How to Get Rid of Gnats in Potted Plants
The soil gnat or fungus gnat is a small insect that often plagues potted houseplants because there are no natural predators indoors. While the gnats do not cause harm to the plant itself, the gnats can become a significant nuisance due to their large flying population. They can get into your food, fly into your lights and die in large numbers on various open surfaces, like counters and tables. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Insect sticky traps
- Yellow cardboard or paper
- Petroleum jelly
- Bacillus thuringiensis-based pesticide
- Standard insecticide
Instructions
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Avoid over-watering your potted plants. Let the top one to two inches of potting soil dry out between waterings. This kills the fungus in the soil that the gnat larvae feed upon, thereby starving the larvae to death.
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Trap the adult gnats. Use a commercial sticky trap designed for flying insects, or build your own by coating a yellow piece of cardboard or construction paper with petroleum jelly. Place the traps near your potted plants to quickly lower the population of flying gnats. Discard the traps when they are covered in gnats and replace with new traps.
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Treat the potted plant's soil with a Bacillus thuringiensis-based pesticide. This is a natural bacterium which will kill the gnat larvae by breaking the gnats' life cycle.
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Set the potted plant outdoors and treat its foliage with a standard houseplant insecticide based on permethrin or similar chemicals. Treat in the morning to allow the pesticide fumes to dissipate before moving the plant back indoors for the evening.
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Tips & Warnings
Monitor your plant's health. Some plants need constantly moist soil and will not do well if dried out as directed.
References
Resources
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Comments
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Got it, Mary :) I am not a plant person by any means, so appreciate all the help.
