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With a little diligence, you can turn your home into a fly-free zone. Gnats are attracted to sweet scents, moisture, garbage, houseplants, and other warm, moist environments like your bathroom or kitchen. Gnats also live and reproduce in sink drains and garbage disposals due to the food residue, water, and shelter that drains provide.
Spray them with vinegar.
So, getting rid of these bugs from houseplants is a top priority. Even if there’s no food present in your bathroom, flies and gnats may be attracted to this space because of its warmth and moisture buildup. Alternatively, these gnats may be drain flies that live in the sink or tub drains. To get rid of flies, try fly traps made with vinegar and dish soap, clean the drain with bleach, or call a professional pest control. In addition to the traps, you need to address the issue of gnat eggs and larvae growing in your houseplant soil. The first step to eliminating fungus gnats is to make sure and water houseplants properly.
Use a wine trap.
If gnats have been buzzing around your sinks and drains, scrub away grimy deposits in the pipes where they lay their eggs. Traps can cut down the number of adult flies and help you monitor the infestation's severity. Cutting off gnats' food supply is crucial, so store food in sealed containers, wipe up spills, and keep your trash bins covered and clean.
Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fungus Gnats
Besides being annoying, this feeding behavior can damage your plants. Instead, it’s a loose term for a number of different species of very small, flying insects. These flies lay their eggs in damp organic environments such as potting soil, pipe drains, or rotting produce. The reproduction cycle of fungus gnats, for example, only takes about 17 days, so one gnat can breed hundreds very quickly. They tend to swarm around sources of food and moisture including your fruit bowl, your drains, your houseplants, and even your body.
What Are the Symptoms of Fungus Gnats on Plants?
All of these species, along with the others that are less likely to infest indoor locations, are spread across the globe. Once you have prepped your plant, you can sterilize potting soil. A simple, free, and effective homemade fly trap can be made with a few household items. Gnats generally go where there is fungus—and subsequent moisture.
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How to Get Rid of Houseplant Gnats.
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Clean up Sources of Organic Material
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What’s more, if you don't know how to get rid of gnats, swarms can quickly take over your home, infesting trash cans, plants or decomposing foods. It doesn’t help that gnats breed frequently, so they will always come back if not dealt with immediately. If you find gnat eggs or larvae on clothing, do not throw the item away. Instead, lay the clothing out as best you can outside and sprinkle it with salt to kill the maggots.
8 Insects That May Be The Small Black Flying Bugs in Your House (That Aren’t Fruit Flies)
Once gnats infest a home, it’s unlikely that they’ll go away on their own. Their food source needs to be removed and larvae need to be killed to effectively get rid of gnats. There is no scientific evidence that cinnamon fungus gnat traps work.
Read on to find more ways to get rid of gnats in plants naturally. Fly traps are important control tools that continue to eliminate new adults as they emerge. While a pyrethrum-based aerosol insecticide may be used to kill adult flies if you can hit them, it won't take care of any eggs or larvae lurking in your kitchen. Store-bought fly traps will prevent the flies from breeding and can be purchased at your local hardware store.
If your plants at home are generally healthy and there are only a few flies, it can be challenging to spot sight of houseplant gnats. Of course, seeing minuscule mosquito-like flies is a sign of a gnat problem. There are a handful of biological controls for fungus gnats, but they are mainly used in greenhouses where plants are being propagated. If a gnat problem gets so out of hand with houseplants that you are considering biological controls, you are probably better off sacrificing your houseplants and starting over. Sticky traps work especially well for gnats crowding around your houseplants.
Note that commercially-available sprays designed for houseplants are less likely to damage the plants than homemade sprays, even with mild dish soap. Hydrogen peroxide is a common household antiseptic, but it's also good for plants. In addition to killing gnats and other small insects, hydrogen peroxide can also kill some bacteria and fungi, and it adds oxygen to the soil.
Take preventative steps to help support the effectiveness of your selected treatment methods and to keep swarms of gnats away for good. After analyzing dozens of residential and commercial pest control businesses through this process, we were able to determine the best pest control companies on the market. Our pest control research process starts with analyzing customer reviews on third-party websites such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Trustpilot, and Google Reviews. We then do a deep dive into each company’s website, service plans, and available cost information.
Some types of moisture-seeking gnats tend to congregate around sink or tub drains. To combat these drain flies, mix ½ cup bleach into a gallon of water and slowly pour the mixture into the drain. Protect yourself and your lungs properly, then dilute one-half cup of bleach with about one gallon of water and pour it down the affected drain. Kitchen sink drains are common spots where gnats lay eggs, especially in garbage disposals. They love the warm, moist environment and any food and bacteria build up that occurs there. Kill any eggs in your drain by pouring boiling water in the sink.
Natural methods are the best first line of defense, so try these before turning to chemical solutions. Say your plants are dry and gnat-free — that’s the time to start investigating potential sources of mildew or mold. Look for leaky windows, roofs or other cracks that might be letting extra moisture into your home. Repairing these spots could reduce or completely eliminate your gnat problem, as they will lose their food source. If the soil in or around your home tends to be overly moist, try letting it dry out more between waterings to discourage gnats and other pests from being attracted to it. If none of these solutions seem to be working and the gnats keep returning, it may be time to call in a professional.
Some experts claim neem, via this active ingredient, effectively controls fungus gnats, especially when used as a soil drench — when watering soil with neem-infused water. However, others argue it only works if you heavily soak the soil at least 3 inches down, and it's only useful for short-term control (you have to keep applying it in perpetuity). For gardeners, though, a gnat infestation can spell devastation. While adult gnats don’t damage plants, the larvae will eat roots and leaves. There are many pesticides on the market, but some plants are sensitive to the chemicals in them. In all reality, the main sign of a gnat infestation is several gnats flying through the air when you turn on the sink, move a house plant or disturb an old piece of fruit.
For outdoor infestations, you can purchase an electric insect killer, or bug zapper, to install on your porch or patio. These products kill gnats with an electric charge when they fly into the device. Bug zappers are an excellent way to deter biting gnats in your yard but will not fully eliminate their population, only reduce it. Also, you shouldn’t install a product that’s meant to be used outdoors inside your home. First, we’ll show you how to identify the type of gnats you’re dealing with.
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