Will gnats eat my plants?

I was just moving my plants around to top them all off and i noticed that as i disturbed the pots, a couple gnats or fruit flies came up from the soil and started flying around. I mean these things are tiny and seemingly harmless. None of my plants have any sign of being eat, but I dont want to take the risk.. plus idk if they can carry around some sort of bacteria or virus that can be transmitted to the plant.

Does anyone have any knowledge about the capability of destruction these things have? I need to know if i have to start taking precautions to get rid of them.

Thanks ahead of time!

I have heard the larve eat roots but I just kill them and never found out. I also do not leave gross water
around in the pans and I use large enough pots that the surface stays pretty dry. Fly strips
will get the big ones but then you have to decide what route you want to go for the kids.
Some put sand across the top of the dirt and when watering place a bowl in the dirt so you do not
disturb the sand. I think you can also water the soil with neem some say to some do not like that crap on the roots.
Sorry I can not be more specific for ya. If no one else helps check out the bugs section maybe

Yellow sticky traps, azamax drench and mosquito dunk bits in the water. Also they like wet soil. Drying soil helps. Sand and DE as stated. If you put potato slices on the soil the maggots come up to feed on the bottom of em. Kinda gross but you can see em and kill em.

The adult flying gnats don't do any damage to plants, but they adults leaves larvae in the soil that if there is an absence of organic material then the larvae will sometimes start munching on your roots...the best thing for gnats is good old letting everything dry out...the gnats need wet spots to eat and leave their eggs...if the top of your soil is dry then the gnats are much less inclined to use your soil as their habitat. And putting sand on top of the soil is great because sand doesn't retain water...so the soil under the sand can be wet and comfy for your plants, while the tops of the pots are dry and terrible for the gnats all covered in sand and what not...just know that you end up with sand all through your soil...doesn't hurt anything, but does weigh the pots down a bit even when they are dry...

A large healthy plant will be unaffected by gnats, but a clone, seedling, small, or sickly plant won't withstand an attack as well

Holy crap! Im glad I asked. I knew those little shits were up to something. I appreciate the responses guys!

You can shut down the reproductive cycle of fungus gnats by putting a layer of sand on top of your soil. The top layer of the sand will remain relatively dry and the sand is hard for them to penetrate. Fungus gnats need moist soil for there larva to survive so simply allowing the soil to dry out before the next watering will cut down there population.

Fungus gnats are very easy to control and eliminate. Be thankful you dont have spider mites!

Happy Growing!