Specialty Gardening: New at terrariums - need help with gnats, 1 by kiwiluvsme

kiwiluvsme wrote:
Hi everybody - I'm a new subscriber and have gotten started on making small terrariums in apothecary jars, rather than one in an aquarium. I started by making a gift for my mother in January and that one is doing pretty well. Then family and friends who saw hers commissioned me to make theirs, or to give as gifts. It's been trial and error, figuring out which plants work the best, but I'm having a blast. I sold about 15 of them for Mother's Day gifts!

My current problem is with those people who buy them from me and don't read my directions - keep an eye out for decaying plant parts and pinch stuff off to keep things healthy inside! One co-worker brought me back her terrarium this morning with a complaint of gnats, and I looked inside to see a "Silver Falls" vine I put in there had died and was rotting. No wonder there were gnats. I showed her little places here and there that needed to be pinched or trimmed back.

My long winded intro brings me to this: is there ANY way to get rid of these gnats without having to empty the whole thing and start over with sterilized materials? I've attached some pictures of some of the terrariums I sold. Any feedback would be really, really appreciated.