I am growing indoors because I do not have a yard to grow in. I saw that you could use a solution made of liquid dish soap and water, but how would that affect edible plants? Also, how badly would it affect newer plants? I'm very new to gardening; I literally only have cilantro sprouting and they aren't very big. There's no way I'm releasing a ton of ladybugs in my house... haha

Do you have aphids?

Yes?

Lots of aphids? How big are the plants? Can you post a photo?

Sorry for the late reply; it's actually quite hard to get a picture of them because now they're hiding!

I have only seen two so far. I found out about them when I was trying to take a video to show my husband the new cilantro sprouts coming in, but then saw little insects crawling on them. I know that usually means aphids. I had to turn my video into a gif so you could see, but this website doesn't support gif format and I can't link you to another website since I'm new. I tried taking screenshots, but you really can't see them unless they're moving. My cilantro plants are only about 1½ to 3½ inches.

Thing is, I'm using a bunch of recycled things as planters that don't have a plate that fits the bottom. (still working on finding those since I'm doing it DIY...) Last year, I grew flowers in a normal pot, and the way to prevent them was to water it from the bottom because it had the plate, but also the plant was much older than a couple of weeks. I just don't want to ruin all of my hard work because I've restarted my indoor garden a few times already because I'm still learning about plants and what they need.

If they are moving and hiding, they aren't aphids. I would suspect fungus gnats instead. Fungus gnats live and breed in soil that is kept too wet. Now that the cilantro has germinated, let the soil dry a little between watering.

DaisyI said:If they are moving and hiding, they aren't aphids. I would suspect fungus gnats instead. Fungus gnats live and breed in soil that is kept too wet. Now that the cilantro has germinated, let the soil dry a little between watering.

Oooh, see, I'm still super new to this haha. Thanks for the tip!

Spearmint tea!

I had an infestation of fungus gnats. Way too many.

Boil some spearmint tea. Let it cool. Put in spray bottle and lightly mist. Got rid of them in about a week. Maybe sooner actually.

Remember lightly. As seedlings are delicate and spearmint tea is a little on the acidic side.

Got rid of the gnats, and their eggs, and babies.

So will allowing the soil to dry sufficiently between waterings. After the seeds germinate and the plants start to grow, its not good for them to be kept that wet anyway. Fungus gnats are a good indication you are overwatering.

The only flaw with that, is that fungus gnat eggs can live for months on/in the soil.

And then when you go to water your plants, the eggs hatch from the moisture and it starts all over again.

I've tried letting the soil dry.

I've learned a lot about fungus gnats and their life cycle, and eggs, and everything from my research on them. Due to my bouts with them.

Wish I had learned about spearmint tea a few months back.

Interesting... Do you have a reference for the spearmint tea?

You can google.

I've done it, personally.

I'm trying it on everything now.
I sprayed it on aphids, but it didn't do anything to them.

But it worked, for me, on fungus gnats!!

Yep, google... Repository of every sort of mis-information in addition to useful stuff. I found four results that I would consider dubious in research and scientific testing. I think I'll skip the tea.

SoulReaver009 said:You can google.

You are new to the Forums so I will give you the benefit of the doubt. If you make a statement and someone asks for proof, you provide the proof. "You can Google" is not the answer.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/b...

Thank you. But what I was questioning is why you think Fungus Gnats don't die when the soil dries.

I suspect its a re-infection you are dealing with, not eggs from a previous infection. Maybe your peppermint tea sterilizes the soil?

How funny I was just about to post a comment, when I got here and saw you just posted.

I wanted to say to you Daisy sorry if I offended you in any way for saying, "flaw."

I've been thinking about it since I posted it. I need to think before I type.

And, to answer your question, probably.

It's a long explanation. I don't think I want to type it here. Honestly, there was probably an error in my method when I tried to get rid of them and that's why it didn't work for me.

Luckily I got lucky with a different solution.

You didn't offend me at all.

Thank you for the links.