in the soil and they will also chew plant roots but they don't usually cause a lot of damage unless great numbers are present. The adult gnats have a very short life span but they lay their eggs in moist soil, allowing the cycle to continue. Having a bunch of pest gnats flying around inside the house is something no one would be happy with. I've heard people talk about using Mosquito Dunks (small discs that they add to their water) for ridding their plants of gnats but I've never tried them. In my opinion, the best way to control these pests is to allow the soil to dry out longer before watering again.

Container plants growing in lower light conditions indoors take much longer to dry out than those in bright outdoor situations and I think once you get the gnats under control, if you allow your plants to dry longer before watering again it should take care of the issue. You can use those yellow sticky traps to kill the adult gnats and as the plant soil dries sufficiently, that should take care of the larvae. I live in Florida and I have a few potted Dragon Trees; all of mine stay outside on my deck year round and in the bright light and open air, they dry out fairly quickly but I still only water every 3 weeks or so.

Here are a few short National Gardening Assn. articles regarding Fungus Gnats and other houseplant pests that might be helpful:
https://garden.org/learn/artic...
https://garden.org/learn/artic...
https://garden.org/learn/artic...

thanks again to all for the advise.
yes, my plant has a very good draining now, i fixed it not long ago to correct the issue with the plant and it seems to be recovering ok, slowly. i also try to water very infrequently now so i should be able to let it dry enough to get rid of the gnats, i've already gotten some stickies so will try those and do a bit more of research on where to get the nematodes, will try all these 3 things. here some pics of the dracaena. tnx!

I would be very hesitant about bringing a 2nd "bug" into my house to battle a first bug, which is why I suggested BTi.

That plant looks like a fantastic deep sea Dr.Suess creature. The colors are great against the window shutters!

Thank you all, will try the BTI option as well.