Does this mean all of my plants will get infested with whatever these are? Or does this mean there is already a pretty serious problem?
Has anybody ever had this problem? 😠this started happening when I put multiple pothos on the windowsill. Is this an infestation I should be worried about? All of my plants are in this one corner ðŸ˜
I’m not sure what those are, as I can’t zoom in, but you need to sprinkle some food grade diatomaceous earth on that sill… it will kill them and prevent them from getting further into your home. You may want to find out where they are getting in and seal it, as well.
Edit: Someone else mentioned these look like gnats. I tend to agree. If so, diatomaceous earth won’t work as well as it would have if these were just crawlers. You might want to try hitting them with some sort of bug spray and then work on preventative measures… not overwatering, using Mosquito Bits, yellow sticky traps, etc.
Jesus Christ. I will NEVER complain about my fungus gnat issues again.
TomTomXD1234
You cannot be seriously asking if this is an infestation?
Time to call pest control
martylindleyart
There’s clearly already a problem. Are they all over the plants too? Or on/in the soil? I can’t quite tell from the video but it looks like gnats. Do they fly or like, dart around?
I think you’re gonna have to go nuclear first before you treat the plants.
goldenkiwicompote
Looks like fungus gnats. Spray the window sill with alcohol to kill them all and then get some mosquito dunks/bits and follow the directions in the packing(add some to water and keep using that to water your plants) also some yellow sticky traps would be beneficial here because there’s so many adults.
Appropriate-Fill9602
Those do look like fungus gnats possibly. Do you have many plants in the area?Â
Also, is there any possibility of water damage around that window, do you notice any discoloration around the window outside?Â
EvlMidgt
So last year I randomly had gnats swarm 2 windows of my house. It was fucking crazy! And horrifying. No idea why/how it happened. 48 hrs and then they just disappeared as quickly as they showed up.
KrazyKatDogLady
It’s hard to tell for sure from the video, but I suspect gnats. They are a pain in the butt, but generally don’t hurt the plants. They love moist soil, so let the plants dry out a bit (not enough to kill the plant obviously). They fly, so relocate to another room unaffected plants until you get things under control. I have used mosquito bits (crumbled in water) to get rid of them as it kills the larvae of both mosquitos and gnats. Neem oil (mixed in water and castille soap) sprayed on base of plant also helps. You can never totally eliminate them and most people with lots of plants will see them occasionally, but key is to keep the population down as they are a nuisance more than they are harmful.
Azure_Ninja05
These 1000% look like fungus gnats. They love soil that is constantly moist and will feed on the plant matter in the soil (rotting roots, for example). I’ve only seen them kill plants in extreme cases, but otherwise, they are just very annoying. To combat them best, you want to start bottom watering if you don’t already, letting soil dry out in between waterings and get sticky traps in all of your plants. This would be the most extreme case I’ve seen of them.
Since I started bottom watering only and got sticky traps, I haven’t seen any (it takes a bit of time for their numbers to decline, but they will). They lay their eggs in the soil, so it’ll be a case of waiting for the adult population to dwindle, and the younger ones will follow. Regarding the windowsill, spray this with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol to kill the ones there. I’d personally also quarantine the worst plants to make the possible knock-on effect not as bad with how many there are and if you have other plants.
If you have them in one plant, chances are you have them in others too if you have the same watering schedule/technique and if they’re near each other. Without doing things that take extra effort and more money (like watering with a diluted mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, for example – info can be found online for this if you want to take this route. I did, and it worked to knock the numbers initially.), bottom watering and sticky traps are your best friend. However, with an infestation this severe, you’ll want to use something like mosquito bits to soak the soil and/or damascus earth – this will stick to their exoskeleton and cut them eventually killing them.
Make sure all plants are in a nursery pot (plastic pot) and then in a decorative pot. This helps with air flow, presenting root rot, drainage, and fungus gnats.
BRaytheBeardedDragon
You got a problem lol
Major_Bench5329
This is an infestation for sure. What the ….
They look like soil nats ? If that’s the case go buy sand and put at least an inch of sand in all your plants. This is insane. I’d check for serious rotting around this spot ?
ZealousidealPen443
braydon125
Ew dude burn the household down my brother
CerealUnaliver
This looks to be a fungus gnat infestation. Get u some Mosquito bits at Home Depot or Amazon. I normally use 1 Tbsp per gallon water but w/ an infestation like this I might do 2-3 Tbsp per gallon for the 1st 2-3 weeks. I let it steep for at least an hour (even better overnight tho). U can either strain the bits out or do what I do and use a dedicated tea ball dunker from the dollar store (or old panty hose or even a coffee filter folded in half then again on 3 edges and stapled shut). Then water ur plants with this solution until they’re gone and a couple weeks after that. Water all plants with this solution not just the ones u *think* are infested just to be sure. It kills the larve.
Bottom watering does not work IMO bc the gnats can still climb thru the drainage holes in the btm. Do u ever lift ur pot up out of its dish or cache pot and see gnats in there? Ya. The mosquito bits are the only guaranteed method I’ve used. But I’d also recommend spraying ur sill w/ Windex or some diluted ammonia or an ammonia based cleaner to kill all those adults congregating on it. That will help cut the amount of egg laying adults from jump. Good luck!
N9242Oh
Well are they on your plants??
bbykoala-
Omg if these are fungus gnats I’ve never seen so many together 😠and I thought I had an issue…….
You posted asking the same question about these in your plant soil a year ago. Your problem isn’t your plants, it’s your care habits of the plants.
winterchestnuts
In my experience, the most effective thing to do is to uproot your plants, and pour boiling water on the dirt. It’s the nuclear option but my plants survived and I’m gnat free. There was no way I was gonna wait weeks – after I boiled the soil, I sifted through and found like 30 larvae in a pot. Those fuckers would just crawl deeper when I tried to spray them.
yikesthatsme22
Idk what they are but its gross…. spray the whole window and surrounding area with straight alcohol. It’ll kill what ever that is. The higher percentage the better for this, 90 would be my go to.
DO NOT USE THIS ON YOUR PLANTS!
Dilute it for your plants. Do not dilute for the window and surrounding area.
Queasy-Cell34
stayingpositive225
I have successfully tried bti (mosquito bits) and also nematodes (from Arbico organics) to curb fungus gnats. (Sounds scary, but it’s just little tiny balls and you put a teaspoon or so on top of your plant soil, water the plant and the little microscopic critters do the rest… easy peasy.) Those will stop larvae from turning into full grown pests. The yellow sticky bug trap things things that you stick into the pot will catch the mature flying ones. They’re on Amazon. But at this level of infestation you might just want to throw it away and use some of these measures as prevention for any future plants.
Friendly_Berry_7649
I had a similar problem. I solved it by getting the yellow, sticky tape sticks and putting it in the pots capture to a lot of them and I also bought the sticky light trap something like a Zevo or a Safer. It took a while, but they’re all gone. I keep the Safer trap in several rooms now to keep the house clear of any kind of flying bugs without using a pesticide.
24 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/fothh3hxfqpf1.jpeg?width=925&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5bf85efe58ca2eba14f497dbe7c23b121e954ce
I’m not sure what those are, as I can’t zoom in, but you need to sprinkle some food grade diatomaceous earth on that sill… it will kill them and prevent them from getting further into your home. You may want to find out where they are getting in and seal it, as well.
Edit: Someone else mentioned these look like gnats. I tend to agree. If so, diatomaceous earth won’t work as well as it would have if these were just crawlers. You might want to try hitting them with some sort of bug spray and then work on preventative measures… not overwatering, using Mosquito Bits, yellow sticky traps, etc.
Jesus Christ. I will NEVER complain about my fungus gnat issues again.
You cannot be seriously asking if this is an infestation?
Time to call pest control
There’s clearly already a problem. Are they all over the plants too? Or on/in the soil? I can’t quite tell from the video but it looks like gnats. Do they fly or like, dart around?
I think you’re gonna have to go nuclear first before you treat the plants.
Looks like fungus gnats. Spray the window sill with alcohol to kill them all and then get some mosquito dunks/bits and follow the directions in the packing(add some to water and keep using that to water your plants) also some yellow sticky traps would be beneficial here because there’s so many adults.
Those do look like fungus gnats possibly. Do you have many plants in the area?Â
Also, is there any possibility of water damage around that window, do you notice any discoloration around the window outside?Â
So last year I randomly had gnats swarm 2 windows of my house. It was fucking crazy! And horrifying. No idea why/how it happened. 48 hrs and then they just disappeared as quickly as they showed up.
It’s hard to tell for sure from the video, but I suspect gnats. They are a pain in the butt, but generally don’t hurt the plants. They love moist soil, so let the plants dry out a bit (not enough to kill the plant obviously). They fly, so relocate to another room unaffected plants until you get things under control. I have used mosquito bits (crumbled in water) to get rid of them as it kills the larvae of both mosquitos and gnats. Neem oil (mixed in water and castille soap) sprayed on base of plant also helps. You can never totally eliminate them and most people with lots of plants will see them occasionally, but key is to keep the population down as they are a nuisance more than they are harmful.
These 1000% look like fungus gnats. They love soil that is constantly moist and will feed on the plant matter in the soil (rotting roots, for example). I’ve only seen them kill plants in extreme cases, but otherwise, they are just very annoying. To combat them best, you want to start bottom watering if you don’t already, letting soil dry out in between waterings and get sticky traps in all of your plants. This would be the most extreme case I’ve seen of them.
Since I started bottom watering only and got sticky traps, I haven’t seen any (it takes a bit of time for their numbers to decline, but they will). They lay their eggs in the soil, so it’ll be a case of waiting for the adult population to dwindle, and the younger ones will follow. Regarding the windowsill, spray this with isopropyl/rubbing alcohol to kill the ones there. I’d personally also quarantine the worst plants to make the possible knock-on effect not as bad with how many there are and if you have other plants.
If you have them in one plant, chances are you have them in others too if you have the same watering schedule/technique and if they’re near each other. Without doing things that take extra effort and more money (like watering with a diluted mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, for example – info can be found online for this if you want to take this route. I did, and it worked to knock the numbers initially.), bottom watering and sticky traps are your best friend. However, with an infestation this severe, you’ll want to use something like mosquito bits to soak the soil and/or damascus earth – this will stick to their exoskeleton and cut them eventually killing them.
Make sure all plants are in a nursery pot (plastic pot) and then in a decorative pot. This helps with air flow, presenting root rot, drainage, and fungus gnats.
You got a problem lol
This is an infestation for sure. What the ….
They look like soil nats ? If that’s the case go buy sand and put at least an inch of sand in all your plants. This is insane. I’d check for serious rotting around this spot ?
Ew dude burn the household down my brother
This looks to be a fungus gnat infestation. Get u some Mosquito bits at Home Depot or Amazon. I normally use 1 Tbsp per gallon water but w/ an infestation like this I might do 2-3 Tbsp per gallon for the 1st 2-3 weeks. I let it steep for at least an hour (even better overnight tho). U can either strain the bits out or do what I do and use a dedicated tea ball dunker from the dollar store (or old panty hose or even a coffee filter folded in half then again on 3 edges and stapled shut). Then water ur plants with this solution until they’re gone and a couple weeks after that. Water all plants with this solution not just the ones u *think* are infested just to be sure. It kills the larve.
Bottom watering does not work IMO bc the gnats can still climb thru the drainage holes in the btm. Do u ever lift ur pot up out of its dish or cache pot and see gnats in there? Ya. The mosquito bits are the only guaranteed method I’ve used. But I’d also recommend spraying ur sill w/ Windex or some diluted ammonia or an ammonia based cleaner to kill all those adults congregating on it. That will help cut the amount of egg laying adults from jump. Good luck!
Well are they on your plants??
Omg if these are fungus gnats I’ve never seen so many together 😠and I thought I had an issue…….
https://preview.redd.it/qwk5rukdmqpf1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77104f73a2cf06b577c2aca7e6b4ff2a34d1d258
You posted asking the same question about these in your plant soil a year ago. Your problem isn’t your plants, it’s your care habits of the plants.
In my experience, the most effective thing to do is to uproot your plants, and pour boiling water on the dirt. It’s the nuclear option but my plants survived and I’m gnat free. There was no way I was gonna wait weeks – after I boiled the soil, I sifted through and found like 30 larvae in a pot. Those fuckers would just crawl deeper when I tried to spray them.
Idk what they are but its gross…. spray the whole window and surrounding area with straight alcohol. It’ll kill what ever that is. The higher percentage the better for this, 90 would be my go to.
DO NOT USE THIS ON YOUR PLANTS!
Dilute it for your plants. Do not dilute for the window and surrounding area.
I have successfully tried bti (mosquito bits) and also nematodes (from Arbico organics) to curb fungus gnats. (Sounds scary, but it’s just little tiny balls and you put a teaspoon or so on top of your plant soil, water the plant and the little microscopic critters do the rest… easy peasy.) Those will stop larvae from turning into full grown pests. The yellow sticky bug trap things things that you stick into the pot will catch the mature flying ones. They’re on Amazon. But at this level of infestation you might just want to throw it away and use some of these measures as prevention for any future plants.
I had a similar problem. I solved it by getting the yellow, sticky tape sticks and putting it in the pots capture to a lot of them and I also bought the sticky light trap something like a Zevo or a Safer. It took a while, but they’re all gone. I keep the Safer trap in several rooms now to keep the house clear of any kind of flying bugs without using a pesticide.