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WestVirginaMan
The Omega

Registered: 09/23/18
Posts: 68
Loc: West Virginia
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Gnat spray question
#26745460 - 06/15/20 03:08 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Hello, i used a water, dawn, alcohol mix to spray my outside garden area to treat the gnat problem. It worked very very well i have to say. I was just wondering if i should worry about my fruits being contaminated in any way from this spray? Like the taste or anything really. Thank you for your time.
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk


Registered: 04/20/14
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Quote:
WestVirginaMan said: Hello, i used a water, dawn, alcohol mix to spray my outside garden area to treat the gnat problem. It worked very very well i have to say. I was just wondering if i should worry about my fruits being contaminated in any way from this spray? Like the taste or anything really. Thank you for your time.
Are you having a fungus gnat problem? They lay eggs in the substrate, one Gnat can lay 10,000 eggs I've been told.
IME if you have an infestation the only way to eradicate them is to dump all substrates after the first flush and hold off spawning anything new for 2-3 weeks.
I can't answer your question about the ISO tho. Maybe use a drinkable alcohol instead
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WestVirginaMan
The Omega

Registered: 09/23/18
Posts: 68
Loc: West Virginia
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
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Re: Gnat spray question [Re: mushpunx]
#26746960 - 06/15/20 04:07 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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I appreciate the thought of using drinking alcohol. I actually have some gray goose left over i can use. But i still have to ask if this spray has any affect on my fruits or the taste in any way? Excuse my ignorance plz. Thank you all!
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk


Registered: 04/20/14
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First off how bad is your gnat problem, how many substrates are being affected and at at what stage are they at?
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WestVirginaMan
The Omega

Registered: 09/23/18
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Loc: West Virginia
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Re: Gnat spray question [Re: mushpunx]
#26747817 - 06/15/20 09:47 PM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Ok, these questions are slightly complicated to answer. Just bc the situation is in an outside garden specified for mushrooms. I actually put my contaminated colonizing substrate into this garden. And luckely nature took care of it for me and it fully colonized and is producing fruits. Id say half the garden is fully colonized and fruiting while it is spreading and colonizing the rest of the garden. The gnats didnt start to show till about the second fruiting cycle id say. After a day of researching how to help the situation i ended up using iso alco 70% and a drop of dawn watered down in a spray bottle and sprayed down the area. Id say 98% effectively killed all the gnats. My concern lyes with the iso spray effect my fruits any. In which i mean the taste or make them tough or watever it may be. I dont need any scare stories bc this is just a bonus spot for me honestly.
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk


Registered: 04/20/14
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You won't likely be able to control a gnat problem outside.
I wouldn't think ISO would make much of a difference but I guess you'll find out right?
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poisoned
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Re: Gnat spray question [Re: mushpunx]
#26748092 - 06/16/20 02:12 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushpunx said: Are you having a fungus gnat problem? They lay eggs in the substrate, one Gnat can lay 10,000 eggs I've been told.
IME if you have an infestation the only way to eradicate them is to dump all substrates after the first flush and hold off spawning anything new for 2-3 weeks.
I can't answer your question about the ISO tho. Maybe use a drinkable alcohol instead 
Gnats disappeared from my shoeboxes after I put some yellow sticky strips into them.
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mushpunx
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Re: Gnat spray question [Re: poisoned]
#26748251 - 06/16/20 04:56 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Maybe it depends on how early you catch it or the size of the infestation.
I had 30 or 40 monotubs going in an empty upstairs bedroom once. Some gnats came in, so I hung up a few rolls of the sticky fly tape and put the red wine bowls around , they got covered in gnats but I still had them - so I cut the strips and hung rolls in each of the tubs from the lids (I guess in the old-school tubs with polyfill they can find their way into the tubs easy enough).
These things turned black with gnats! I even tried using a shop vac hose to try to suck up all the gnats I could. Felt kinda mean 
The tubs were spawned staggered so the first flush was coming up at different times. They ate holes in my pinsets and fruits, destroyed a lot of primordia. A couple tubs that hadn't put up pins yet triched out, I can't definitively say it wasn't bad spawn but I'd put my money on it being the insect damage weakening the substrate
It really sucked. Moved all my tubs out to the garage after the first flush, got an okay second on some but it got cold. I think they started on house plants so I moved those to the porch.
They cleared out after a couple weeks but I had stragglers for a big longer
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WestVirginaMan
The Omega

Registered: 09/23/18
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Loc: West Virginia
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Re: Gnat spray question [Re: mushpunx]
#26748266 - 06/16/20 05:10 AM (3 years, 7 months ago) |
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Im sorry to hear that. My inside tub hasn't seen any gnats at all(thank the universe). But the iso and dawn spray helped a ton on my outside garden. Ill probably do sticky traps for prevention. I hope you can find something that works for you. I appreciate everyone. Thank you all so much. Just knowing other people out there are doing the same thing is comforting. We are pioneers my friends. We have to help each other and spread the positive word.... Ps. Meant to quote the most recent post, not reply. Would have made more since if i did it correctly the first time lol
Edited by WestVirginaMan (06/16/20 05:12 AM)
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Quagmire75
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Registered: 12/12/19
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You might want to check into a product called thuricide. I have used it in my vegetable garden for years to control caterpillars. The active ingredient is Bacillus thuringiensis (bt) I don't know if it plays nice with fungi or not but I used it to control fungus gnats on a hydroponics grow once and it really seemed to work. My thoughts are that it would kill them while still in the larval stage. So it would take several treatments to break the life cycle, but I'm not an expert so I could be wrong.(edit). The more I think about it, since it's outside if it did work you would have to use continually. Also it is water soluble so it could be added to your water can and mister.
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