WillC said:Thanks, Jim. Good information. If I have seen the use of hydrogen peroxide mentioned elsewhere, but have never understood the science behind it and its effectiveness. Can you provide references on hydrogen peroxide, how it acts on gnat larvae and how well it has been tested for effectiveness?
Thanks.
I should first state that I am *not* an expert on this matter,
but you were looking for studies that might indicate how hydrogen peroxide kills fungus gnats and this *might* offer some indication to that effect. This study is not directly about how peroxide kills fungus gnats, but rather how it kills cells:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
This may be a loose connection at the moment, but it is my understanding that most pesticides work by attacking insects' central nervous systems and they discuss how H2O2 can kill cells in the central nervous system.
It looks like there may be an issue of concentration, though. How weak is too weak and how strong is too strong?
"In addition, experiments presented show that exposure to high concentrations of H2O2 (100 microM) causes increases in intracellular free calcium within 3 h, suggesting that increased intracellular calcium may be associated with some aspects of H2O2-induced cell death. However, at intermediate concentrations of H2O2 (30 microM), intracellular calcium remained stable during a 3 h exposure, during which time membrane blebbing was observed in ultrastructural studies."
..and, again, this wasn't in relation to fungus gnats, so take from this what you will...
(For the record, it isn't my goal to get into a debate about it...if anyone chooses to nix the idea that this article can be related to how effective H202 might be on gnats, that's perfectly fine with me, LoL! My feelings won't be hurt. I'm simply trying to find some connection as to *why* this long-practiced remedy
might work.)
