Diatomaceous earth for gnats in coco. Need advice

C

!CORAL!REEFER!

Active Member
Hey everyone i have an annoying gnat problem in my grow. I’ve got sticky traps all around that are working okay but i still have gnats.
I’ve heard people using diatomaceous earth sprinkled on top of the medium will destroy the future of them.
I grow in coco. Will my plants run into any weird negative side effects from applying DE strictly for fungus gnats?
Any advice would be very much appreciated!!!!
 
!CORAL!REEFER! said:
Hey everyone i have an annoying gnat problem in my grow. I’ve got sticky traps all around that are working okay but i still have gnats.
I’ve heard people using diatomaceous earth sprinkled on top of the medium will destroy the future of them.
I grow in coco. Will my plants run into any weird negative side effects from applying DE strictly for fungus gnats?
Any advice would be very much appreciated!!!!
Click to expand...
just get some bmc microbe lift add 2-3 drops to a gallon of water and water your plants with it until there gone.
 
I've been using it for 2 weeks now and no progress whatsoever. I used a whole 2 ounce bottle and bought another 6 ounce bottle because I used it so fast. I do 80 gallons of water a week. The 6 ounce bottle came real pasty so I had to add water to it and then pour it into the 2 ounce bottle so I could do the drops. Pissed about that as well.

How do I know it's not working........................yet? I pick up the pot, lightly bang it on the floor, and presto...........big fat black gnats all over the floor. Damn things have muscles. The ones on the top have party hats on and are drinking martinis and giving me the finger. The ones on the bottom are having an orgy 24/7. When I turn my computer on a bunch come sit with me and eat popcorn. They cheer when it's porn. If I leave any soil out they make new homes and construction starts asap. I'm thinking a small scale nuke to wipe out everything in a mile radius will be needed to eradicate.

I use a home depot bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of r/o water. Then I add my nutes and when that is set I add about 20 drops of the BMC and stir it well.

My plants are in 2 gallon pots in a soil mix. I top feed and and let the whole saucer fill up to the top so it drowns the little bastards living in the bottom of the pot. I wait about 10 minutes to make sure the bottom is good and soaked and then vacuum it all up. I repeat this every 3 days.

I know the adults live for a few weeks so I'm hoping this is at least killing the eggs. Starting to give up hope at this point. If they are not all dead in 2 more weeks I will throw this stuff out. Getting sick of having to work with poisons.
 
Samwiseman420 said:
I've been using it for 2 weeks now and no progress whatsoever. I used a whole 2 ounce bottle and bought another 6 ounce bottle because I used it so fast. I do 80 gallons of water a week. The 6 ounce bottle came real pasty so I had to add water to it and then pour it into the 2 ounce bottle so I could do the drops. Pissed about that as well.

How do I know it's not working........................yet? I pick up the pot, lightly bang it on the floor, and presto...........big fat black gnats all over the floor. Damn things have muscles. The ones on the top have party hats on and are drinking martinis and giving me the finger. The ones on the bottom are having an orgy 24/7. When I turn my computer on a bunch come sit with me and eat popcorn. They cheer when it's porn. If I leave any soil out they make new homes and construction starts asap. I'm thinking a small scale nuke to wipe out everything in a mile radius will be needed to eradicate.

I use a home depot bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of r/o water. Then I add my nutes and when that is set I add about 20 drops of the BMC and stir it well.

My plants are in 2 gallon pots in a soil mix. I top feed and and let the whole saucer fill up to the top so it drowns the little bastards living in the bottom of the pot. I wait about 10 minutes to make sure the bottom is good and soaked and then vacuum it all up. I repeat this every 3 days.

I know the adults live for a few weeks so I'm hoping this is at least killing the eggs. Starting to give up hope at this point. If they are not all dead in 2 more weeks I will throw this stuff out. Getting sick of having to work with poisons.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think the idea is that it kills the eggs and that the adult population will die off eventually. I’m using yellow sticky traps for the rest of them along with my usually I’m regime. I’ll update when I start seeing results
 
It should work, takes up to 3 weeks and 3 treatments.
If that fails put a layer of garden pumice screened to 1/8 on top. Little buggers can't burrow through that stuff.
 
Samwiseman420 said:
I've been using it for 2 weeks now and no progress whatsoever. I used a whole 2 ounce bottle and bought another 6 ounce bottle because I used it so fast. I do 80 gallons of water a week. The 6 ounce bottle came real pasty so I had to add water to it and then pour it into the 2 ounce bottle so I could do the drops. Pissed about that as well.

How do I know it's not working........................yet? I pick up the pot, lightly bang it on the floor, and presto...........big fat black gnats all over the floor. Damn things have muscles. The ones on the top have party hats on and are drinking martinis and giving me the finger. The ones on the bottom are having an orgy 24/7. When I turn my computer on a bunch come sit with me and eat popcorn. They cheer when it's porn. If I leave any soil out they make new homes and construction starts asap. I'm thinking a small scale nuke to wipe out everything in a mile radius will be needed to eradicate.

I use a home depot bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of r/o water. Then I add my nutes and when that is set I add about 20 drops of the BMC and stir it well.

My plants are in 2 gallon pots in a soil mix. I top feed and and let the whole saucer fill up to the top so it drowns the little bastards living in the bottom of the pot. I wait about 10 minutes to make sure the bottom is good and soaked and then vacuum it all up. I repeat this every 3 days.

I know the adults live for a few weeks so I'm hoping this is at least killing the eggs. Starting to give up hope at this point. If they are not all dead in 2 more weeks I will throw this stuff out. Getting sick of having to work with poisons.
Click to expand...
It will kill the eggs and larvae. Give it some time to work. I've used it 4 times already and I know it works.
 
!CORAL!REEFER! said:
Hey bud I got the BMC in the mail! Do you mix the drops straight into your feed? Or just by it’s self and then apply it to medium?
I hand feed with a watering wand from a reservoir of that matters to you
Click to expand...
Everytime I used it I was in happy frog soil and would top dress with roots organic ferts then water it in with the bmc water mix never had any problems.
 
Gotta use a bunch of sticky traps to really make the microbe lift work. Mites and nematodes work great in soil but seem to only half work in Coco. And if you're infested you gotta up the rate to 1-2 tbsp (5-10 ml) per gal. Gnatrol seemed to work better but it's kind of a pain to mix.


Go crazy with the sticky traps. Literally can't have too many.

Up rate to 1-2 tbsp/gal

Use every 6-7 days for a month or so. At least every 7 days no more than every 6. By the 4th or 5th time you should have things under control.

You gotta be diligent about this shit or they will develop a kind of resistance. Every few runs I will do an all soil run and use nematodes once a month.

Even with all that shit I will still get the occasional seedling that gets ate from the inside (if you know you know)

Good luck
 
Pull the plants out of the pots, then stuff the coco/root balls down into xxl panty hose liners, like bagging them up. Smaller pots can be covered completely with the right size. Then tie off the opening section of the pantie hose around the stalk with a twisty tie, so all the medium below is sealed off. Stuff it right back into the pot, and then resume watering as normal (right through the fabric liner, which the gnats can't fly through), and continue using the BTi if you want. Probably won't need it though.
 
Samwiseman420 said:
I've been using it for 2 weeks now and no progress whatsoever. I used a whole 2 ounce bottle and bought another 6 ounce bottle because I used it so fast. I do 80 gallons of water a week. The 6 ounce bottle came real pasty so I had to add water to it and then pour it into the 2 ounce bottle so I could do the drops. Pissed about that as well.

How do I know it's not working........................yet? I pick up the pot, lightly bang it on the floor, and presto...........big fat black gnats all over the floor. Damn things have muscles. The ones on the top have party hats on and are drinking martinis and giving me the finger. The ones on the bottom are having an orgy 24/7. When I turn my computer on a bunch come sit with me and eat popcorn. They cheer when it's porn. If I leave any soil out they make new homes and construction starts asap. I'm thinking a small scale nuke to wipe out everything in a mile radius will be needed to eradicate.

I use a home depot bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of r/o water. Then I add my nutes and when that is set I add about 20 drops of the BMC and stir it well.

My plants are in 2 gallon pots in a soil mix. I top feed and and let the whole saucer fill up to the top so it drowns the little bastards living in the bottom of the pot. I wait about 10 minutes to make sure the bottom is good and soaked and then vacuum it all up. I repeat this every 3 days.

I know the adults live for a few weeks so I'm hoping this is at least killing the eggs. Starting to give up hope at this point. If they are not all dead in 2 more weeks I will throw this stuff out. Getting sick of having to work with poisons.
Click to expand...
Probably root aphids then
 
Samwiseman420 said:
I've been using it for 2 weeks now and no progress whatsoever. I used a whole 2 ounce bottle and bought another 6 ounce bottle because I used it so fast. I do 80 gallons of water a week. The 6 ounce bottle came real pasty so I had to add water to it and then pour it into the 2 ounce bottle so I could do the drops. Pissed about that as well.

How do I know it's not working........................yet? I pick up the pot, lightly bang it on the floor, and presto...........big fat black gnats all over the floor. Damn things have muscles. The ones on the top have party hats on and are drinking martinis and giving me the finger. The ones on the bottom are having an orgy 24/7. When I turn my computer on a bunch come sit with me and eat popcorn. They cheer when it's porn. If I leave any soil out they make new homes and construction starts asap. I'm thinking a small scale nuke to wipe out everything in a mile radius will be needed to eradicate.

I use a home depot bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of r/o water. Then I add my nutes and when that is set I add about 20 drops of the BMC and stir it well.

My plants are in 2 gallon pots in a soil mix. I top feed and and let the whole saucer fill up to the top so it drowns the little bastards living in the bottom of the pot. I wait about 10 minutes to make sure the bottom is good and soaked and then vacuum it all up. I repeat this every 3 days.

I know the adults live for a few weeks so I'm hoping this is at least killing the eggs. Starting to give up hope at this point. If they are not all dead in 2 more weeks I will throw this stuff out. Getting sick of having to work with poisons.
Click to expand...


I've been using microbe lift for months & still have gnats lol. I think the 2oz bottle didn't do much, only until I bought the 6oz (looked darker than 2 oz) than gnats went down a lot. You have to use more than the microbe lift to get rid of them, it's more of a preventive or when gnats are low in numbers. I was using sticky traps but there annoying imo, using a bug zapper kills a lot of them constantly during lights out.

Also I got all my gnats messing with potting soil from Roots Organic & stuff from local nursery. Never again using pre bagged crap, either 100% coco or I make my own soil. When I buffer the coco I add some Microbe Lift to soak in the coco. Very few gnats now even as the weather is heating up.
 
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