What's with the little flies?

Okay, please help me here. I have little flies around my seedlings - not happy about this. But I am worried about spraying, in case it harms my seedlings. Now I know I can keep the surface dry by watering from below, and I am doing that for most of the seedlings, but there are some that you can't allow to dry out - how can I keep them moist and get rid of the flies?

Thanks,
Seandor :-)

Sounds like fungus gnats--if you look around here there've been several threads where people talked about ways to get rid of them. One thing that will help is to water a little less--I've never had problems with fungus gnats except when I was watering too much. Some other remedies that I remember people mentioning in the threads were yellow sticky traps, watering with hydrogen peroxide, and also some strain of Bt will take care of the larvae in the soil (it won't do anything about the adults though, so you might want to combine with the yellow sticky traps)

Would a bug zapper work?

I also heard that putting a bit of sand on the surface of the soil helps too.

I have tried all these methods and STILL have them little boogers!!!

Oh Wait, one thing that does help, somewhat, is to put aquarium gravel on the top of the soil, but that can get quite expensive if you have a ton of plants. I have done this with ones that need more moisture and it does cut down on them. What is weird, though, is my AV's don't have a single gnat, why is that?

Ok try reading some of the notes on seed germination here. He has lots of good info and reasons one may have soil gnats. It has something to do with the minerals in your water I believe. It must be so cause some people get them and some like me with lots of overwintering plants get almost NONE. I have had very few and i was not sure why cause a friend called and she said she was disgusted to find them in her coffee cups and soup and such;....
So i looked here...
I hope it helps!! http://tomclothier.hort.net/index.html
Julie

Thanks, lots of info there, but I didn't seem to find anything on the gnats?

.Misty, This little blurb i found most interesting. It is in the "Damping Off " section of his consensus
Of planting/seedlings.
I hope you find it interesting. It would seem it could be a major help in getting rid of gnats!!
Julie


" Water until runoff and let flats dry out between watering. Beware of high pH In the water. We killed a ton of stuff due to this. We now adjust our water pH to 5.6-6.0 by injecting battery acid directly into the irrigation water along with the fertilizer. Buy a portable pH pen – it’s well worth the investment, pH-induced iron chlorosis is an insidious problem. Plants weakened by it quickly fall victim to fungus gnats and aphids. Algae and fungus gnat problems are also less severe if flats are allowed to dry out a bit, it's a very fine line."

Thanks! I did bookmark it! :o)

Thank you sooooo very much! The flies do seem to come from those containers where I have tried to keep things wet because the seed instructions said to NEVER let them dry out.

Other seedlings I do let dry. :-)

This year i decide to bake all my seed starting soil. It has taken care of a few problems. I simply put the mix in the oven at 250 for about 20-30 minutes. Cook it like a turkey and make sure the inside temp gets high enough. LOL. Some people use a microwave but I go through to much soil to fool around with the microwave.

CoreHHI, Doesn't the soil smell or what? I want to do it but i heard it stinks pretty bad!!
Julie

It does have a smell but I just turned the hood fan on (it's vented to the outside). I don't think it smelled really bad or anything. Kids did think I was cooking dirt for dinner. LOL. I like to fool with them, they think pot roast is rain deer. LOL. "What are we having for dinner?" "Yak".

I bought a new old roaster from a garage sale for 5.00. What I mean is it is an old model Rival Turkey
Roaster but it was brand new never been used!! I bought it but I did not think to use it for this but I think I will!! Then I can cook it on a timer down the basement. I won't even know it was cooking!!
I will try this. Absolutely!
julie

Ecrane, How do we find out which strain of BT? Is that something you could find out?

Suzy

Sorry...I have no idea. I vaguely remember someone on one of the other fungus gnat threads saying that there were some strains of Bt that worked better than others. I'm pretty sure I've seen people say that they used the mosquito dunks and those worked, but maybe there are other strains that are more effective.

I use mosquito dunks, and they work great. I break them into pieces and throw them in the trays I use for bottom watering.

The form of Bt that you want to use for fungus gnat is "israelensis". GardensAlive sells a product that contains it (Gnatrol, I think.) It'll only work on the larvae in the soil. For the adults the sticky traps work and I also use Safer's Soap. When I water and see the adults fly I have a trigger sprayer in my other hand and zap them right out of the air!

Shoe

I asked earlier, but I didn't get an answer. Will a bug zapper kill these things? What about neem oil, or is it too heavy for seedlings?

Thanks, Shoe! I am not usually plagued by them too bad until right before it's time to send them outside, but I know people who grow pots of seedlings in the living areas of their homes are really disgusted by them!

Suzy

jlp, I don't know if that will work or not, but hopefully someone will have an answer for you! :)

Thanks :)

you betcha! :)

Sorry JLP, I did;t know the answers to any of your questions, and in fact, what's a bug zapper?

I think a sticky trap, the yellow tape that hangs down is what people use for the adults. They are usually 2/$5.00.

Not sure on the Neem, either. I'm not sure what it does or how it works.

Suzy

Hehe, "bug zappers" may be a Southern name. They're the "blue-light-bug-attractor-electrocuter-thingie". The noise they make is the "zap" part.

OIC, we call them that, too, :)) but I was confused because I have only seen them outdoors. These gnats are inside the house...can you have those things in the house?

Actually it doesn't matter, I was just curious. These gnats would have no reason to go to them to be zapped. The attraction is the wet soil/soillessmix and they like to be in the wet soil and only fly away when you walk up on them, or start to water the pots.

Suzy

Ah, I didn't know they were not attracted tot he light.

Here in SE Louisiana we do alot of things differently. Have you ever seen the size of one of our mosquitos (the state bird)?

Neem oil will kill the adults but will do so most likely by smothering them rather than its usual method of disrupting their life cycle. That being said it would be cheaper to use soap spray which would work in the same way. JLP, I don't know what kind of plants you have but Neem seems to work on quite a few plants that I've used it on with no ill effects; maybe you should try it on a sample plant just to make sure though there is no negative effect?

As for sticky traps, I buy a jar of the "sticky stuff" called Tangle Trap and apply it to yellow paper, cardboard, etc. It's much cheaper than buying individual ready-made sticky traps. If you make your own you can tape it to wire or labels (cut up a coat hanger or cut up venetian blinds) and stick them in the pots or use twist ties to make a hanger and hang them above the pots.

Everyone have a great day!

Shoe (off and running to plant 800 onion plants in the ground and sow peas!)

Shoe is a wise man. I've used gnatrol from GardensAlive. I also put out
lots of those yellow sticky traps. I don't think I'd use neem around seedlings.
Not overwatering is the most important thing - they only breed in the top of
the soil. Let the top dry out and they won't get started.

Tammy, I was thinking of getting some Gnatrol (I'm always on the alert for them boogers!)

Were you pleased with it's results?

Shoe

Hey Shoe... sorry for the delay. Been busy.

I think it helped, yes.

I didn't remember 'til now - the biggest improvement was when I started running
a fan over my seed pans.

Tam

Thanks, Tam!

Garden's Alive is sending out their $25.00 coupon now and it's a good time to buy stuff like that from them!

and yes, I hear ya on the fan, that is a big plus in my g-house! Works wonders!

Again, Thanks!

Shoe

If you're going to bake your soil, buy those turkey roaster bags, put the dirt in, seal up and bake. It won't smell as bad. :)

Try watering with weak chamomile or peppermint tea... not sure what it does, but it does help.

chamomile will supposedly help with damping off too, which you may have problems with if your soil is too damp.

This message was edited Mar 6, 2008 11:27 PM

Hey You guys are great! I always learn and also confirm! I am a great one for letting plants dry between waterings. I also have multiple fans (this is in my sitting room ) I have had No problem all winter.
I do keep 4 big humidifier consoles (Sears type) in the house and running at full throttle all the time.
I have had a very good winter without spider mites, mealy bugs, gnats, etc.! I am sure it is the combination of things as I had been laying in wait for the dreaded mites and other above mentioned insects as I have 20+ brug babies I have been pampering along until now. So far so good. I thank all of you for the gleaned information that gave me one of the best over wintering years yet!!

The chamomile tea really does work! I spray with a weak dilution of it every day and have no damping off at all. I only saw a few gnats after my first fertilized watering and a quick spray with the chamomile took care of it.
I just make a mug of tea with one tea bag and then put it in a quart sprayer and fill with warm water. Has worked great for me! Seems like if I purposely try to let things dry out I alway go too far LOL.

How dry do you let your little seedlings and plants get before you water. I am probably overwatering. I can't stand them to get a little dry, so I water too much. Should I wait till they actually kind of start to wilt?

I hve those little flies too, just noticed yesterday. I keep a fan in there.

I put peroxide in the water, but it's not keeping them away.

When the seedlings are tiny I only water from the mister with the chamomile tea twice a day, now that the tomatoes and are bigger (almost ready for the ground yay!) I bottom water whatever they will drink in about a 1/2 hour. I still spray once a day with the chamomile, i figure it couldn't hurt!!

The ones I have in the little Jiffy pots dry out so fast, but it's probably the pot and the soil still doesn't need water. I've decided I hate those things. The 2 1/2 inch ones anyway.

I gave up on jiffy pots years ago. I prefer plastic pots.

I cut down on having those little flies around by using Vermiculite on the
surface of my newly started plants. I place a couple of tablespoons in
each plant pot so the soil area is completely covered.
I use a turkey baster to water my seedling and new plants. Place the
tip of the baster into the soil near the plant or plants and shoot the water into that area only. Then, the rest of the vermiculite area is kept
dry. This seems to have cut down on these pesty visitors alot.