archer, any flying insect spray or mosquito spray - Raid flying insect spray - will knock down the adults.

Here's what you need for the soil drench....

Here is a link that might be useful: Gnatrol

Thanx Corrie. Will it harm the seedlings?

Some facts --

Red wine vinegar works for fruit flies, *not* fungus gnats.

Sevin isn't effective on fungus gnats.

And yellow sticky traps are used to monitor the density of the population. Using them won't control the problem.

Hi archer,

You are looking for BTi (Bacillus thuringiensis v. israelensis). It works great on fungus gnats, and won't harm your seedlings or anything else. I'm including a link to the least expensive place I've found to buy it. You can also soak a Mosquito Dunk in water overnight, then use the water on your plants. In either case, you'll have to use it a few times to get all the larvae at their various stages.

Paula

Here is a link that might be useful: BTi

Over watering is the usual culprit. Also, soil mixes containing a lot of peat moss attract them. Water less and add a 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of sand on top of your soil in your seed trays. That should stop them cold. Gnatrol also works as mentioned above. No need for hardcore chem use in your home.

Thanx bigdaddy. I'm using peat pellets right now, but plan on transporting them to 4" pots soon as roots are starting to come out the bottoms and sides. I was waiting 'til I get this problem fixed before I do any more work out there. I would rather treat 30 peat pellets in one tray than try to treat 30 four inch pots!

Seeker and Corrie, thanx again. I'll pick that up as soon as possible.

jean001, thanx for the fact list. I heard that "cheap beer" or apple cider vinegar works. Since I don't have any cheap beer (life is too short for cheap beer) or apple cider vinegar, I was hoping the red wine stuff would work as it was all we had. To confirm your fact, it has not worked.

True.

The cheap beer, fruit juice, and/or apple vinegar is useful against fruit flies but, as said, not fungus gnats.

I think the glitch is that folks mistakenly think that all tiny indoor flying things are fruit flies.

I've been checking the local nurseries for a product that contains BTi, and the only thing I've found close are mosquito dunks. These are little dry doughnut shaped thingies that you dunk in bird baths, ponds or whatever that is supposed to kill mosquito larvae. It turns out that these also contain BTi.

If I were to break a piece of one of these 'doughnuts' off and soak it overnight in a spray bottle to spray on the soil, would that take care of my problem? Has anyone tried such a far out idea with any success?

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is what I found

I like to take the preventative approach, I only use jiffy peat pots or if I use a peat/perlite/compost mix under lights I microwave it for 10 minutes for 2 quarts to kill any fungus gnat eggs, and soak pots in bleach, so I avoid having to fight them in my seedlings. I've gotten into trouble trying to save plants from outdoors at the end of the season and bringing them in under lights only to infest lots of other plants with aphids, fungus gnats, etc.

I've been known to use my hand held vacuum to suck them up. It helps! Of course, If anyone were to see me "vacuuming the air"........

Re: hemnancy

I think I also got infested from a plant that came from outside. I wanted to see if I could get pomegranate to grow from seed off of a store bought pomegranate back in November. I also tossed in a Brandywine seed or two from a seed packet that I purchased at the grocery store at the same time (November). Three poms and one BW sprouted. So far, I've been able to keep all the plants alive all winter by bringing them into the garage on cold nights and letting them out in sun during days above 40 degrees. The BW is a short, stubby plant that I've become attached to and I really want the poms as the plants cost at least $40 at the nurseries that I've been able to find them at. Anyway, sometime last fall, the pot that all these plants sit in became infested and that infestation has spread to my Jiffy peat pellets and a couple of seed trays.

Re: ekgrows

I bought a can of flying insect killer. It's not as organic as your method, but if become a problem, it is an option to me.

Also, I've purchased the mosquito dunks and put a chunk of one in a spray bottle and wet down all my pellets with it. I know that it's too soon to tell if it is working, but since last night, I've seen one gnat that I smashed with my finger. I plan on starting to move the peat pellets to peat pots now that I have a method of control. I plan on spraying the inside of the pots using the spray bottle, spray down the potting mix that I'll use and cover the entire thing with sand. I'm thinking that this one-two-punch approach should be effective. I'll let you guys know how it works out.

If cheap beer doesn't work, then why do the little %$?! keep flying into my mug???

Put a cut up potato into the soil next to each plant to attract the larva. The larva will go into the potato and wait a few days then take the cut up potato parts out and toss it into the trash. "You should do this until you dont see them anymore".

Happy Growing,

Luke

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