Fruit fly in tent?

[Christinac26]

So I open my tent yesterday an there was a small fruit fly in my tent. I have no idea where it came from. Could somethin be goin on with my plants ?

 

[OldMedUser]

If it is just a fruit fly then no worries. I'd get some yellow sticky traps and put one or two in the pots close to the soil just in case it's a fungus gnat. They look different enough close up to tell them apart tho. Fungus gnats are all black with with a thin belly while fruit flies are usually tan and have fat little tummies.

I keep a couple fresh sticky traps going all the time for an early warning system. Plus if you catch anything you can get a real close look at what you got.

 

[013]

Most here run multiple fans anyway so keep a small fan pointed at soil line helps with air flow and keeps bugs from mating or laying eggs in your soil mix

 

[OldMedUser]

Most here run multiple fans anyway so keep a small fan pointed at soil line helps with air flow and keeps bugs from mating or laying eggs in your soil mix

Believe me when I tell you that that won't work if there's more than a fly or two around. Prevention is the best policy and knowing that they are even there is paramount thus keeping sticky traps around can let you know before it becomes a problem.

I had a huge problem with gnats years ago. My grow room in the basement had an open area for access under the stairs where the sump pump is. I'd get rid of the little bastards only to have them back again then I took a sample of water out of the sump and put a piece of white paper towel across the top of the water to pick up whatever was floating on the top. Under my 30x scope I found dozens of larvae so they were breeding in there. I had an old bottle of Malathion left by the previous owner so poured a bit of that in the sump to kill those off.

You can do the same thing to check your pots or bags of soil for gnat larvae too. Just dig down deep enough to get a tsp sized sample of moist soil, put in a small glass and mix up a bit. Make sure it's full to the brim so add a bit more water once mixed then lay a piece of paper towel on top and check what sticks. The larvae look like little translucent worms with two little black dots, eyes, at one end. Could pour it thru a filter too but you don't want a big blob of mud to look thru.

I got a sheet of OSB and cut it to fit the space and then cut holes to fit vents I bought at the hardware store and put filter paper behind them so all the air entering the grow space gets filtered.

I've added a couple more vents since this pic was taken and that's a sheet of tablecloth plastic for a window so I can see the sump in case there's a problem with it. I used a strip of that spongy door sealer stuff all around the edge to seal it up good. 16 little screws to hold it on nice and tight. Haven't had gnats since. I've since added two more vents. I had some anti-static wiping cloths for the first filters but can't find any more of them so using two layers of cheesecloth now and that seems to work OK and has better airflow.

If you have gnats those mosquito dump things are supposed to work pretty well but I got some stuff called Gnatrol that killed whatever kind of larvae were in my pots the last grow. Not sure if they were fungus gnats as I wasn't seeing any adults flying around but one low dose got rid of them and there were rafts of them floating around in the runoff. It's a bacteria treatment and sure seemed to work great.

 

[013]

Booom go the fungus gnats - man thank you for that write up OldMed!!! I’m all over this tomorrow morning. I think I’ve got the gnats under control finally but I’m afraid to say it out loud. Ever since spring 2020 I’ve went thru multiple rounds of mites & gnats, then it was gnats and mites - ALL FREAKING YEAR - sorry to shout there but yeah I’ve been wearing Neem as cologne and brushing my teeth with spinosad.

I run both mosquito dunks and ground up mosquito bits in my soil plus I too dress with them and soak in my water bucket too. One of my soil buns was sprouting larvae a while back, lost some beans before I caught that one. Nuked them hard!

I think I’ve got the gnats mostly done now nothing new on my stickies but I’m gonna verify presence or absence of larvae with the water trick you mentioned. I’ve got one crappy clone mom that I’ve suspected had root aphids or something going on under soil. She will be my first candidate for the water test!

Ever use scotch bribe scouring pads? I‘ve used them as intake filtration screening but they also stock a roll of “cut to fit“ green hvac filters at Lowe’s or home de pot that looks good

Thanks OldMed!

 

[OldMedUser]

Ever use scotch bribe scouring pads? I‘ve used them as intake filtration screening but they also stock a roll of “cut to fit“ green hvac filters at Lowe’s or home de pot that looks good

Glad to have been of help.

I'm liking the cheesecloth for this application and it can't get much cheaper to replace filters than that.

I'm still planning on building an addition to my current grow room that will be 8'8" long and taper on the other side from 5ft to 7ft wide to line up with the edge of the staircase coming in and leave me a bit more room down there to get at the water system and store shit. At the back wall I'll have an enclosed shelf about a foot high and wide where the air will come in thru a furnace filter. I'll set up a bracket to hold it and an easy swap out if it needs replacing but there is very little dust down there so should last for a year at least. Just behind the filter inside the foot square air box will be a 12" desk fan to turn on whenever the exhaust fan turns on. The exhaust fan will be on a temp/rh controller like the one I have in the grow room now.

I still have plans to do a 4 tub DWC ScroG down there someday so the 'air box' will have floor vent sized openings space along it to match where the tubs will sit while growing. The cool air from the outer basement will blow onto the tubs and keep the nute temps down for me without the need of a chiller. The actual grow space will be 4x8'6" and I'll have a curtain made of panda film rigged with pulleys to haul it out of the way when I want to work on the tubs. A light rail will run dual 600W lights mounted back to back with open batwing shades to light the whole area.

I have all the gear except a few sheets of OSB and a few more 2x4s. Nice new 8" inline exhaust fan for the extra area. My 6" one has been making noise for 3 or 4 years now so I bought a larger one with it's own speed controller to replace it. Just got to put it all together but my get up and go got up and went. lol

Way past my bedtime. Got to stop sleeping 'til noon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[SmokingWings]

If it is a fruit fly or two they should go away on their own since they really do like over-ripe fruit and some vegetables. I would not be surprised that what you saw was the first wave of a Fungus Gnat population. They really do look similar when they are flying around or just sitting on something. A real close look will show differences in size and body shape.

The first time I saw gnats I had thought that they were fruit flies even though they were hanging around the house plants I had brought in from outside.

I came across an article in the Sunday newspaper's gardening section. The author, a woman who works with the Michigan Co-Operative Extension Service, did a write up on how Fungus Gnats live and how to get rid of them. She explained that dry soil surfaces discourage them, about using Diatomaceous Earth, and how to use Mosquito Dunks and Mosquito Bits.

The Gnats did show up the first autumn that I had a grow going in the basement room. That problem took awhile to solve but I learned a lot about ways to control and get rid of them.