Fungus gnats are a pain....I often have problems with my seedlings indoors, even with bottom watering and keeping a fan going for good air movement. Yellow sticky traps are my friend....when it calls for something more, I try to use something really benign. A friend of mine recommended sprinkling cinnamon on top of the soil mix...I may try that this year.

Mosquito dunks work really well. I've only had them (gnats) a few times. This week, I went to a new little organic grocery that opened here. They had a special on cute little 4" pots of hypoestes. I brought them home and found fungus gnats immediately. I used the mosquito dunk drench.

Karen

RickCorey said:Hmm ... fungus gnats ...Just guessing, but maybe if you can keep the soil surface drier, and/or run a fan, maybe there would be fewer gnats?

The entire soil ball need to be drier to be effective. The larvae will just live deeper down in the soil if just the surface is drier with a fan.

drdawg said:Practically every "Potting-Mix" and "Potting-Soil" is soil-less.

The really cheap off brand potting soils at big box stores have lots of soil (as oppose to being soil-less). Theses mixes are very heavy.

I've never seen one that contained soil unless it was labeled "soil". Most labels say "potting mix".

Karen

I tried cinnamon - it didn't do anything. After the peroxide, neem oil, and pyrenthia, I still have gnats flying around and sticking to the sticky paper. They've slowed way down, but not 100%. I'll probably treat them again in a day or so, and if they're not gone then I'll try the BT.

I do agree I was probably keeping things too moist -- I've stopped that ! I truly think they came into the GH in a bag of Miracle Grow potting mix. That stuff is always wet -- and I should have taken @drdawg advice and treated it first. Live and learn.

octopus plant is a great option for gnats

That is an interesting plant, a carnivorous one from Africa. I use those yellow, blue, and white sticky strips to control flying insects in my greenhouses but may purchase the Cape Sundew plants and see IF they can catch enough insects to survive in the greenhouses. In the warmer months, they would grow outside, with plenty of insect activity to keep them happy. I just have to figure out a way NOT TO FERTILIZE this plant, since its nutrients come from those captured insects, not root-feeding.

@onewish1 that looks like a great idea!

Well Sweep Herb farm not far from my house started collecting all these carnivorous plants.. very pretty some of them.. but this one caught my attention since it was covered in gnats

Is there a picture that I don't see, Allison?

sorry the slacker did not take one of the gnats.. just wrote the name of the plant down.. not much to look at but here are some others.. the carni are the 1st shots

https://plus.google.com/photos...

Nice picture album there, Allison. Thanks.

no problem

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and all right comments are interesting but I would like to know what is the best compost? Is the organic compost worth it and does it help to recharge my flower soil? My yard needs a charge of some sort. None of the plants are really doing well.
Thanks,
Beth

Hello and Beth!!

Hi Beth, welcome.

Are you asking about something in a bag that you can buy? Like a brand name? In my experience they haven't been that great, but I imagine that, like bagged soil, what you find probably varies a lot by your location. You'd probably find better quality from a place where they make their own compost and sell it by the yard or scoop or truck full.

The best compost is probably what you make yourself in your own yard. You control what goes in and the better the stuff that goes in, and the better it is maintained, the better the quality of the compost.

Karen