I think I have house plant gnats!

[wildfellhall]

They seem to be everywhere in the kitchen now.
I have a ton of house plants
Is there an easy fix?

Same here, driving me mad! I have loads of the sticky yellow traps but they only catch some. Also tried mosquito dunks in watering can, didn't work. I've now ordered nematodes to kill the larvae, fingers crossed they work!

Neem oil spray from eBay - spray all over the plants and soil and it will get rid of them.

Just let the plants dry out a bit so the top 1-2cm of soil is dry and they will magically disappear.

@InkHeart2024 Thank you for the recommendation, we have these too and they're driving us mad, will give neem oil a try!

We've got an insecticide spray but it's a strong one that you are only meant to use a few times because it can also kill the plants (also not great for us breathing it in!) Hopefully the neem oil will be a bit gentler.

Also tried the sticky yellow traps, they're good but a bit gross and they only catch the living ones, not the larvae.

A pack of nematodes (miniscule worms!) will sort them out.

I'm sure they leave larvae in the soil. I let my indoor plants dry out especially at this time and theres a huge reduction of the gnats definitely.
When I think the plants are looking forlorn I give them even a drop of water the gnats come back (hatching from eggs I reckon) in a frenzy.
Where's the best place to buy neem water please?
Links appreciated. It's a jungle out there.

I got rid of them by sprinkling cinnamon on the top of the soil.

Another thing that helps is a layer of small stones/ gravel over the top of the soil in all your pots.

I've been battling with this for months and have tried everything. The only thing that worked was hydrogen peroxide mixed with water in the watering can. They're not fully gone yet but they're 95% of the way there.

I have them too, one tiny plant from the local garden centre let the buggers in.

Thank you for all the tips!

I had these too but am thankfully now free of them (fingers crossed)

The main thing is to understand that the larvae have a 14 day breeding cycle so whatever you do, keep doing it for about a month or more:

• diluted hydrogen peroxide for top watering (through the top inch of soil where they breed)
• cinnamon and gravel on soil surface may help
• once they seem under control water from the base of the pot if possible to let the top soil dry out and stop the cycle.

They're a bugger though!

I had fungus gnats in my house plants and I got rid of them with a layer of diatomaceous earth in every plant pot. It takes about 3 or 4 weeks to break their cycle but after that they’re gone. I got the food grade one, it’s a chemical free way of getting rid of them. I also put the sticky traps in to help things along.

I came here to say this. Cinnamon on its own fixed my quite intense infestation last year.

Me too!

I tried neem oil last year. While it didn't really do the trick (and it stank) it may have held the infestation at bay long enough for me to be able to put the affected plants out in the warm weather. They recovered after a summer outdoors.

If it happens again, I'm using diatomaceous earth.