I planted an indoor garden and my plants were growing really nice. I know have an extreme infestation of what I think are fungus gnats…they really like the soil. So I went today and got the fly sticky paper and it worked really well. I also wanted to kill the eggs and the ones in the soil so I got neem oil, it said it was for organic gardening. It did not have an effect on the bugs, just me and the plants. I feel sick to my stomach and have a headache since messing with it and four of my tomato plants died. They were close to dieing from the gnats eating their roots but the neem killed them off.
I heard that if you mix dish soap with water and then put it on the plants it kills the bugs and their eggs without harming the plants….Is this true? If so, how much dish soap to water do I use.
Comments
I’ve heard of the soap and water too not sure thus ..but just info i can give you.
make sure you are not over watering.
try to cover the top soil with a layer of sand (some say this works)
good luck
The best solution is to use Gnatrol. See the site below. You can also get a similar product at many plant nurseries. Just ask them for some BT They will know what that is.
You apply it to the soil over a period of time and you can kill the gnat larvae.
Letting the soil dry in between watering can hurt the eggs and larvue.
Putting a potato slice in the soil and letting it sit over night can draw the larvue to it. Take it out early in the morning.
Ivory dish soap is the soap you use. It just takes a drop of soap in water.
1 part of rubbing alcohol to 5 parts water to make a spray for the top soil works.
Some no salt sand on the top soil works.
The sand cuts the gnats.
I’d go with the gnatrol product and cut back on watering…if the plants are some that can handle transplanting, transplant into clean soil. …as far as soapy water mixture, my daughter did a science project showing how detergent effects plants at different strengths and all of her subjects showed negative effects, though I would guess her mixtures were stronger than what is usually recommended for pest control
