Fungus Gnats

[Toker1]

Here is some good info linked below. Silica dioxide is in the soil, but requires the breakdown into silica acid to be taken up by the plants.
In short, you would be better off adding silica potassium due to its solubility.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3171283/

[Guest]

“The 100% cure for fungus gnats is circulation. You don't have to do anything except circulate air over the tops and bottoms of your pots. If you have holes in the sides of your pot, get them circulated as well. Don't give adults a chance to land and lay. You will have the larvae in the soil go adult and get blown away.”

That’s good advice. I had a few gnats and adding fans that blow across pots 24/7 Got rid of them. As I was advised here, if they can’t fly and land on the soil they can’t lay eggs.

[Toker1]

Yeah.. you can add predator bugs to your environment. The problem with indoors is there are no natural predators to keep the pests in check.

Toker1 someone here was saying that ladybugs might get into your light. Mine would be easy for them to get into and cause problems. I’ve always used ladybugs for my outdoor grows. They keep the plants clean and I love having them around. (See profile pic 😊)

[Toker1]

Lady bugs and praying mantises are definitely a growers favorite. Because they devour many types of pests. Some predator bugs are better than others depending what you are infested with.
Releasing lady bugs into your indoor grow room simply won’t cut it. You need to establish a lady bug home with food and water so that they breed indoors. That’s how you can effectively use them inside.

[starramus]

air flow + yellow stickies + hydrogen peroxide mixed with water to kill the already existing larvae = 0 fungus gnats

[Rwise]

So far the baking, DE, fans, smashing what I see worked! I did get the spinosad and spry as a preventative of returning and for other bugs.

[Gingerbeard]

So far as gnats, and in my experience, now all you need is circulation over the tops of your pots and any other holes, like drainage. They will get to your soil anyway they can.

[Gingerbeard]

I ran across these from an experiment I did.
A small pot of soil. H2O2 and water. It's cool like watching a cupcake bake. The upside is you have some well oxygenated soil. The downsides are you killed a bunch of other beneficial stuff in the process, and not everything you are trying to get rid of, goes away.
And it's fun to watch.

[Toker1]

And old farmer trick is to cut a potato in half and burry one of the halves (the insides of the potato should be facing downward) into your soil. The larva will make a home inside the cut potato, in a few days you remove the potato and all the larva inside it.

starramus. I’m definitely not an expert and have never tried that but GWE said something about HyPer killing off beneficial microbes too.

[starramus]

get rid of them bugs then breed back your microbes.

starramus good to know thank you. Growing indoors is much more difficult than outdoors. At least in my experience.