do anyone know how to get rid of knats from indoor houseplants. Do they come from the soil?

Question

they are 6in. philadanroms and ivys, I repotted 2 of them with soil from walmart, or do house plants produce knats

Answer 1

cut back on the water a bit sometimes that works for me.

Answer 2

An idea is to set up traps for the pests. Cut out a couple small squares of yellow paper and tape them onto skewers. Then rub a bit of vasaline onto the yellow paper and stick the skewers into the dirt. For some reason the bugs are attracted to the yellow color. When they land on the vasaline covered papers, they'll become stuck and die. You can change the papers as often as you need and when you do not see any more gnats stuck to the yellow...they're probably all gone.

I'm not sure if the gnats come from the soil itself but they do like to live in moist soil. One way to clean the soil is to place it on a cookie sheet and bake it in the oven on 250' for a bit. It will kill all the little nasties before you use the potting soil.

Answer 3

Yes Fungus gnats Do come from the soil, The egg, larvae, and pupae all live in the soil and only the adult is visible flying above the soil.
The fungus gnat needs wet conditions to live so run your plants dryer than usual.
Put a few yellow sticky insect monitoring traps flat into the pots to catch the adults.
Put cut up raw potato slices, just a few in each pot. Change the slices each day, and when you put them in the trash, FIRST, seal them in a zip lock baggie.
What the raw potatoes do is attract the larvae to them and every time you throw away potato slices you throw away baby fungus gnats!
You can also re-pot everything...but that is a bit drastic.
It means taking all the plants out of the pots and washing off *** the old soil and then re-potting them into clean pots and catching on those yellow sticky cards any last adults present in the room.
Nematodes!!! You can buy nematodes on line or at an organic garden center and water the little critters into your plants, they eat fungus gnat eggs, larvae and pupae.
Notice I did not suggest pesticides, there is too much over use of pesticides in our world all ready, please don't add to the damage!

Answer 4

Ever wonder what sterile soil is and why it is expensive?

But it can be contaminated at store! Which is to say bugsys eggs and such are hiding out waiting for someone's nice predator free indoors to hatch and swarm!

So when indoor potting for an insect free area(any plants placed outside will probably bring back 'hitchhikers') make your own soil sterile.

No don't expose to three mile island or chernobyl BUT do place soil in baking pan and bake... depending on depth of soil time varies but an hour at 300 degrees shoould kill the critters before they hatch! Cool soil and you've created sterile soil!

Treat whitefly or scale or whatever with pesticide for plants(or I prefer homemade recipes(soak a tobacco product in water- strain tobacco out) for spray pesticides works well as the tobacco is poison(and yet so many smoke)...

Answer 5

I had a problem with gnats with my plants. My aunt told me that gnats come if something is rotten in your soil or on your plants, and she was right! The best thing to do is to #1 change the soil and rinse the roots of the plant to kill any of the eggs #2 clip any dead leaves and #3 you can try using sprays, but I didn't find this effective.

Answer 6

Sometimes insects are attracted to the plump moist leaves and sap in houseplants; this includes gnats. You can use a bit of alcohol on cotton buds and dab the areas that are infected, or just rinse them off with clear water and let them dry in the sun.

Answer 7

alot of times, my knats in plants have been fruit flies that have come home from the grocery with me. to get rid of them; i put a glass of sugar water next to the plant....the knats are attracted to the sugar and they can't swim. this is true. i'm not kidding.

Answer 8

I was told that they sometimes come from the soil. You'll have to treat your plant several times until all of the eggs that might have been laid in the soil hatch.

Good Luck. They're annoying.

Answer 9

It sounds like what you are dealing with are fungust gnats. They are attracted to the small bit of fungus that grows on the surface of the soil around your plant. They won't really hurt the plant, but they can be annoying to have in your house. You can use a "drench" type insecticide to get rid of them. I like Safer's Insecticidal Soap; it's widely available, and not highly toxic. http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/safer-insecticidal-soap.html

Answer 10

neem oil is a good gnat repellent. It comes from Neem plant. You can get it at a plant nursery. Just take your plants outside and spray them. They flies will jump off.