Fungus gnats on indoor plants

[MarkWithaC]

How do you get rid of the little blighters?
I've got them on several of my house plants. I'm currently not watering the plants, in the hope that dry soil will put them off laying eggs, have topped the pots with gravel, again to try to make it harder for them to lay, and am using sticky traps in the pots to catch the adults, but I'm a bit sick of them flying round my head, landing in my glass of water etc, and I worry that my plants will die of dryness before the gnats die off.

HELP!

Nematodes are the only things that work. Water them in. Repeat. Job done

Thank you! Do you think it's OK to buy them off Amazon, or do I need to find a more reputable seller?

Bottom water your plants so the top of the soil doesn't get wet.

After I get rid of them, I'm planning to only use watering bulbs, so there's no excess water hanging about.

Put a layer of gravel or sand on top of the soil so it’s not appealing to the females.

We had some success with cinnamon powder. Should be some more detail online if you google it. Good luck, they’re horrid little things.

I got my nematodes from Amazon and they worked well!

I used a trap made from a plastic bottle, the bait was vinegar and sugar in water with a splash of washing up liquid. They could get in but not out.

Urgh I feel for you as I just had an absolute infestation of them. I thought they were fruit flies and was going out of my mind, bleaching work tops constantly and not allowing anyone to use the bin (it all had to go straight outside to the big bins, a right faff).

Anyway I did it all. Gravel, nematodes, sticky traps, vinegar traps etc. In desperation I threw the 2 worst infected (as evidenced on the yellow sticky traps) in the garden and now they're all gone. Finally. It's blissful. And I only water from the bottom now.

Sorry, not what you'd want to hear. But I had to sacrifice 2 for the good of the many!

I repotted all my plants with indoor houseplant compost.

I’ve got gravel in mine , and the sticky traps ( but when DH is out of the way , as he’s a believer in organic remedies ) they get a light spraying with Raid fly spray about once a month

Thanks all. I've added gravel, repotted some with less damp compost (am worried about disturbing/killing the others if I try) and have ordered nematodes from Amazon. Fingers crossed...

Spray the soil surface with Rose Clear Ultra. It WILL get rid of the flies. Repeat three weeks later.

I thought they were fruit flies and was going out of my mind, bleaching work tops constantly Fruit flies tend to stay airborne except when there’s actual fruit, fungus gnats fly a bit but you’ll always find several crawling up the outsides of pots.

Indoor fly spray (eg kybosh) will kill the flies

If the nematodes (arriving today!) don't work I'll try some of the other suggestions on here; thank you!

The other thing you need to do is put the plugs in the sinks when you aren't using them, because they can live in the drains.

What, like the kitchen sink? God, can they spread so much?

We've only got a small house but for about 2 weeks I had to put bleach down the drains every night and put in all the plugs, the plants were in the bathroom!

I second the fly spray method but obviously don’t attempt this until you are sure nematodes haven’t worked otherwise you will kill those too!

Mine aren't in a bathroom or kitchen, so hopefully I'll be OK; I've read that they can't fly all that far.

Bottom watering did the trick for us, used to be hundreds of them all the time before that.