Fungus Gnat Larvae Killa! can't believe it works!

Hey everyone.....I posted this in my journal, as well in organics...but I think I will save people a lot of stress with what I found out....please rate and star this posting!!!! It seriously works.....for further details or to check my current grow...please visit the link below...

I have had a running battle with fungus gnats that infected one of my plant's soils and layed hundreds if not thousands of eggs. When I first spotted the fungus gnats, I saw that there was only 3 to 5 adult ones that somehow had gotten into my house, and into my grow tent. I immediately killed all the flying ones with the hand clap method...lol and hung up yellow sticky sheets. I also hit the plants with a leaf bath of Neem oil...(learned a noob mistake of not to do this with HID lights on...burned the hell out of my leaves, but they eventually survived) I also at that time did a Bti (mosquito dunk) and neem soil soak and thought that would have done the trick.

About 2-3 weeks went by and I noticed one of my plants, my Chemband, was having very weird growing leaves...almost looked like heat burn but different...no discoloration, but very wrinkly distorted looking leaves. I checked soil ph, and eveything was good...right in the 6.6 zone so I knew it wasn't a nutrient issue, plus I am giving them a full regiment of macro and micro nutrients so I knew that this was not the case. Upon watering them that week I discovered, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fungus gnats infesting the soil of my Chemband plant...no others were effected, just the one with the wrinkled, distorted leaves.

Wow, I thought, these little larvae must be having there last supper on my roots...what to do now...After further frustration, reading and research I decided to up the strength of the treatments but still stearing clear of chemical pesticides, I really wanted to stay organic. I picked up some Safer End All spray, based of pyrethium and neem, and started cultivating the top 1" of my soil, with each turn uncovering hundreds of little white/silvery larvae!!!! I began directly spraying the soil with the safer making sure the top 1" was completely saturated in END ALL. It didn't seem that this was directly killing them either. I followed up with another soil soak of Neem, mixed in some END ALL, and also a 1/2 of a mosquito dunk....with my hopes up...

Next day...still more fungus gnats....maybe my spraying wiped out 20% of them, but they were still all over my soil......time for stronger products...I went out and bought a single use application of AZAMAX and also one of Azatrol. I mixed up another soil drench of both AZAMax, AZAtrol, neem oil, mosquito dunk and drenched the soil. After waiting a few hours, decided to cultivate the top of the soil again, Still more fungus gnats!!!!! I mixed the same mixture of Azamax, Azatrol, Neem, mosquito dunk and also added some End All and began to "spot treat" the soil. With each turn of the soil, I would directly spray the little buggers and they didn't seem to like it, but it wasn't killing them either....very discouraging...!!!!!

At this point I was searching all over the web for solutions, but nobody really had a dead set way of killing them (besides harsh chemical pesticides). Then I came acrossed one post on a gardening forum, that said that near boiling, hot water will instantly kill them. I thought about what this would do to my microbes in my soil, as well as the roots by just dumping on boiling hot water on my soil....not going to try it.....but then.......last night while pretty medicated....I thought of a solution.....I have a steamer used to iron clothes!!!!! This thing gets really damn hot and I thought it might work...

This morning...pulled out the steamer.....fired it up and .........my circut breaker popped in my apartment!!! guess I know what the system can handle...which was quite a bit, 1000W of lights, plus fans etc...a 600w computer and then whatever the steamer was pulling was just too much.....Also learned a valuable lesson about my magnetic ballast and conversion MH 400w bulb....If the power goes out...this ballast and bulb take at least 15 minutes to fire up....good thing I was home...couldn't imagine being gone and having it go out on my and not refire up....My electonic lumatec ballast though fired right back up as soon as the power was restored...looks like a replacement is due soon!!!

Anyways, back to the fungus gnats..... So the steamer was going, and I started to cultivate the top 1" of soil again on my infected Chemband plant's soil....a lot less larvae from previous days so I know that my treatments of neem, bti, pyrethium and azamax seemed to work somewhat, but still there was a good 100 or more larvae still crawling around....This time, with each soil turn, I would hold the steamer to the soil for 5-10 seconds and the larvae would freeze up immediatly and die!!!!! IT worked!!!! Finally somthing safe that will not harm people, or the plant, that kills these larvae on contact!!!! I worked the entire top soil of the pot killing hundreds of these things....and it felt wonderful to finally know I had the upper hand and my plant would be saved!!!!! I would highly recommend using steam to kill these larvae instantly......I know I will have to probably do this a few times to make sure that all of them are gone...but it works!!!!!!!!

Please star, flag, rate this post for everyone to learn...I would hate for someone to have this amount of struggles with these pests!!!!!
 
UPdate!!! At the end of the light cycle today I checked the top 1" of soil, down to the rootball, and guess what??? NO FUNGUS GNAT LARVAE!!!!! at least non that were alive....The steam cleaning of the top layer of soil killed all of them...I will be watching upon my next watering to see if any come up to the top of the soil, will also be adding a few potato slices to monitor any ones that exist....I suggest this to everyone...it works like a charm!!!!
 
i wouldn't waste time with this, when azamax can be used as soil drench.

I wouldn't either if Azamax worked as it should have, however after using it as directed, as well as using Azatrol, Neem, and pyrethium, and still having issues with it, the steam method is the only one that gave me 100% killing of the larvae that were visible...I did witness a reduction of fungus gnat larvae after using a combo of the above mentioned, along with Bti (mosquito dunks) but there still were large numbers of living ones that were uneffected. I also have read that these larvae can build up a tolerance to organic based pesticides, so that may have been the case with my incident, however, they cant tolerate 212F steam!! ....lol... I will continue to use both until I see no more larvae..but for me, the Azamax didn't completely rid the problem, it only helped lessen it..
 

What do you mean by "no" ?

Also another thing I found to work is making pepermint tea, drop 1 cigarette in the hot water, adding a few drops of habenero sauce, and about 10ml of neem oil...Spray your pots and top of the soil and the next day, you will not see 1 fungus gnat.....(works for adults/teen ones)
 
Well tried this with a steamer after reading it and it did help...however ultimately wound up with GoGnats...took 2 days to clear up...mostly a cedar oil based product...no bad poisons etc..
 
:yummy::nicethread:Did you ever try the hydrogen peroxide?

I would have tried hydrogen peroxide, but it will kill all organisms in the soil, or so I have read...good and the bad...so I stayed away from it.... everything I mentioned above worked and since then I have not seen one of the little buggers around...
 
Well tried this with a steamer after reading it and it did help...however ultimately wound up with GoGnats...took 2 days to clear up...mostly a cedar oil based product...no bad poisons etc..

Glad the steamer worked well for you....it worked well for me too.... I couldnt believe that after all the so called proven methods that many have used, none worked for me, but the steamer, and the peppermint tea were awesome!!

Next time when I mix my soil, I will be mixing in DE and mosquito dunks into the mixture....preventive maintenence...lol
 
Yeah... the steamer is supposed to work pretty dam good. I also understand that covering the soil in an inch or 2 of sand works great too!

Lots of peeps using Aza this and that... seems to not work a lot of the time.

Good thread Icemud :Namaste:
 
Glad the steamer worked well for you....it worked well for me too.... I couldnt believe that after all the so called proven methods that many have used, none worked for me, but the steamer, and the peppermint tea were awesome!!

Next time when I mix my soil, I will be mixing in DE and mosquito dunks into the mixture....preventive maintenance...lol

Hmm why did I not think of the DE for the gnats?? We use this every day in our dogs food for parasites it would likely prevent them in soil completely!!
 
Hello everyone,
I know this post is old but here I go, killing fungas gnats
I just wanted to post domes things I have found using peroxide and azamax.

Peroxide can only kill larvae in the soil and the die off is instant.
Peroxide in organic soil when drenched thoroughly with infestation will foam.
Peroxide in organic soil without infestation will not foam at all.
Peroxide does nothing to the gnats themselves which requires you to completely remove them before treating the soil with peroxide.
(Think the aforementioned hand clap technique and vacuum cleaner hose)
Failure to remove the gnats means more laying of eggs.
Die off is instant! I removed a few larvae and poured some of the solution directly. Think salt and snails reaction.
I just noticed I have a lot of time on my hands for these experiments...
This solution works for both coco and organic soil without negative affects.


Ratio used of peroxide to water was 1:4 .
Added benefit was an increase growth to the two 5 gallon pots that have been continually treated for 4 waterings.
I assume this was due to the unstable oxygen molecule released and absorbed destroying the infestation or normal dissipation of peroxide.

Azamax requires the infestation (larvae and gnats) to consume the chemical taking more to kill them off. From my understanding this chemical affects metabolic processes.
I also found that I needed to treat a couple times with a soil drench.
 
I just tried the near boiling water treatment about 4hrs ago. it killed the little SOB'S instantly! so far the plants look fine. ill keep you informed
 
I am going through a gnat infestation right now. I use some chemicals that farmers use to control spider mites and powdery mildew. Haven't seen either in the last two grows. I been searching for a solution to my current gnat problem. Been using everything and also was sitting after getting medicated and thought about the boiling water. I used it in the summer time with a bunch of home remedies to rid my house of gnats. Worked great, but I have to say Thank You for the steam treatment idea. I keep the adults dead, but the larvae is the major issue. I used the steam and saw a Major improvement in a day. Great Post...
 
I am going through a gnat infestation right now. I use some chemicals that farmers use to control spider mites and powdery mildew. Haven't seen either in the last two grows. I been searching for a solution to my current gnat problem. Been using everything and also was sitting after getting medicated and thought about the boiling water. I used it in the summer time with a bunch of home remedies to rid my house of gnats. Worked great, but I have to say Thank You for the steam treatment idea. I keep the adults dead, but the larvae is the major issue. I used the steam and saw a Major improvement in a day. Great Post...

I would suggest a few things...if you do all of them, you shouldn't have a problem with fungus gnats again...

First...get yellow and blue sticky cards, rip them in half and put 1 on each pot, on top of the soil near the stem of the plants. Also put a few hanging in the shady/dark areas of your tent under the foliage....*these catch adults which is key to reducing the population. One adult can lay hundreds of eggs....

Next.. Get mosquito dunks (BTi) and crush about 1/2 of a dunk to a 5 gallon bucket of water. Put the crushed dunk in your next feeding water (crushed up) and feed your plants. BTi is a bacteria that the larvae eat, and it pretty much kills them from inside. This will reduce the larvae that become adults and won't let them grow.

Get a soil drench product like SNS, Azatrol, Azamax and do a soil drench. This will kill off any additional larvae in the soil as well as help prevent them from coming back.

After your problem is diminishing and fungus gnats seem to be going away... Get a product like SNS and use it with every other or every few feedings, Since I have been using SNS, I haven't had any fungus gnats at all, none..

This should help you be gnat free within 1 month, remember the gnats have a 30 day life cycle so you have to make sure to do repeat treatments of the SNS or Azatrol for about 3-4 weeks and you should see no more gnats.

Hope this helps, I had fungus gnat problems for my first 3 grows, once I started doing these things, I have not seen 1 gnat...
 
Thanks Icemud I am going to do exactly what your suggesting. Going to buy everything today, but I am in a hydro system. This is only my 3rd harvest and I done solved a powdery mildew and spider might problem from the second grow using some great chemicals that farmers use on their crops. I hate these little gnats! Thank you again for taking the time to provide some great information.
 
Thanks Icemud I am going to do exactly what your suggesting. Going to buy everything today, but I am in a hydro system. This is only my 3rd harvest and I done solved a powdery mildew and spider might problem from the second grow using some great chemicals that farmers use on their crops. I hate these little gnats! Thank you again for taking the time to provide some great information.

I grow in soil, not hydro, so before adding anything into your resivoirs, I would consult with some hydro people on how to get rid of fungus gnats in a hydro environment. I would hate to hear that you used the above mentioned and messed up your grow..Soil is much more forgiving and less prone to rapid changes so I would suggest speaking with some hydro people first... The yellow sticky of course would be ok..
 
Ok, so I couldn't find any sticky traps..only fly strips which I effin hate....However I've done some reading on Hot Shot No Pest Strips...people seem to argue over it because it not organic, but hey we can't stop the sun from setting....if used CORRECTLY they work wonders on fungus gnats...I treated the soil with some H2O2 water 1:3( 1qt per gallon) and it bubbled all the lil crawlers and may have killed my basil because the soil foamed up higher than the seedlings lol oops...careful, it's more effective than I thought ;)

I will post my results in a few days :Namaste:
 
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