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Garden Forum and Message Board for Gardening Enthusiast
Welcome to our forum. Gardening is a wonderful hobby for some of us and therapy for others. Here is a place you can share your ideas, knowledge and basic understanding of gardening. Please feel free to post any questions you have and hopefully, some fellow gardener will help answer your questions. |
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| Viewing Page 1 of 1 (Total Posts: 7) |
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msozarks
 IP: 69.55.129.150 Sep 20, 05 - 9:13 PM |
? about houseplants
I'm having a fungus gnat problem in my houseplants. I purchased a pint of beneficial nematodes to add to the pots. Only the order came when I was out of town for over a week. My son did not know to put the container in the refrigerator and we never discussed it via phone. Does anybody know if these would have survived in a normally air conditioned house for a week without water or any food? Thank you for your help. |
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Ken
IP: 24.61.103.153 Sep 23rd, 2005 - 12:10 PM |
Re: ? about houseplants
If you have a single plant that seems infested, and its not alone in youyr house, there may be many more infestations in all plants indoors. Bt is a good choice as a soil drench. Its organic and is usually easier to use. This will kill the maggots in the soil, as will more expensive nematodes. Usually nematodes are used outside and work well in all kinds of garden soil. As a further deterrent, the use of yellow sticky traps placed horizontally on the deges of each pot will also attract the gnats. I had an infestation inside a mushroom growing media indoors. after setting two of these 3"x5" yellow plastic ticky traps on the medium surface, it attracted literally hundreds of these tiny bugs in just a few days. I also start need vegetable seedlings indoors in mide March, where sometimes I will see these gnats. Putting out a few of these sticky traps (also known as white fly traps) works wonders. What your essentially doing is a twofold operation, killing the maggots in the soil that turn into the gnats who lay the eggs elsewhere, as well as trapping the fyies, so the cycle is eventally broken. Beneficial nematodes can survive for about a week in their usual wet sponge pad, but do need to be kept at room temps or cooler. |
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msozarks
IP: 69.55.129.150 Sep 25th, 2005 - 1:51 PM |
Re: ? about houseplants/fungus gnats
Ken thanks so much for your advice. You wrote "Bt is a good choice as a soil drench." What is a soil drench? Are the bacteria in a liquid? If you could explain that further & tell me exactly what I will need to do, I'll give the Bt a try. I had read about the sticky traps (do not have any,) but also read about apple cider vinegar(which I do have). I've been sitting small shallow bowls in each area that I have plants, to catch the adults. It works quite well and I place the bowls where they aren't visible to company. Sometimes you get a whiff of vinegar in the room but I prefer that over the yellow tape all over my pots. I will try the sticky traps if the other measures I'm taking don't seem to be completely curing the problem. Can you totally get rid of these gnats? or will it be a continual battle? I read that they usually come in new potting soil, is that true? In the last couple months i have taken in plants from my mother-in-law's funeral as my father-in-law has decided he doesn't want to take care of them anymore. When I get them I divide them & put them in nice pots, so I've gone through 3-4 bags of potting soil so far. I've also repotted my existing ficus trees, aloe, cactus, norfolk pines, philodendron, mother-in-law tongue plant & christmas cactus. How do you keep from attracting or getting these gnats in the first place? Are they really in new potting soil? or Do they come in from outdoors or is it always an infested plant that transports & spreads the bug? I also read that a fungicide can be used as that is what the gnats feed on in the soil, hence their name fungus gnats. Do you have any experience/knowledge if doing that helps? It seems logical that if you eliminate their food source they would die out. I love my plants & most of my oldest ones are from divisions or starts from my mother-in-law. With her passing in June I'm sensitive about having to throw plants out right now. I really want to cure the infestation so I won't have to trash any plants she gave me. I probably should have not accepted the plants from the funeral but it's too late to change that decision now. I'll appreciate ideas anyone may have and appreciate the help. Thanks in advance. MS of the Ozarks |
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Ken
IP: 24.61.103.153 Sep 26th, 2005 - 2:49 PM |
Re: ? about houseplants
Bt is in liquid form, its organic and is actually made from a beneficial fungus itself. It is mixed with water, and you water the plants heavily with it so that the water runs through the drain holes in the bottoms of the pots. You would do this every other time you water for about a month. Sterilized soil is usually free of any pests, but can be infected by a single gnat landing on the surface and laying some eggs. I have seen high quality potting soil with small greenish colored round beads. I recently found out these small beads (smaller than a BB) are dorment slug eggs, and should be picked out. There are two cycles (kind of like the chicken before the egg), in that the fungus gnat flies land elsewhere and lay eggs that hatch into maggots that feed off beneficial funguses produced by the roots of healthy plants. Once these beneficial root funguses are fed on by the maggots, the maggots turn into the flies, and spread quickly. The plant quickly loses vigor and can perish due to the lack of the necessary nutrients in the root system. I have been using white fly traps that are just bright yellow colored sheets of plastic that are 4"x6" and lay a single sticky trap horizontally on the rim of each pot . You only need to keep them there a couple of weeks and also do a few soil drenches using the Bt. If you look close enough, you can usually see immature bugs jumping all around on the soil surface once they get a lot of water under them. The sticky traps come with sticky stuff already applied and have a paper that you peel off the surface to expose them. If you get any of this sticky goo on your hands, its easy to remove with a little vegetable oil rubbed on the sticky spot and then a soap and water wash ro remove the oil. I suppose you could use vinegar, but that seems a bit slower in its effectiveness. If the bugs appen to land on the liquid, they will get trapped, but can escape. Getting stuck to the goo of a sticky trap, they can never get off it. The gnats can remain for many months if there are places that are slightly moist or have some kind of organic matter nearby, be it indoors or out. Greenhouses are particularly affected by these gnats and can easily be carried from any plant to another. They can even survive a cold winter. I have used the benefical nematodes mixed with water in a hose end sprayer for out doors. A single treatment for an outdoor garden can last for several months. Its much cheaper compared to the Bt of which 'Gnatrol' is one product that comes to mind. Good luck! |
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Shirley
IP: 69.19.248.189 Oct 10th, 2005 - 9:45 PM |
Re: ? about houseplants
Reduce watering----fungus gnats love moisture—so, allow the soil to dry out, at least the top inch or so, between watering and then water infrequently. Mist spray your plants several times a week with the following until the gnats disappear; 1 drop antiseptic mouthwash 3 drops baby shampoo 3 drops chewing tobacco juice 1/4 tsp. pyrethrin Mix ingredients in a quart of warm water. Another good tidbit on preventing mold appearing on dirt around houseplants; Mold is a sign of too much moisture. To eliminate it and freshen up the soil, place a thin layer of activated charcoal on top of the soil. One more tip; Pencil shavings sprinkled on the soil surface of houseplants also eliminate pest problems. |
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msozarks
IP: 69.55.129.210 Nov 14th, 2005 - 7:54 PM |
Re: ? about houseplants
Thanks so much Ken & Shirley I've taken your advice and have knocked my gnat problem almost to 0. All the plants look like they will recover in fine shape but I will have to stay diligent. Thanks again for all the information. This forum is a great resource, because of great fellow gardeners like you. God bless you in your endeavors. |
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Ken
IP: 24.61.103.153 Nov 24th, 2005 - 9:41 AM |
Re: ? about houseplants
Just recently brought indoors a small pot of tarragon. I suspected that it was infested with the gnats and sure enough, they hatched a few weeks later and now are all over the pot. I placed a yellow sticky pad on the rim of the pot as well as dosing the soil with Bt. This should get rid of the bugs for now. In a few months I will be starting up new seedlings for next year and don't wish to have them infested with these gnats. The gnats and maggots can seriously affect most any plant and if gone unchecked, the plants can weaken and die without any other symptoms. |
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