Flies! How To Get Ride Of Them?

Yo,
my girlfriend has a bunch of indoor house plants and we can not get ride of those damn flies or nats, i've put small rocks over all the soils sprayed bug spray and neem oil, watered with water/neem solution, and even held back on the watering for weeks plus+
What else is there to do?
thanks, yo:joint:
 

Grumpy Old Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Get a small plastic drink bottle.

Stab a few holes around the upper part, big enough for the flies to enter.

Put an inch of water, a teaspoon of sugar and a piece of banana in the bottom of the bottle.

Replace cap.

Put near the plants.

Flies will enter the bottle to feed and more than likely won't come out again.

After a week, toss the bottle and start again.

Sooner or later you will have no flies.

G.O.D.
 

MacGuyver4.2.0

Well-Known Member
Usually a 1-2 inch layer of clean white sand works as a top layer above your soil. Also diatemceous Earth (DE) works as well but *may* alter PH a little. The life cycle of the gnat is that of adults laying eggs in soil, larvae hatch and eat your plants roots and emerge as adults...only alot more of em. The sharp silica cystraline structure of sand makes it difficult for the newly hatched adults in the ground to burrow back out. DE works good too, but can be a bit of a mess since it is so powdery.
 

Serapis

Well-Known Member
Usually a 1-2 inch layer of clean white sand works as a top layer above your soil. Also diatemceous Earth (DE) works as well but *may* alter PH a little. The life cycle of the gnat is that of adults laying eggs in soil, larvae hatch and eat your plants roots and emerge as adults...only alot more of em. The sharp silica cystraline structure of sand makes it difficult for the newly hatched adults in the ground to burrow back out. DE works good too, but can be a bit of a mess since it is so powdery.
Nice response!!

To add, fungus gnats are attracted to decaying organic matter. You can leave a banana or onion or some other fruit or veggie on a counter and let it start to rot, the gnats will come from seemingly nowhere and won't leave until the decaying organic matter is removed. Make sure you are removing spent leaves and any other dying or decaying matter. No pest strips can help as well, but I personally do not like the warning on the package regarding human contact issues. The DE and sand should stop their cycle and within 5-7 days they should be gone.
 

woodsmaneh!

Well-Known Member
Your over watering your plants let them dry out a bit and get a fan blowing lightly along the tops of the pot. Gets some yellow stickies or buy a very small bottle of vinegar and leave the top off, they fly in and die much like the wine. You need a narrow top and fat bottom like a pop bottle.

Peace
 

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
yellow sticky traps work great for fungus gnats. When the adults come out they are attracted to the color and get stuck. Eventually you get most of them before they get a chance to reproduce. Non-toxic too.
 

Dubious06

Active Member
A light layer of sand on top of the soil has worked for those small black gnats in my house plants. In my greenhouse I use those yellow sticky flytraps, and as mentioned above wine, or even beer works too. I put a bowl of beer out there and it works really well.
 

sj65gia

Member
Simple! There are some Great Ideas posted here! First, slow down on your watering... Second, Yellow Sticky traps... Third, layer of sand on top of soil... Fourth, D.E. Or Diatomatious Earth... The fourth Idea is the hardest to get ahold of but it works great.

I fought the little flys for years, I even thought that I kept them under control... Ya. Right, lack of water works just not the greatest for the plants, sticky traps work but not fully, Sand? long term messy... I've found that the D.E. works Great I don't have any gnats anymore... Just go to startpage.com and search for Diatomatious Earth and one of the links will be for health works something like that... I got the 10lbs bag and the pest pistol, Very Happy customer!
 
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