Houseplant - fly infested... help

[Sheelanogig]

I have a big houseplant that stands in the floor looking beautiful.

It was looking a little needy. Changed the compost.
Compost must have had fly eggs in it (is that possible?) And had an outbreak of little black flies (about 40).
Stood the plant outside whilst we went on hols (didn't want a fly house on my return).

Can still see a few little buggers in the compost.

If I spray with bug spray will it kill them?
Other less chemical suggestions welcome.

I read online that these are fungal flies (I have the same issue) and that they like damp soil. The recommendations I had were to change the soil and try to get as much of the original soil off the roots as possible. Another was to add a gravel layer to the top of the soil.

They're fungus gnats. I got yellow sticker things from Amazon.

You need nematodes and the yellow stickers! Stickers on their own won’t address the actual problem but do help the process. Honestly — I was driven to distraction by fungus gnats and was debating throwing out all my gorgeous houseplants. Bought nematodes and two weeks later — boom.

There are several different brands out there… Have used this brand before with great success

If you let the soil dry out, it breaks the life cycle because the adults can't lay their eggs and they all die off.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

That all makes sense. Will get onto this

There have been lots of threads on this. Do a search on fungus gnats or sciarid flies