Gnat control

[Motor City Madman]

I read in a legal eagle gardening forum, to control gnats you can mix a 1/4 teaspoon of dish washing detergent per gallon of water and this will keep them from breeding in the soil. Has anyone had any experience with this? I'm usually the guy that says don't add anything to the water but Ph adjuster and nutrients, but I really need to get rid of these EDIT bugs and cash is tight at the moment:hairpull:

MCM

 

[hashplant420]

i found baby shampoo works real weal

 

[Lemmongrass]

i just did it last night. hope it works well.

 

[420thestoner]

you should be fine. my budy does it to his because its supposed to airate the soil also.

 

[noneedforalarm]

if you get some sterile sand it does the trick very well.

 

[Lemmongrass]

never buy the shroom compost from home depot...

 

[Kupunakane]

Truth is about those gnats,
That they are fungus gnats that are attracted to their favorite food source, (composting manure). The bags of potting soil all have breathing holes in them to allow for escaping gases caused by the continuing process. A little moisture from a rain and it's a perfect environment for the little nasties to lay their eggs in.
They hatch out a small larvae that will attack the fine hair like roots of your plant, most damage will happen to very young plants that haven't set deep roots yet.
This can be dealt with very easily by using a natural product called Diatomaceous Earth. All you need is to lightly dust the top of your soil with this and like a million samurai the larvae and even the flies are sliced to pieces and are gone in a day or two. SIMPLE STUFF
Hope that this helps.

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

 

[noneedforalarm]

This can be dealt with very easily by using a natural product called Diatomaceous Earth. All you need is to lightly dust the top of your soil with this and like a million samurai the larvae and even the flies are sliced to pieces and are gone in a day or two. SIMPLE STUFF
Hope that this helps.

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

yeah simple stuff indeed...except the finding it part.

 

[noneedforalarm]

of course you can get it online and blah blah blah,but not everyone has that option.

 

[Kupunakane]

I was able to find some at an Ace Hardware.
Diatomaceous earth is also used in other things like pool filters, and can sometimes even be found at pet stores. I just lucked out finding mine, but it is a natural product that has no harmful side effects on humans and just needs to be used correctly. It's great stuff that I got turned onto by one of our super growers here. It's really worth the hunt.

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

 

[noneedforalarm]

no doubt its well worth it...just gotta get a hold of it.thanks for the tip at ace hardware store.

 

[Lemmongrass]

i just nabbed some neem oil today, should i follow the pkg or do you guys have a pot specific technique for it?

Ninjaedit: i may not end up using it(this item around atleast).think the soap worked out for me. i hung a yellow strip up earlier today and haven't got single thing on it yet nor do i see them flying. i moved all the pots, swept(had sand all over geh) and opened the door flap up with a fan in it to dry her out, turned off humidifier, ran 1000ml of soapy water thru the 3gal pots and 500ml thru the 1gal. did a real good job seems sofar. my drip trays were ubar ghetto so i tossed them out into the cold. i had combined Al turkey trays to make trays that could fit 3 3gal pots each. it took two trays for each row tho so i lined them with several layers of the plastic i used for the walls. they worked good but water/sand got between the layers of plastic i had in them and grew tons of algae which is also a major food source of the fungus gnats. its taking FOR EVER for the pots to dry out. im wondering if i should sog the pots like this all the time. i normally drip my nutes into a 500ml grad cylinder and siphon it out with 1/4"OD poly tube. makes it easy to keep it from getting on the leaves(on my 7 node plants the 3rd nodes touch the dirt almost...

KK, is the D-Earth airfloat? do you have to worry about fans?

 

[noneedforalarm]

ive heard of people soaking the plants in them.but as LeVar Burton would say,"dont take my word for it".someone will chime in on this soon and dont follow my advice on that.i would just wait for an experienced answer=P

 

[Lemmongrass]

i know not to flood/dunk them.

 

[Kupunakane]

Yeppers,
The stuff will lift and scoot off into the air if you have a fan directly on it, after a day or so you will notice that the Diatomaceous earth does pick up moisture, but by then the job is pretty well done on the critters.
You can find lots on this subject right here in the forums, and you might ask around to see what others might have to say about this stuff and it's use,
Remember that others use other things that I have not tried, and one never knows when something fantastic might come along. I'm just very much in favor of this stuff. Good Luck my friend, let's hear from you and about your progress.

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna