fungus gnats - next level assistance

[LoveOscar]

Thanks Paul. I meant in general; I'll check them out and see what I can work with. My kitchen needs a few VFT's, I have more ants than flies right now!

[mrphilips]

Originally Posted by Paul

Mosquito dunks work quite well though they are not an instant fix -- generally takes a week or two. You can find them at any home improvement store like Lowes or HomeDepot.

• Take a 1/4 of a dunk "donut" and put it in a gallon (3.8L)jug, fill with water, and let sit overnight or longer.
• Water your plants with the water but leave the dunk chunk in the jug and refill with water. (You can reuse it many times over until it disintegrates.)

Paul, my dunks arrived today - couldn't find them in stock anywhere to i had to order them. i will do as you suggest!

i have a few questions:

1. should this be safe on all my orchids? i have a few random (unknown heritage) phals, a paph rothschildianum, a brassidium dr john, an enc bractenscens (not an issue - mounted and no gnats on the stick), but i also have a phrag pearcei that is tempermental... it seems to like to be constantly wet and i even sit it on a dish of water refilling twice a week. it's in spag which i change twice a year, and it gets black tips if i ever fertilize it. i also only ever water it with rain water. it has the "bug", but will the dunk harm it?
2. should this be ok for the other non-orchid plants?

[Nexogen]

Search for "mosquito dunks" @ Home Depot

It’s 0K for orchids and the other non-orchid plants.

[mrphilips]

session 1 has begun:
dunks marinated for 2 days and water distributed about.
will repeat in a week.
stay tuned.

[mrphilips]

mosquito dunks have been acquired and used over the last three weeks - once a week at watering. this tuesday will be my fourth application of the dunked water and i am still getting the gnats. perhaps a few less than before, but present.

just an update.
i will keep doing it until they're gone and report back.

[orchidsarefun]

the best method is a butterwort or 2 !!!!! Clean, green and interesting - whats not to like ?

[ALToronto]

Originally Posted by orchidsarefun

the best method is a butterwort or 2 !!!!! Clean, green and interesting - whats not to like ?

I had a butterwort, and it even bloomed for me. But not once did I see a gnat stuck to its leaves. Eventually the butterwort died - that was before I started using RO water.

[orchidsarefun]

I have posted photos of my butterwort/s covered in fungus gnats. I even have one covered in whitefly - courtesy of a basil plant I overwintered. I don't have any fungus gnats ( ok, 1 or 2 ) or whitefly now. Fortunately its near warmer weather and mine will all go outdoors. Last year they were covered in bugs within 48hrs of being outdoors.




here's the whitefly nemesis

[mrphilips]

ok, i haven't found butterwort around.
i ordered capensis seeds from germany, but they haven't arrived yet.
mosquito dunks arrived first, so i used them.

i was advised it might take more than 1 application... 3 hasn't fixed it yet so maybe 2 was an exaggerated minimum, but whatever, i'll be doing week 4 on tuesday.

when the capensis arrive, i'll plant them and grow them into plants and eventually(?) might have a gnat reducer, but not right away.

meanwhile, still waiting for the mosquito dunk to fix the issue

[mrphilips]

closing remarks on this issue:

i ordered a butterwort but it never arrived... ultimately by the time i decided to order another i found all i could find was seeds, not plants, and since i was infested i decided this was a nice idea for the future, but too slow for my emergency.

so i went with dunks, which also needed to be ordered. i followed the directions as required. it was suggested it may take a few applications to work...

...i applied it weekly for 3 months. i got about a 60% reduction, but never an end. i doubled the strength (amount of dunk/gallon) - no change. 6 months later, still infested. down to maybe 25%, but still infested.

so then i got the sticky yellow traps which resolved it fully in under 2 weeks.


my conclusion is the butterwort is a nice option if locally available as a grown plant (maybe - didn't try it), the dunks are a good smack in the face, but the yellow stickies work period.

thanks for all your suggestions, i am now bug free.

also quarantine your plants before introducing them to your brood - some kids have measels.