A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Little Black gnat like bugs

Aggh! I have had these before I think only in the winter. Two of my plants seem to have them around them. The thing is they fly away from the plants and I see them all around.
I seem to recall someone telling me they are in the soil. That some potting soil can contain the eggs. and the warmth and water make them hatch. Thing is do I just get an indoor plant spray and do the soil? Any ideas.

You can put up little sticky traps to trap the flying adults, and pieces of potato on the soil (within a few hours all the larvae will be feeding on the potato). You have fungus gnats. The adults fly around and will lay eggs on the soil. The wetter the soil is the more there are. They thrive on moisture. I can usually get rid of them by repotting in new sterile potting soil, or by letting the plant really dry out (works for some but not all plants). The adults are the ones that fly around; they are nothing more than nuisance. The larvae will feed on the roots of your plant and can kill seedlings.

yep that's what it is alright,,

On occasion I get them too,, yep always in the winter,
I take off the first two inches of soil ( yep I take it outside and do it or in the garage with the door open, ) and throw away the lifted soil,
and replace it with fresh potting soil,, and totally let the plant dry out,, that always got rid of them for me,,, I take care of it as soon as I notice them flying around,,

I had them to a few years back---I didnt remove the soil but I did let the plant completely dry out.---and when I thought i could water, I waited a bit longer...that got rid of them for me--

But if I had to do it over again, I think I would go Angelblossom's route, just to be safe.

Removing the top layer of soil does not work to control fungus gnats, they can be deeper into the soil profile. This also damages your roots to you plants and is messy.

The adults spread plant diseases, so if that is a concern you need to treat.

here is an adult
[image removed by poster request]


The best treatment is to use beneficial nematodes. The next cheaper but not as good option would be to drench with 1% insecticidal soap solution.

To trap the adults use yellow sticky cards.


for more info you can see

fungus gnats

Sorry Bug lady But it did work for me,, when I removed the top soil I did so carefully let it dry out and replaced the top 2 inches with fresh soil,, 'Never saw another gnat after that , maybe I got lucky the few times I've done it??