What is fungus gnats? Do you know how to get rid of fungus gnats? Fungus gnats are a terrible pest to catch inside your home.
Fungus gnats will cause an annoying nuisance and breed within your house, plants, moldy soil, potentially killing your plants in the process.
In this article, we are discussing what you should do about fungus gnats indoors and how to stop them from breeding and spreading on your property.
How to Identify Fungus Gnats
When pests infest your home, the first thing you should do in any pest control plan is identifying the pest you’re exactly dealing with.
Careless or wrong identification can lead to wrong treatment methods.
This will cost you time and money. Fungus gnats are small flying insects that look similar to mosquitoes.
Read also: What Attracts Gnats? Possible Causes of Gnats Infestation
What Does Fungus Gnats Look Like?
Fungus Gnats are much smaller than the mosquito, generally growing to be a quarter of an inch in length, while fungus gnats grow to be 1/8 of an inch in length fungus.
Gnats are also harmless to humans and they have no way of biting or penetrating the skin.
Fungus gnats have dark Wings, a pair of antennae, which is longer than the Nets head.
They have no proboscis and six, slender legs, the more common fungus gnats.
Actually consists of two different geniuses of flies for philia and Rhodesia fungus gnats of the genus or philia.
They have slender abdomens and are the larger of the two while fungus gnats of the genius.
Fungus Gnats have more robust abdomens fungus, gnat larvae, post more of a concern than the adults.
This is because the larvae must feed on mold, developing in the soil and also via to plant some roots, a large enough.
Infestation can actually kill off entire house plants. A single net larva can grow to be about a quarter of an inch in length. They have white or clear bodies, no legs, and blackheads.
Read also: Are Gnats Attracted to Light? Interesting Fact About Gnats
Picture of Fungus Gnats
Carrying out Inspection for Fungus Gnats
Inspection is the next phase of any good pest control plan. Once, you know what your pests look like, check around your property to confirm their presence or find the hot spot for infestation.
The presence of fungus gnats indicates that at least one of your house plants is developing mold or fungus.
At least in the soil, typically adult that’s flying around indoors is enough to let you know that you have an infestation.
You’ll need to inspect individual potted plants to determine the sources of your fungus problem. You can use adult net activity to determine which plants nearby need closer inspection.
Read also: Where Do Gnats Come From? The Origin of Gnats
Where to Spot Fungus Gnats?
Adult fungus gnats are weak fliers and will typically say close to infested plants since they are attracted to light.
You can also spot them flying or resting near windows after you found a dull mate activity. Take note of any nearby plants and inspect those closely kept together.
When your plants show signs of poor growth, any note of wilting or yellowing of the leaves, you have to observe the soil surface for signs of larvae.
You’ll look for either the larvae along the surface. Once you’ve determined which of your plants is infested. It’s recommended you isolate them in preparation for treatment.
This way, the fungus gnats are unable to spread to any of your healthy plants to prolong their activity on your property.
Read also: How to Stop Gnats from Flying Around You
How to Get Rid of Fungus Gnats
It’s time to start treatment, but before starting any treatment ensure to wear your personal protective equipment or PPE and to keep all people and pets off the treated areas until dry.
If you’re particularly bothered by the adult fungus gnats flying in your household. You can use pest control products and spray around your plants.
How to Treat Fungus Gnats with Pyrid Aerosols
To use pyrid aerosols:
- Simply shake the can
- Spray the space above the plant where fungus gnats hiding and allow the product to drift down onto the nets.
- Pyrid must make contact with the pest in order to work, the product works by interfering with the pest nervous system killing it within minutes.
How to Get Rid of Fungus Gnats Naturally
Fungus gnats spend a majority of their life cycle as larvae within the soil, the most effective way to get rid of fungus gnats is to target the larvae themselves.
A simple way to remove the fungus gnats larvae is to use a small raw potato. Simply cut the potato into small pieces and place it on top of the soil.
The potato will absorb moisture from the soil, drying it out and making the soil less conducive for mold growth or fungus gnats development.
This involves removing the plant from the old soil and planting it in new fresh soil, or potting mix.
Remove the plant from the soil with care and use your hands or a brush to remove the old soil, from the roots.
Place the plant into a pot with new soil, or potting mix, then water your plant appropriately.
When selecting new soil or potting mix. Be sure to choose a pasteurized variety. Many unpasteurized soils sold in stores can actually contain fungus eggs just waiting to hatch.
We also recommend you use a pot with a drain hole that way excess water has a way to drain out of the pot instead of sitting at the bottom.
If your plant has suffered too much damage from the infestation and it doesn’t seem to be able to recover and may need to consider throwing it out entirely.
If you keep it, you’ll just invite more fungus gnats activity and potentially make your infestation tougher to get rid of.
How to Prevent Fungus Gnats from Returning
Prevention is essential to keeping pests away from your property even after you’ve applied pesticides, the best way to stop gnats activity is to make sure it can’t happen again.
Some fungus gnat control, you’ll need to perform the following procedures:
Take measures to ensure your plant’s soil cannot be used to develop larvae start by watering your plant properly.
If fungus gnats are allowed to develop in the first place, most likely, because a plant was over-watered to contain excess moisture allowed for mold to grow to attract fungus gnats to lay their eggs in the soil.
Allow the top one to three inches of soil to dry completely before watering.
If the surface remains moist, you may need to improve the aeration or drainage of the soil.
Additionally, keep the surface of the soil clear of any organic debris, fallen leaves, or prune away parts of plants.
This does not only allows the water to reach the soil better. But it also removes potential organic material where mold can form and feed any fungus gnats.
How to Prevent Fungus Gnats with a Trap
You can monitor for potential adult activity easily by setting up a musk.
Aesthetic Muska sticks are chemical-free sticky fly traps that utilize in a checked-in to control fly infestations.
They come ready to use and require no additional tools to set up. Install to set up a musket stick carefully, remove the stick and pow from the box.
Open the pouch and pour the contents into the lower cup of the stick. The pouch contains fly pheromones that the gnats will be attracted to.
Hang the stick within close proximity of your houseplants, and at places that make contact with the glue will be unable to free itself.
If you start to see gnat stuck to the stick, you’ll know when an infestation occurs and you can take immediate action to prevent it from growing any larger.
Finally
Fungus Gnats is one of the most annoying flies a homeowner can face they’ll cause a nuisance inside homes and indicate a potential mold problem.
Happily, you can stop fungus gnats from developing in your house plants by following this procedure.
Also, stay updated with the latest DIY pest control clues from pestclue by subscribing to our newsletter. What are your secrets to getting rid of fungus gnats? Let me know down the comment.
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