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wildernessjunkie
Reshitivest



Registered: 06/13/10
Posts: 8,118
Loc: HTTP 404 Not Found
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Neem oil?
#19291564 - 12/18/13 02:17 AM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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About a week ago, I spawned some P.Pulmonaris to some wood chips in buckets.
It took less than 24hrs for the fungus gnats to move in and infest these buckets. It was amazing and yet ridiculous at the same time.
I started looking around and found this:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/neem-oil-side-effects.html
Has anyone tried spraying Neem Oil on the outside of their fruiting apparatus in an effort to thwart these bastages? If so, what was your success like?
Edited by wildernessjunkie (12/18/13 02:21 AM)
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solarity
mm... my favourite food



Registered: 03/31/09
Posts: 1,590
Loc: UK
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Tried, Failed. and garlic and diatomaceous earth and nematodes ... and .. and....
Big ass industrial size (A4/letter size) yellow sticky traps and good hygiene are the only thing that keeps them down to a manageable level. That and the winter!
-------------------- Commercial exotics farmer for 8 years - now sold up!
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 4 days
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The adults are harmless other than laying eggs. Find where they're hatching from and either vacuum it away or pour 3% hydrogen peroxide over it which will kill the fungus gnat larvae. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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mrtumnas
Oyster-licious



Registered: 05/15/10
Posts: 186
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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My grow room is positive pressurized, and I've yet to see a gnat. Not sure if the can fly around with all the air movement, and they definitely can't get in when the door is closed. Maybe I'll get them later but so far so good.
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Us.Two
The Innovator


Registered: 01/29/12 
Posts: 106
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
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Neem oil is a highly effective insecticide IF it makes direct contact with the gnats, at which point it actually blocks certain chemical receptors in their brains causing them to "forget" how to mate and eat. Otherwise it's just a potent anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and hair restoration treatment (yes, I've used it for all 5.. male pattern baldness at age 23 is no joke)
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 4 days
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Re: Neem oil? [Re: Us.Two]
#19294838 - 12/18/13 07:31 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
it actually blocks certain chemical receptors in their brains causing them to "forget" how to mate and eat
The two-spotted spider mites in my plant rooms aren't bothered by it at all. I poured neem at the maximum concentration on my soil with no effect at all on the larvae that I could see. Peroxide gets rid of the larvae when they melt on contact with it.
Of course, it's always possible he's looking at fruit flies too. Possibly came in from some apples or other fruit. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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wildernessjunkie
Reshitivest



Registered: 06/13/10
Posts: 8,118
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Quote:
Of course, it's always possible he's looking at fruit flies too. Possibly came in from some apples or other fruit.
Or on the banana, fig, avocado, lime, papaya, etc...growing in the yard.
I spawned the buckets outside and then left them in the car port. Maybe next time, Ill leave them inside until they pin.
Just did an image search.

Thats the culprit. Fruit flies, not gnats.
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Desert-D
Stranger

Registered: 12/05/13
Posts: 82
Last seen: 4 years, 7 months
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Oh man this reminded me of a time when I pasteurized poo then left it outside overnight to cool. I inoculated a mono and all was seemingly fine when I tucked it away to colonize... when I went to check on it a week or so later it was a downright horror scene! The whole tubs was bzzzzzing with hundreds of house flys that mustve came from the poo cuz the tub was sealed. It was truly nasty but surprisingly the tub was fully colonized without any contams just shit tons of tripped out, trapped up flys! I ended up taping over the vent holes so the flies were suffocated by co2
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Us.Two
The Innovator


Registered: 01/29/12 
Posts: 106
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
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Gotcha, I have only used it on drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) and fungus gnats by mixing 5 ml neem oil, 5 ml Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, and 200 ml distilled water in a sprayer bottle. When I sprayed it on the soil 2-3 times a day it did seem to inhibit the development of fruit fly and fungus gnat larvae/pupae. But I've never used it on mites of any kind. There are other essential oils I use for those.
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ThatsWhatYouGet

Registered: 04/22/12
Posts: 33
Loc: Nebraska
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Re: Neem oil? [Re: Us.Two]
#19309317 - 12/21/13 07:57 PM (10 years, 1 month ago) |
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I have been experimenting with peppermint oil mixed with water to not only kill the adult gnats but also deter them from hanging around area's that would be good for breeding. So far the results have been promising.
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Corporal Kielbasa


Registered: 05/29/04
Posts: 17,235
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I know this probably isn't a great thing to have sitting around. But a few sips of stale beer at the bottom of the bottle seems to draw them in. Helps to get them down while cleaning up the room.
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PocketRevolution
Stranger
Registered: 12/22/09
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Last seen: 23 days, 18 hours
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For me the thing that proved to be the critical control point was the size of the air exchange holes for my colonizing substrates.
I was using aluminum foil covered dish basins, and putting pinholes in the foil for gas exchange. The gnats were getting in and out through sloppily made, oversized pinholes, or tears in the foil.
I started paying careful attention to the size of the holes, just barely letting the narrowest part of the pin penetrate. Any tears in the foil were sealed with tape. Goodbye gnats.
At one point in a failed fungus gnat control effort, I coated the walls of the terrarium, and the side walls of my substrate containers, with a thin layer of cooking oil. The side walls of the substrate containers grew the *craziest* contams I have ever seen. Wierd webby stuff, and these hexagonal stacks of columns...completely indescribable.
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bioBot

Registered: 05/02/09
Posts: 293
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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Great ideas, I have not ever heard of using hydrogen peroxide to eliminate gnats. Lately I've been using pyrethrin, potassium salt of fatty acid mixed with neem oil in the 'safer end all' pesticide for gardening, although just for plants so far as they have mostly not found the mushroom blocks yet.
Something else working very well is a mister bottle filled with a filtered solution of habanero hot sauce and water. I've noticed this has decreased their population substantially when used alongside the aformentioned pesticide, by comparison without it.
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bioBot

Registered: 05/02/09
Posts: 293
Last seen: 4 years, 4 months
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It seems the thuricide bacteria normally present in most thuricide products for gardening is ineffective at destoying the gnat larvae.
For elimination of mosquitoes, there are normally sold granules or dunks which contain the proper type of thuricide also effective for gnats.
It may work well for plants, but what about spraying it on mycelium?
Edited by bioBot (12/31/13 06:34 AM)
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wildernessjunkie
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Registered: 06/13/10
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Re: Neem oil? [Re: bioBot]
#19353020 - 12/31/13 10:13 PM (10 years, 30 days ago) |
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The buckets have begun to fruit. The neem oil does not seem to have worked at all. Im hoping that the larvae aren't completely riddling the insides of my buckets.
So far though, Im still getting some success.
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