Every year I've gone to war with them,a small cup with wine and sugar is working for me.vineger and sugar an a drop of dawn dishwashing deregent also works.what are you using?

My byline would be "gnats and how I killed them when I didn't know I had that many".
I forgot to empty out a tub of leftover dishwater from washing dishes before I left the house for a week and when I came back home, there were a few hundred gnat bodies floating in the water. Never could understand why they would land in my just-made morning coffee and still don't understand the dishwater. Must be the source of water?

they like the smell of dishwater,and once they go in for a drink their wings get coated with the soap so they drown,as for coffee same thing,you can use the coffee grinds in your plant and it will run them off ,some say it will kill them.I'm going to try it on my desert rose seedling to see if it works.

I used to use the mosquito dunks for it's BT... but it's a pain to disolve so now I just use my catapillar killer.. it's BT also.. and acts on the larvae.. which is the stage cats are... so I soak the soil in the BT.. it kills the black knat larva in the soil.. then no more black knats
http://www.saferbrand.com/stor...

What a great thread on killing knats in the house. I've starred this thread so I can find it easily next time I have a problem.
This fall I drenched all my indoor plants, and the ones I brought in for the winter, with a systemic. First time in years that I haven't been plagued by knats during the winter.

Gnats can be thwarted by having a soil mix that's not a suitable environment for their breeding/development. Constantly soggy peat is gnat mecca, and is an inferior medium for the healthiest possible plants as well.

What do you use for potting soil purpleinopp?

It varies and I've been doing a lot of experimenting with different stuff over the past decade or so. It doesn't seem to matter what is in it as much as the particle sizes. If there are sufficient air pockets, not enough moisture is retained to harbor gnats (or risk "overwatering.")

I agree.

Interesting to see what has worked for everyone. Last winter I had used an organic fertilizer on tomato plants and small citrus trees when they were in the greenhouse.

When the fertilizer was watered in, the gnats germinated. I was horrified at how many there were. I used yellow sticky cards and snagged tons. Seemed they were drawn to yellow.

I've since read that you can use a bit of soapy water in a yellow bowl or yellow pan and they will commit suicide by drowning.

I won't use that fertilizer indoors again!

When I bring plants or cutting into the house I use this stuff once. I never see any bugs, including gnats.
http://www.bonide.com/products...

Karen

Karen, thank you so much for posting. You were the one last year that told me about the bonide. I found it at our local garden center and used it on all the plants I was bringing indoors. I also used it on the ones that stayed indoors year round.
I am so happy to report I did not have one gnat this winter.
Thank you so much for your help.

I just consider them "extra protein" you know when you're drinking a glass of orange juice and you have to fight off the gnats Never thought about ways to kill them

When I repot containers, the used contents are dumped in the beds outside, where veggies get mixed with ornamentals, so I don't put any stuff in/on them that I wouldn't want to eat. And our dog lives out there, who loves to lay on dirt. I don't know what the particular stuff being discussed is, just that I don't buy any chemicals for plants except fertilizers when compost isn't enough for some things. Just a thought for those who might do/consider a similar thing.

When I take the plants outside, they are a favorite habitat for the cute little anole lizards. I would fear for them also if using chemicals. Although I don't know that my potted plants have been used, they lay their eggs in soil, as well as skinks and geckos, all great heroes of natural pest controls.

gg5 said:I just consider them "extra protein" you know when you're drinking a glass of orange juice and you have to fight off the gnats Never thought about ways to kill them

Forgot about this until I clicked submit - LOL!

Thanks purple! (I mean for thinking about the environment - not knocking anyone else, I just appreciate the thoughtfulness!) I didn't realize that AL had lizards! Cool

I don't use any pesticides or high test ferts outside in my yard or or pesticides in my outdoor potted plants. I only use that stuff when I bring in plants or cuttings in fall. It's only supposed to last 8 weeks, and unfortunately my winter is way, way longer than that. None of those plants brought in in the fall (Sept or Oct) will go back outside until April or May. I figure the pesticide is gone by then.

Karen

Greg, yes! The critters I mentioned above are all ones I've seen in our yard. The anoles are something you see every day when it's not cold. The geckos are Mediterranean house geckos and are nocturnal. Skinks live at the soil surface and in leaf litter, so only usually seen "by accident" if you uncover one messing/digging around, or scare it into making a run for safety across open ground. The first time I saw one I thought we had baby snakes and was freaking out about how to get rid of them, find the mama, etc, I didn't even see the legs, just the scales and snake-looking head... LOL! They couldn't be more harmless, and eat pill bugs, beetles, ants whatever will fit in their mouth that they can catch. Someday I hope to catch one so I can see what it feels like.

Karen, it sounds like you know a lot more about that stuff than I do. When I first started gardening, I could barely afford plants, let alone packages of stuff. By the time I could afford stuff like that, I was so used to doing without any of it, I've just never done things any other way. I'm not averse to using some kind of 'cide if a pest problem was threatening a prized plant and other methods of control weren't working. Glad that stuff exists if I need it, you bet your bippy! There have been times when some kind of stuff might have saved a plant of mine, but by the time I realized what was going on, the plant was beyond redemption.

Hopefully my learning experiences and new vigilance about inspecting and manually removing buggies, as well as learning about and implementing better care for the plants, will continue to be a successful recipe for not having "bug problems." A little luck probably wouldn't hurt either. You never know what nasties can show up when putting plants outside.

Well it's been a week, how's the battle going, Koiguy? Are you getting rid of them or looking for recipes to use that extra protein?

I have about 50 of the little guys happly drowned in some homemade wine as we speak,not enough of them yet to fry up for a meal,but I'm hoping they will invite friends over for a keg party.