Bought used WF 360 - gnat infested - HELP
Brian Bates
7 years ago
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gumby_ct
7 years agotheparsley
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Gnat infestation past 6 months
Comments (12)I have had GREAT success using mosquito dunks. I get them at Agway or Blueseal, but they probably have them any home improvement or livestock supply place. They look like little donuts of gray grit. I break up a donut, stick a piece in my watering can, let it sit overnight to dissolve a little, then water as usual. And after a couple of weeks, the gnats are completely gone. The piece stays in the watering can and I just forget about it. Can't tell you how many times I've saved a hibiscus with this. It's what people use in horse watering troughs, bird baths and fish ponds to kill off mosquitos without harming the animals. Of course, since joining this forum, I've learned the problem is poor soil and overwatering, but in the meanwhile, there's the dunks to help out. lol From wikipedia on Mosquito dunks: "Bacillus thuringiensis serovar israelensis (Bti) is a group of bacteria used as biological control agents for larvae stages of certain Dipterans. Bti produces toxins which are effective in killing various species of mosquitoes, fungus gnats, and blackflies, while having almost no effect on other organisms. Indeed this is one of the major advantages of B. thuringiensis products in general is that they are thought to affect few non-target species."...See MoreKnock Out Gnats.....Anyone used it with Success?
Comments (13)Good morning all! Thank you for your replies! I am so glad to hear the Knock out Gnats will work, i will go ahead and purchase it today! I used to make my own potting soil with black dirt, sand, & perilite, but then others said it wasn't good for houseplants because there was no nutrients in the soil and it was to heavy when drying out which kept oxygen from reaching the roots. I did have more problems with other pests when using my homemade soil, but not gnats. I may go back to experimenting with making my own again. The potting medium i have been using says on the bag...... Miracle Grow Potting Mix for indoor/outdoor containers. This stuff has actual wood chips/chunks in it. I bought some last season and also this spring, both with the same very bad smelling, moldy mildewy smell. Actually strong enough to make you cough when breathing in above an open bag or a pot of wet soil. I also noted that when starting seeds in this mix, after the top had been wetted, in 2 days the wood chips showing on top of the mix, started to grow white mold and the smell was worse. The wood in it looks like some of the shreded mulch you see for sale. My concern with trying to sterilize potting medium is whats in it. Are we talking sterilizing actual soil and not the peat based mixes? Most container mixes have fertilizer, perilite, vermiculite, & wood chips in it, which causes my concern of heating this up in the house. Especially me, as i am the worlds worst cook to begin with! Any thing concerning the stove/oven and me,is great cause for concern and disaster! ;) Thanks for helping me learn & grow with my plants! Tonia...See Morehelp---fying white gnat looking things
Comments (15)They are amazingly resistant to almost any OTC pesticide you can by because of the many decades they've been exposed to chemicals in the g'house environment. If you flip the leaf over and look at its undersides, and it is a heavy whitefly infestation, you'll see the eggs and crawlers glued to the leaf. I've had good results, especially with thick leaved houseplants using soapy water and cotton balls to just gently washing this next generation off. I usually do that outside so the adults whiteflies can't return to the plant when I'm done. Then take it inside. The one thing I have found ALWAYS works on WF if applied properly is hort oil. It smothers all stages from egg to adult. It is hard on your plant tissues, however, so it must be applied according to label directions exactly. I use imidicloprid once per season if absolutely necessary in a greenhouse environment, but haven't found it necessary to do so in years for whitefly because I scout for them and can usually find them before the outbreak becomes widespread. I'm concerned that this very popular pesticide is becoming way too widespread and not only is is very long lasting before it breaks down, resistance will be forming for it, and prolly already has....See MoreMore thoughts on Worm Factory 360
Comments (32)It's great that you are teaching the kids with worms! Worms are awesome, and I definitely thought so when I was a kid, and even more so now that I am a somewhat older kid. As the worm bin is very, very new, don't rush things at first. It helps a lot that you had well-composted material, with worms already in it, to start. If you got a good number of worms at the start (at least 1000 or even more) that helps too. Nevertheless, it takes time for a worm bin system to ramp up to full processing capability. The #1 piece of advice for every new worm bin is to GO SLOW - don't add too much food at first. Wait. The worms will not starve - it's not like a cage of hamsters where they eat the food you gave them yesterday and need more food today. You could stop feeding for weeks and the worms would be fine. Maybe make an experiment out of it for the kids - have them observe how fast the food breaks down, how fast different kinds of food break down, etc - and a good lesson in patience! I would be pro-active on the assumption that there WILL be flies in the bin sooner or later; either fungus gnats, or fruit flies, or both. It's going to be very difficult to avoid. I managed to break the life cycle of a very large fungus gnat invasion in my Worm Factory by putting mosquito netting tightly over the whole thing. You may want to have this at the ready, or just start covering the bin right now. Those little flies, although not harmful, are annoying and a very, very bad ambassador for worm composting, and may lead to the untimely eviction of your worm bin by other parties. My main piece of Worm Factory advice is that I found it works much, much better if you have something inside each tray to prop it up and keep the trays from pressing down on the contents of the trays below. This allows more air and worm circulation and I got much better processed vermicompost as a result. I described the jars I use in my posts above, in this topic. Anything non-degradable that is about 3 inches high will work for this. You won't need it yet since you only have one tray going. The instructions on the Worm Factory say that the worms can't climb up from one tray into another unless the bottom of the tray is contacting the material in the tray below. This is completely untrue. The worms climb up and down with no problem even when there is this small airspace between the trays....See MoreBrian Bates
7 years agogumby_ct
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6 years agoEmily Leuba
6 years ago
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