Cleaned up a thrips infestation a few months ago with repotting. I now have healthy new growth but also a few flying bugs. I assumed thrips, wiped the plant with Neem, and set out sticky traps to catch the flying insects.
Woke up to see something new— thousands of little insects on the traps like dust. These showed up for the first time last night, the traps caught the little flying bugs and I haven’t seen these before.
They’re only appearing on the lower traps. What’s going on?
Watering: I drench once a month with a 128oz can.
Light: east-facing window, 8-10 hours per day
by lagouluemou
14 Comments
I spray my soil with neem oil to get rid of eggs and larva. I’ve had a fungus gnat problem and spraying the dirt seems to get rid of them. Knock on wood I haven’t seen any in a few days.
Oh, you have joined the cult of fungus gnats; you will now learn about diatomaceous earth, mosquito bits, peroxide, dry earth, repotting, life cycle of gnats and humidity. You have much reading to do. They fly from plant to plant and lay eggs in the top two inches of soil, they fly up your nose, you end up waving your arms about like some deranged lunatic. It’s the fungus gnat look. Edited for extra commas as requested
Otw to the airport but sprayed soil with neem oil before leaving. Letting it dry and replacing the soil when I’m back, thanks again
What in the world… if this is gnats, even if it isn’t, invest in a bottle of Microbe-Lift BMC. The larvae eat it and die. So it can take a few weeks to see a reduction in population. Add 2-3 drops per gallon of water and use on every plant every time you water. You won’t have to mess with mosquito bits that will get moldy in your soil, or going through the hassle of brewing a tea out of them.
How sure are you these aren’t thrips? The shape really doesn’t look like gnats but these pics aren’t very helpful for ID
Springtails! I get the same thing in my garden and believe it or not, my pool too.
Either gnat larvae or springtail. I’m leaning towards springtail since they could crawl and jump. And that explains why some of them got caught in the middle of the trap. Gnat larvae would stay inside the soil most of the time and they can’t jump.
These look like silver springtails which are beneficial to the soil.
I can’t see them clearly, but thrips are the smallest of all flying insects. Maybe what you had before was something else.
Neem oil is useless and can actually burn your plants, throw it away. At best it just drowns bugs nothing else
Holy crap on a cracker. Looks like a variety of bugs to me and some of them are elongated. Some with wings, but from the photo, the majority aren’t fungus gnats. Might be able to get a better look if a photo was taken straight on from the sticky trap.
Never hurts to have a sundew or two…they attract the gnats and eat them.
Those little bugs are definitely springtails and beneficial. That is not what gnat larvae look like. You have a minor fungus gnat issue
Thrips are more attracted to blue if you want to test for the adults.