You Ask – Mike Answers!
Ask our Head Grower, Mike Hicks, all of your burning planty questions.
The question below was emailed to us last month:
Hi Mike,
How do I control pesky fungus gnats?
Mike says:
The most important thing you can do to control fungus gnats is to not overwater your plants! Wet soil is their favorite.
Keeping the top one inch of soil dry before you water is crucial. The flying fungus gnats that you see are the adults. They reproduce by laying eggs in the soil which then develop into larvae. The larvae will pupate and then emerge as the annoying adults that you see flying around.
Wet soils are what they search for when laying eggs. Let your plants dry out between waterings and don’t over water. You can cover the top half-inch of soil with a coarse sand or a small pea gravel which will discourage egg laying.
Yellow sticky traps can be mildly effective at controlling the adults but if the cultural conditions are not addressed, the problem will continue. Nematode applications can be used to control the larvae as well as products containing the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. Always follow label directions
Mike is Frond of These
Albuca ‘Frizzle Sizzle’
Philodendron ‘Pink Princess’
Mangave ‘Black Magic’ PPAF