Best way to get rid of gnats in house plants: 1. Repot with new soil (even in existing pot). Throw the soil in a garbage bag and seal tightly, to dispose of eggs, larva and junior gnats in the soil. 2. Spray roots with Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap. Make sure to spray in the remaining soil on the roots. 3. Refill pot with new soil, making about 1.5 inches for room on the top of soil for sand. 4. Add a thick layer of 1.5” - 2” of sand. Pat down to keep it tightly packed. 5. Water the plant. If sand moves to expose soil, add more sand at the top. I tried everything and couldn’t get rid of gnats in my plants, until I tried this method with sand. This worked, no more gnats going on 2 months. Gnats can’t dig into tightly packed sand, nor can larvae or gnats crawl up through the sand if packed tightly.
Hydrogen peroxide does nothing, unfortunately. I know it’s all over the gardening channels as olde-tyme advice. I’m trying everything to get rid of my fungus gnats - next stop is mosquito bits.
I just watered my plants with this mixture, and I'm hoping for the same results as you. I've had these annoying flies for months now, and already invested in those expensive nematodes. That did help a lot, but I still have them and don't feel like investing again. Found the peroxide solution tip by accident, weirdly enough there is no information at all about the peroxide method written in Dutch. So fingers crossed..
Yeah a lot of people online were recommending like a 10:1 ratio, i did 3:1 and it was fine. Not sure how effective it would be more dilluted. My plants that are infected I wanted to save but wouldn't have been heartbroken if it killed htem as they were all just cuttings but yeah it seemed to have worked.
I use aquarium gravel on the top layer and it helps a lot. The H202 should do the rest. I use Mint oil to spray the leaves mixed with water. It doesn’t stink and refreshes the air. I never saw Gnats this large!! Don’t put the mixture on the leaves. It will burn them.
I got so fed up after trying multiple methods I started gently misting the top spoil with Raid house and garden Insecticide. I’m sorry but they get on my nerves I just went to the extreme. I will say I killed quite a bit on the top soil in minutes to the point after a few hours I saw less. I’m going to bomb them again. Die gnat Die 🤣🤣🤣
When those little suckers get up in my face and won’t leave me alone, I’m ready to chuck the whole darn plant in the garbage! I’m glad you found a solution.
I bought some organic soil for repotting a couple pots. Gnats for weeks now. Neem oil has been worthless. Steel wool worthless. I did not separate my plants so I guess I’m going to need a lot of peroxide.
I had super bad gnats in a small grow room last winter, despite having worked Mosquito Bits into the soil and pre-treating the water with Mosquito Bits. Packed together on sticky traps but still lots flying around. Vinegar traps and yeast-sugar traps always in room. Finally I l opened a little partial bottle of pennyroyal oil and left it there. The gnats diminished until there eventually were none. Not sure if this was causation or merely correlation though.
@@kathrynmcgregor6303 Just straight oil. They are gone now and all the scent is long gone too. Some little mites or something chewed on the tips of some leaves recently though. I sprinkled some cinnamon on those which might have helped.
@@Loohan7 Thanks so much. I'd never heard of that oil before. Last year they drove me mental and i tried EVERYTHING and couldn't get rid of them then finally repotted them with fresh soil (this is what got me in the mess in the first place with a plant store bag of infested soil so i was nervous). They were finally gone throughout the winter but now they're back ugh
Systemic granules (as long as it's not something you eat) & water plants with neem oil/ water. One will kill the larvae & the other the gnats & eggs. I also had sticky traps. Took 2 weeks & all are gone.
I bought a bag of soil first oil beds and when I went to go use it again after opening it I noticed that it was full of mushrooms and every plant that I planted it grew mushrooms and then the next came.... I'm a new grower/ plant saver lol... I have tried to peroxide but I'm scared burning my plans and I think I may have ruined one of my palm trees. But ima try again.
Mosquito bits are best that I’ve found to use……. I’m going to use hydrogen peroxide first because I’m out of the bits at the moment. Those little knots gave me fits last year! I’m a new gardener as well. We will get there! 😊
I also found out that you need to sterilize your potting soil when bought in bags because there could be larva just waiting to come to life ! Lol just an fyi,…. Mainly because I think that where mine came from!
Hi. I will now check the potting soil before using it.smh It's probably not a good idea to have store soil. Buy when ready to use. 🤔 Well, I use several methods to keep gnats at bey. Mostly the Mosquito bits. On top of the soil, mixed into the soil when I repot and I use it to water my 🪴plants. I also use the yellow sticky tapes. They don't get rid of the problem but it kills a lot of them before they leave the area around the pot. They also are good indicators of how many gnats are escaping from each plant.🤔 I hope this helps someone. I use hydrogen peroxide for root rot at a 1 cup to a half cup ratio. I hope it's helping with gnats as well.😉
I hate the gnats, I bought sticky yellow things, put some on the windows along with plants. “How many are on your window sticker?” It has be come a competitive game! Calling them Bastards doesn’t work! I have squished them on my tablet at night, Mac screen. I hate them, along with the yellow stickers, sprayed them, let them dry out, sprayed and tented them. Now I’m going to try peroxide, wish me luck, oh, I have given cuttings to people, now they have them!. Couldn’t Noah have just squished the gnats, mosquitoes and ticks when they were wanting to board the Ark?
Yep I've tried calling them every name in the book but that hasn't been successful, they must have high self esteem or something. Fortunately I haven't had any gnats for the past year or so knock on wood.
Barbara I wonder the same thing. Why Lord did you allow these pests to board the Ark. But here is another perspective we don t think about. Could it be that whatever was not allowed on the ark could be far worse than what was? There is a reason the dinosaurs were not allowed on. Though Jurassic Park is fiction I can only imagine the havoc having multiple T Rex’s in the wild. We would probably cease to exist. Have you seen the teeth on those creatures? The bear is the worst it gets. Anything bigger than that would eat through the population. Just a thought.
Never had them until this past Winter and it was awful! They love light and would attack my computer. Dunks and those sticky traps were the only thing that worked.
You have SPRAYED your soil which is why it may not work. My particular Neem oil has mix ratio of 30ml per litre of water for fungus gnats. “Apply as a soil DRENCH (not spray) using approx. 1 litre mixture per 8 litres of potting soil.” The product is called “Eco-Neem” sold here in Australia.
Yes, mosquito bits work well. I have 2 huge 3 tier concrete statues that are water fountains and I use mosquito bits to keep the mosquitoes and gnats from laying their larvae in the fountains. I heard about this years ago from Laura off garden answer and have been doing it since then.
@theknowerandtheknown It seems I must have caught them early, they are a pain. 3 types Plants, Fruits, and Bathroom. Anywhere moist change soil and clean roots pray
@@eddiebrown9471 Lucky you, unfortunately i didnt BUT i just today used a mix of the peroxide and water on my house plants and since then ive seen alost no flies! It seems to have done the trick finally:)
Buy a butterwort/s, its a plant that like living fly paper. Also don't use only one method. Use the apple cider vinegar method and knat sticky traps. I use all three and my knat problem dropped 95% for my indoor vegetable garden.
I have plastic plants and no fruit flies after the snow storm blackout tiny tiny flying bugs barely can identify the tiny flying bugs what are they smallest flying bugs I've seen
Been in your shoes, Kim. Let the soil dry (so long as the plant is still not dying) and start sticking those yellow, sticky, bug catcher things in the soil. I find those are honestly the easiest and best way to slowly get rid of these things and I have been dealing with this for over a year. I did EVERYTHING like you probably have too. Best is just stop giving the gnats water and that includes hydrogen peroxide. Use the sticky traps to catch the remaining that are still flying, crawling around. You wont have 100% removal of the gnats but at least they'll be living and dying all with your plant pot and not flying around the house. Slowly but surely, their numbers will diminish and your plants will do better. Mine have, and I damn near killed them trying to get rid of the gnats. When you do need to water the plant, because it's simply dying, do put some hydrogen peroxide in the water. 1 part peroxide, 4 parts water is fine. I honestly do more but I probably don't need to.
Epic fail! I took all my houseplants to the bug free laundry, drenched them all with 1:4 peroxide, quarantined them for a week while I eradicated them from the house. Within an hour of bringing all the "gnat-free" plants back in there were fungus gnats. Two days later I'm back where I started from. $70 down the drain. 😭
My living room was absolutely overrun with them and this worked great for me. How are you out $70 peroxide is only like 2 bucks a bottle. I had to repeat this process a couple times and also used some neem oil on the leaves but this worked like a charm for us and our plants were overrun with them.
![The BEST Fungus Gnat Killer [Actually Works!] 5 Yrs Gnat-Free and Counting!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BwelmZFjEzI/mqdefault.jpg)
Best way to get rid of gnats in house plants:
1. Repot with new soil (even in existing pot). Throw the soil in a garbage bag and seal tightly, to dispose of eggs, larva and junior gnats in the soil.
2. Spray roots with Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap. Make sure to spray in the remaining soil on the roots.
3. Refill pot with new soil, making about 1.5 inches for room on the top of soil for sand.
4. Add a thick layer of 1.5” - 2” of sand. Pat down to keep it tightly packed.
5. Water the plant. If sand moves to expose soil, add more sand at the top.
I tried everything and couldn’t get rid of gnats in my plants, until I tried this method with sand. This worked, no more gnats going on 2 months. Gnats can’t dig into tightly packed sand, nor can larvae or gnats crawl up through the sand if packed tightly.
How do you feel if your plants need watering without stuffing it up?
You could always bottom feed your plants if you use the sand method
Bottom water
@@ciarasullivan1379 Yep!
Hydrogen peroxide does nothing, unfortunately. I know it’s all over the gardening channels as olde-tyme advice. I’m trying everything to get rid of my fungus gnats - next stop is mosquito bits.
Get to the point
I just watered my plants with this mixture, and I'm hoping for the same results as you. I've had these annoying flies for months now, and already invested in those expensive nematodes. That did help a lot, but I still have them and don't feel like investing again. Found the peroxide solution tip by accident, weirdly enough there is no information at all about the peroxide method written in Dutch. So fingers crossed..
Yeah a lot of people online were recommending like a 10:1 ratio, i did 3:1 and it was fine. Not sure how effective it would be more dilluted. My plants that are infected I wanted to save but wouldn't have been heartbroken if it killed htem as they were all just cuttings but yeah it seemed to have worked.
Did nematodes work? Ive tried everything but them ? Don't know if i want nemotodes in my house after these gnats. Get rid gnats bring in neomotodoids?
@@datplantdude9416 Should i use 3:1 or 4:1
@@kimpozo3514 Neem Cake. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
I put cinnamon on and mixed in the soil.Now my question is can I use hydrogen peroxide with that cinnamon in the soil ?
I use aquarium gravel on the top layer and it helps a lot. The H202 should do the rest. I use Mint oil to spray the leaves mixed with water. It doesn’t stink and refreshes the air. I never saw Gnats this large!! Don’t put the mixture on the leaves. It will burn them.
Thanks for the tip Brian!
young seedlings dont like the HP on the leaves.
Great video and advise!!
you did not show us the result of the plant you had at the beginning of the video
Sand and sticky traps are the only thing that worked for me.
Can you use the hydrogen peroxide method on herbs that you're going to consume?
I got so fed up after trying multiple methods I started gently misting the top spoil with Raid house and garden Insecticide. I’m sorry but they get on my nerves I just went to the extreme. I will say I killed quite a bit on the top soil in minutes to the point after a few hours I saw less. I’m going to bomb them again. Die gnat Die 🤣🤣🤣
When those little suckers get up in my face and won’t leave me alone, I’m ready to chuck the whole darn plant in the garbage! I’m glad you found a solution.
@@coloradotulips me too!!! the worst is when one flies past me when i'm in bed as if to taunt me. they're assholes!!
I bought a new soil and I pull peroxide in the dirt how long to wait before I put plants in the dirt
I bought some organic soil for repotting a couple pots. Gnats for weeks now. Neem oil has been worthless. Steel wool worthless. I did not separate my plants so I guess I’m going to need a lot of peroxide.
I had super bad gnats in a small grow room last winter, despite having worked Mosquito Bits into the soil and pre-treating the water with Mosquito Bits. Packed together on sticky traps but still lots flying around. Vinegar traps and yeast-sugar traps always in room.
Finally I l opened a little partial bottle of pennyroyal oil and left it there. The gnats diminished until there eventually were none.
Not sure if this was causation or merely correlation though.
did you mix the pennyroyal oil with anything or just left it out on it's own. Are they still gone? Thanks
@@kathrynmcgregor6303 Just straight oil. They are gone now and all the scent is long gone too. Some little mites or something chewed on the tips of some leaves recently though. I sprinkled some cinnamon on those which might have helped.
@@Loohan7 Thanks so much. I'd never heard of that oil before. Last year they drove me mental and i tried EVERYTHING and couldn't get rid of them then finally repotted them with fresh soil (this is what got me in the mess in the first place with a plant store bag of infested soil so i was nervous). They were finally gone throughout the winter but now they're back ugh
Neem Cake. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
Systemic granules (as long as it's not something you eat) & water plants with neem oil/ water. One will kill the larvae & the other the gnats & eggs. I also had sticky traps. Took 2 weeks & all are gone.
I bought a bag of soil first oil beds and when I went to go use it again after opening it I noticed that it was full of mushrooms and every plant that I planted it grew mushrooms and then the next came.... I'm a new grower/ plant saver lol... I have tried to peroxide but I'm scared burning my plans and I think I may have ruined one of my palm trees. But ima try again.
you don’t need to worry about mushrooms that’s just healthy soil
Mosquito bits are best that I’ve found to use……. I’m going to use hydrogen peroxide first because I’m out of the bits at the moment. Those little knots gave me fits last year! I’m a new gardener as well. We will get there! 😊
I also found out that you need to sterilize your potting soil when bought in bags because there could be larva just waiting to come to life ! Lol just an fyi,…. Mainly because I think that where mine came from!
Would food grade hydrogen peroxide be fine?
😭😭😭😭 not sittin on the couch ... I appreciate the content👍🏽
Hi. I will now check the potting soil before using it.smh
It's probably not a good idea to have store soil. Buy when ready to use. 🤔
Well, I use several methods to keep gnats at bey. Mostly the Mosquito bits. On top of the soil, mixed into the soil when I repot and I use it to water my 🪴plants.
I also use the yellow sticky tapes. They don't get rid of the problem but it kills a lot of them before they leave the area around the pot.
They also are good indicators of how many gnats are escaping from each plant.🤔
I hope this helps someone.
I use hydrogen peroxide for root rot at a 1 cup to a half cup ratio. I hope it's helping with gnats as well.😉
Neem Cake. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
I hate the gnats, I bought sticky yellow things, put some on the windows along with plants. “How many are on your window sticker?” It has be come a competitive game! Calling them Bastards doesn’t work! I have squished them on my tablet at night, Mac screen. I hate them, along with the yellow stickers, sprayed them, let them dry out, sprayed and tented them. Now I’m going to try peroxide, wish me luck, oh, I have given cuttings to people, now they have them!. Couldn’t Noah have just squished the gnats, mosquitoes and ticks when they were wanting to board the Ark?
Yep I've tried calling them every name in the book but that hasn't been successful, they must have high self esteem or something. Fortunately I haven't had any gnats for the past year or so knock on wood.
Barbara I wonder the same thing. Why Lord did you allow these pests to board the Ark. But here is another perspective we don t think about. Could it be that whatever was not allowed on the ark could be far worse than what was?
There is a reason the dinosaurs were not allowed on. Though Jurassic Park is fiction I can only imagine the havoc having multiple T Rex’s in the wild. We would probably cease to exist. Have you seen the teeth on those creatures? The bear is the worst it gets. Anything bigger than that would eat through the population. Just a thought.
Never had them until this past Winter and it was awful! They love light and would attack my computer. Dunks and those sticky traps were the only thing that worked.
Can I use straight 1% peroxide to drench the soil of my indoor plants as a gnat eradicator? Or does it have to be the 3% peroside/water 1:4 mix?
No. Always dilute it.
I have them so bad outside in my garden containers. I’ve tried everything. They’re everywhere
Mosquito bits , soak them in water and water your plans with it.
I'm using bought jello cups and wanting to know how much peroxide, water to use to kill gnats?
Ive seen some say 1:4 ration and others say 1:10 i went on the stronger side and things were fine no issues
@@datplantdude9416 did they come back?
I can not find 3% wear do I get it
Pharmacy
This does not work.
I used 10 bottles of hydrogen peroxide and I still have fungus gnats , doesn't work
Neem Cake. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
Will the knats come back?
sometimes. just try not to overwater your plants so they don't have a breeding ground
What about very very tiny grasshoppers
I've never had those.
I saw a tiny green grasshopper the other day! He jumped from my hand and I don't know where he went
does not work!!!!!! Mosquito Bits is the tool.
You have SPRAYED your soil which is why it may not work.
My particular Neem oil has mix ratio of 30ml per litre of water for fungus gnats. “Apply as a soil DRENCH (not spray) using approx. 1 litre mixture per 8 litres of potting soil.”
The product is called “Eco-Neem” sold here in Australia.
mosquito bits work well apparently.
Yes, mosquito bits work well. I have 2 huge 3 tier concrete statues that are water fountains and I use mosquito bits to keep the mosquitoes and gnats from laying their larvae in the fountains. I heard about this years ago from Laura off garden answer and have been doing it since then.
I found that watering my plants from the bottom helped tremendously.
I thought that too but they started breeding in the underside of the pot
@theknowerandtheknown It seems I must have caught them early, they are a pain. 3 types
Plants, Fruits, and Bathroom. Anywhere moist change soil and clean roots pray
@@eddiebrown9471 Lucky you, unfortunately i didnt BUT i just today used a mix of the peroxide and water on my house plants and since then ive seen alost no flies! It seems to have done the trick finally:)
My Figs are infested I tried everything except this. Wish me luck !! I have beautiful figs too...ugg
Good luck!
Neem Cake. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
Oh btw I got gnats from an online order..
Cool man thanks
Buy a butterwort/s, its a plant that like living fly paper. Also don't use only one method.
Use the apple cider vinegar method and knat sticky traps.
I use all three and my knat problem dropped 95% for my indoor vegetable garden.
I haven't heard the ACV method I'll have to give that a try.
@@datplantdude9416 in a small bowl mix the acv with a drop of dish soap and sugar or honey to draw them in
I have plastic plants and no fruit flies after the snow storm blackout tiny tiny flying bugs barely can identify the tiny flying bugs what are they smallest flying bugs I've seen
These sticky traps work pretty good for me
Fungus gnats
fruit flys
3:25 short cut
I tried it does not work ive tried everything
Been in your shoes, Kim. Let the soil dry (so long as the plant is still not dying) and start sticking those yellow, sticky, bug catcher things in the soil. I find those are honestly the easiest and best way to slowly get rid of these things and I have been dealing with this for over a year.
I did EVERYTHING like you probably have too. Best is just stop giving the gnats water and that includes hydrogen peroxide. Use the sticky traps to catch the remaining that are still flying, crawling around. You wont have 100% removal of the gnats but at least they'll be living and dying all with your plant pot and not flying around the house. Slowly but surely, their numbers will diminish and your plants will do better. Mine have, and I damn near killed them trying to get rid of the gnats.
When you do need to water the plant, because it's simply dying, do put some hydrogen peroxide in the water. 1 part peroxide, 4 parts water is fine. I honestly do more but I probably don't need to.
Mosquito bits works
Water your plants with neem oil tea
We have a neem spray, I don't believe I've ever tried adding it to the water though, I normally just spray it and saturate the top of the soil.
Neem Cake is better. It's fine powder you make a tea with. One to 2 teaspoons per gallon. I've been 5 years clean from those nasty little boogers.
just talked
Epic fail! I took all my houseplants to the bug free laundry, drenched them all with 1:4 peroxide, quarantined them for a week while I eradicated them from the house. Within an hour of bringing all the "gnat-free" plants back in there were fungus gnats. Two days later I'm back where I started from. $70 down the drain. 😭
My living room was absolutely overrun with them and this worked great for me. How are you out $70 peroxide is only like 2 bucks a bottle. I had to repeat this process a couple times and also used some neem oil on the leaves but this worked like a charm for us and our plants were overrun with them.
You need too use it at higher rate. 1 to 1 is what I do.
@@datplantdude9416 how often is it safe to do this?