I'd take one pot that has damage and very very carefully look to see if you have any roots left on the plant. While you ever so gently remove the soil from around the new little crown and roots, look for a tiny, thread size, quarter to half inch long little devils made by the devil to drive us seed lovers crazy. If you see this thread size monster crawling around, then you have them. You may have them and not see them, they are that small.
Michell recommended the following and it worked. I did loose a bunch of seedling, but I had about 900 cups of them planted with 2 in nearly every cup. so I had a lot. After treating with the Bayer, it slowed them down and then in about 2-3 weeks, most were gone. Most all of mine were planted in Solo 16oz cups so I just sprinkled a very small amount around the babies and watered it in.
I copied Michell's treemail to me:
Sorry you are having so much trouble with the gnats. What I use for the fungus gnat larvae is the Bayer Tree and Shrub granules, you just sprinkle them around the plant and water it in then do not water heavy for 10 days, just a surface watering. That way the roots have time to absorb the chemicals. It is supposed to last a year inside the plant (don't know how, but people say it does)
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/t...... Also, you can use the "Bayer Advanced Complete insect killer soil and turf" to hurry up and kill the suckers until the other can get going
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/l......
You can get these at Lowes or HD. I've never used gnatrol but some people say it works and others say it doesn't. Some people say pouring bleach water in the soil will kill them also, but I don't really know.
As for the adults, the best thing to do is let the top surface of the soil dry out before your sale and hopefully the gnats won't be flying around. You could possibly spray some aresol bug spray in the general area and this may repel them for a bit. The adults are hard to get rid of because they don't feed on anything so they don't ingest the insecticide.
Me again: I put the yellow sticky traps in my greenhouse and caught thousands of the grown gnats. I tried several kinds of spray, but nothing seemed to phase them. I dread planting my seed this Spring because I know I will have the same problems but I hope the Bayer will help me. Good luck, Mona
