You will surely worry about these small wondering pests in your garden and will be thinking that from where does this come? Have you seen a few flying on water and plant? These are known as fungal gnats. Final gnats can be effective on your plants so you have to get rid of gnats at the initial stages in a natural way. Here we have listed four steps to get rid of gnats naturally.
What Are Fungal Gnats?
These gnats are tinny and dark in color with a very small life span. It’s better to get rid of these when you spot them as time pass they will grow more and it can be more dangerous.
From Where These Fungal Gnats Come?
It’s better to understand the steps from where do these grants come instead of treating them after the attack. Try some simple steps and save your plant from the initial attack of gnats. They can come from different sources like:
- Simply come flying from outside
- Plant to plant transfer
- Like fruit fly, it doesn’t come from feed or sugary
These grants are attached to funds, wet soil, or different decaying organic matters. It lay an egg in the soil and its larva feed through the soil and through the roots of the plant. When these small larvas get adults they start flying on the top layer of soil and search for food. These small gnats can shift toward any moist area in your garden for food.
How To Get Rid Of Gnats
Dry The Soil
As gnats love the moisture it’s necessary to dry out the soil between every water. Plants which you over water or plants whose soil remains moist or water logging are the favorite points for this.
Replace The Soil
At first, try drying the soil, and if that method doesn’t work then go for changing your soil mixture. It does not mean to change the potting mix of the whole pot but just replace the top 2 inches of the soil with a well-drained potting mixture with a small sterile mixture and at the top add a thin layer of sand. Sand will stop the growth of gnats and it will also control moisture conditions.
This new layer of soil will remove all the eggs and larva away and it will stop the population of gnats. Fresh soil also controls moisture level and doesn’t let the soil be too wet for too long and prevents waterlogging.
Read More: How To Get Rid Of Slugs? Best Natural Ways
Natural Insecticidal Spray
Is fungal attack too much? and both the top mentioned method doesn’t work for about 2 weeks? Now you should try the trusty ole soapy water mixture. This works as a natural pest spray on many houseplants. Simply mix it with liquid soap and we recommend you to use Dr. Bronner’s castile soap and add 250ml water instead of 1 tablespoon of soap. Before applying this mixture to the whole plant, test it first on a small area of the plant and then, later on, apply it to the whole plant.
Sticky Tape
Furthermore, you can try sticky tape it is considered very effective against adult pests. yellow adhesive tape will work better and it will stop and catch many gnats. Do gnats lay eggs in the pot? in these situations put a tape cover on the plant for about 1 month and let the soil dry so it will kill them.
You can see results in one month because the life span of an adult gnat is about 7-10 days but the whole process from egg to death will take about 1 month.
How Does These Gnats Harm The Plant?
The main harm of gnats is at their initial stages when the larva feeds on the roots of the plant. Bundles of larva in a single time and give too much damage and it will bring your plant towards death. But nuisance fungal gnats are harmless and they will not affect animals and humans because they don’t deal any damage.
Preventions
Here as some steps by which you can prevent gnats from your plant and have your plants healthy. At first, don’t overwater and always water after checking the soil conditions if the topmost soil is dry, it will work for almost every houseplant. Waterlogging is the base that not just invites fungal gnats but many other pests also. Have you grown different pothos plants make sure to keep the affected ones away from other pothos so they will stay safe.
All the methods and tips mentioned above will work very well and surely you can make your plants safe. The natural pesticide will work very perfectly and you will get rid of them naturally and at the end, we will say that grow more and better plants with Growncares.
