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LukeTheDuke187
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Registered: 08/10/20
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Fungus Gnats
#27024659 - 11/06/20 09:09 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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I put some of my monotubs in my grow tent where I grow Basil and microgreens. There are a few fungus gnats that were in the tent apparently and I just saw them in my monotubs. Will the fungus gnats harm the mushrooms?
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Nobler Hino
a dojo and a forge?!


Registered: 08/29/15
Posts: 1,780
Loc: Deep Ellum
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I believe fungal gnats actually feed on mycelium.
Why put the tubs in a tent? That is counter productive.
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   "The sacred mushroom takes me by the hand and brings me to the world where everything is known. It is they, the sacred mushrooms, that speak in a way I can understand. I ask them and they answer me.β β Maria Sabina
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LukeTheDuke187
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I put them in the tent because my basement is quite cold and the tent usually stays around 73 F so its a better environment.
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SingularFusion


Registered: 10/31/18
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yes they definitely will mess with your fungus
putting tubs with plants is not impossible but not generally any good cultural practice... many competing microbes around soil and plants, also bugs, gnats etc
I use some surface spray around the shelves the tubs sit on, this at least kills bugs that land anywhere near the tubs without needing to spray anything when there is a tub there. It is good for at least a month to still kill them after spraying on surfaces
I have seen people putting pantyhose around their tubs to keep gnats out, no personal experience of it. If they have been in the tub probably they laid eggs and there will be more to follow
I think most people take a short cultivation break while they kill them at the source and then all is usually well
hope it goes alright
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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Fungus gnats will eat your mycelium and if the numbers are high enough will contaminate your tubs.
I was having mold issues with all sorts of different kinds and that did not resolve until I got the cocksuckers under control. They are covered in bacteria and will cover themselves in mold spore as they crawl around looking for stuff to eat.
You do not need to take a break from cultivating, just use a larvacide on your plants and substrate. They are most likely egg laying there already so moght as well
You need to kill their larva, adults only live eight days and the best way to handle the larva is to get Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis bacteria to use. It is a larvacide that only kills two things, mosquitos and fungus gnat larva. You can water your plants with it and no larva will survive. Keep treating until they are all gone. You can also add this to your misting water if you believe they are egglaying in your sub (they are). I have been misting four monotubs and 8 of my early grow bags with it and there has been no discernible issues. Fungus gnats were gone in a week. I did not use the bacterial laden water mist until my sub was fully colonized. You can buy Mosquito Dunks, Aqua-Bac, Skeeter Bitz etc online, hydroponic shops and agricultural shops. Farmers use it on water troughs, hurts nothing but gnats and skeetz
Deal with the adults by making easy DIY traps they drown in. Bit of water, dish soap and then a splash of apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar or even red wine works great. They try to sip and drown, change these out daily.
They are shitty fliers, they suck ass at it so you can keep them away from things with a gentle breeze from a fan
You can make glue traps from yellow paper smeared with vaseline it you want as well.
Protect plants from future invasions by putting a small layer of diamotaceous earth on top of the soil. It cuts the adults to shit as they try to climb through it.
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LukeTheDuke187
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Awesome, great info. Yeah so far I removed the plants from the tent and sprayed with iso. I got rid of the one or two flies I saw in the monotubs and Im hoping that I can keep it under control. Thanks for your help!
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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Odds are if they were in the monotub they were laying eggs. They oviposit in the substrate like assholes.
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LukeTheDuke187
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Yeah, that is what I am worried about. I tried vacuuming them up and spraying iso around the outside of the tubs. I guess Ill have to wait a few days to see....
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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Iso won't scare them away. A few drops of peppermint oil in a misting bottle full of water works pretty well though but isn't a treatment. Once they get in and lay those eggs the problem just gets worse if you can't cut it off at the larval stage.
One gnat will lay up to 200 eggs which will turn into larvae in three days. Once they do that they burrow down into your substrate and monch monch monch until they turn into more gnats.
Just search the forums to see how many people including TC's have to shut down everything for two weeks or more to interrupt the cycle enough to defeat them. Once the larvae are in your substrate the only option is to let the problem get worse or use a larvacide. Houseplants can get a H202 wash but I'm sure your mycelium wouldn't survive that.
Sorry bud, traps and baby gnat genocide. The tubs won't mind the BTI, I was scared about using it but I ain't now.
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turtlesonturtles
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Thanks so much man!!! I have a bunch of tubs that have gnats in them (I was an idiot an didn't do anything when they first showed up because I had never heard of them and thought it was no big deal - few days later they were everywhere), thought I had to throw them all out and almost cried. Will try BTI.
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
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Fungus gnats don't eat. Their only purpose is to lay eggs, which probably won't have time to hatch and grow into maggots before you harvest. It's best not to attempt clean culture in the same room with plants, but the bottom line is the gnats aren't going to eat or contaminate your project. They're attracted to the sweet smell of your substrate as a future food source for their offspring. 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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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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With all due respect there's other TCs that have said that fungus gnats are a vector for contamination and had to shut their grows down until they were rid of them due to constant contamination.
My tubs that had gnats went shitty with things like Aspergillus flavus and only after controlling the gnat problem have I been able to have success. I went through everything, testing my LCs, testing my spawn, using old spawn from previous grows that I had in cold storage and the same thing happened. I examined everything even switching coir and going back to the 1:1 bucket tek. Between mid-July and Mid-September I harvested over 200 fresh pounds of fruits amongst a sea of monotubs with no problems. Only after speaking to another TC did I realize how much of a major contamination vector they are.
Fungus gnats DO eat, the adults seek out liquids to consume like the moisture droplets within a monotub, nectar from plants, a can of beer you left open somewhere and the larvae eat fungal matter. They have both mouthparts and a digestive system for the sake of pete. From reading during my time with them the adults feet are laden with bacteria and molds from finding damp surfaces to sup from. That's how they cause root disease in plants. They track that shit everywhere they go.
I'm not trying to cause any static here don't get me wrong but having something burrow into your substrate to oviposit with feet covered in all matter of nonsense from their adventures is going to cause contamination.
A fungus gnat adult in sterile solution. They are laden with crap.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
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Loc: Milky way
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A simple fan will keep them from being able to enter your tubs or even the room the tubs are in. But prevention is the best strategy.
They're no more vectors than the air in your home that you use for FAE. Which is laden with the exact same spores and bacteria
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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It's not spore on them I'm pointing to being a problem on them it's live mold itself.
Pepelina the Fungus Gnat decides to take a sip of water from a fun smelling drain in the home that has some mold growing in it. Gets her Converse all shittered up with live mold mycelium then decides she's reached the point in her life where it's time to settle down and poop eggs into your substrate without wiping her feet off at the door. Her friends all do the same thing.
You wouldn't swab live mold off a petri dish then dab it on your substrate would you?
All of this aside, do they or do they not is inconsquential there's no reason for them to be in your home and it's an easily treatable problem. No need to live in filth and pestilence.
BTI works like a hot fuckered damn and is safe for plants, those tubs I used it on are fruiting well without a bunch of fucked up weird fruits. Use it on the plants for sure and set out traps until they're gone. If they're emerging from your monotubs a fan ain't gonna help shit since the inside of the monotub has everything they need and can spend their entire lifecycle inside it before dropping more eggs. A fan is great for new stuff though of course.
-------------------- Listen, I'm steel fisted with the iron lung Heavy metal ballads out the guitar where lions run.
 
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LukeTheDuke187
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Awesome, thanks for the advice!
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F. 3
Flowing

Registered: 04/29/17
Posts: 192
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Im dealing with this shit right now Starbones. Gnats on mushrooms, high af sipping that sweetness can't even move. anyways.
1. Predatory Nematodes sounds like a viable idea.
2. a bottle trap with sugar water or syrup.
3. a sticky tape
4. a UV light catcher
5. burning the house down.
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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Re: Fungus Gnats [Re: F. 3] 1
#27036727 - 11/13/20 09:46 AM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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All you have to do is kill the larvae where the eggs are being laid. Catching adults is only going to put a dent in the problem as it only takes one being missed to keep the problem going.
Check your sump pit if you got one, drains, aquarium pump filter, houseplants etc. Treat em all with BTI. What adults there are will continue to lay unknowing that the bacteria you've introduced is going to abort their babies. The adults die, no larvae survive.
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.



Registered: 03/04/20
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Last seen: 2 months, 17 days
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It's fun to read some of the articles and such about fungus gnats and their effect in commercial mushroom farming as spreaders of trichoderma. Almost as fun as being told I've got no idea what I'm talking about.
Fun article on some experiments https://news.psu.edu/story/423023/2016/08/30/research/lord-gnats
Fellow graduate student Maria Mazin has been able to show that not only are female gnats attracted to the green mold, but they probably bring it in the house and spread it around as they lay eggs. Then, when the larvae develop and emerge as adults from the compost, the fungi stick to their bodies and are carried further. βMy lab is using science to validate what the farmers have seen,β says Cloonan. βWhen you talk to them and they respond βWe knew it!β thatβs what cool β we can prove the anecdotal stories floating around.β
Fungus gnats absolutely, positively do spread trichoderma. You can find other articles dealing with commercial mushroom farming that trichoderma is one of their biggest attractants.
If you have one tub go shitty with trich and it's got gnats. The gnats are going to spread it when those larvae emerge as adults and coat themselves in LIVING MOLD MYCELIUM. If you got mold elsewhere in your home and they get on that they'll bring it into your tubs. I know bod and RR are experienced old hands and I'm not trying to cause any static but they're both incorrect. There's no reason to have them in your home though as they're an easily controlled pest.

-------------------- Listen, I'm steel fisted with the iron lung Heavy metal ballads out the guitar where lions run.
 
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sh4d0ws
LSx


Registered: 02/26/08
Posts: 12,086
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I think it's much more likely your willingness to use spores without agar is contributing to any contamination issues you have vs. fungus gnats spreading contamination to your tubs
Not trying to bash your methods, but it's hard to blame it on fungus gnats when it could be a lot of different things. Just because fungus gnats are attracted to certain molds doesn't mean they are actively spreading it anymore than the spores floating around in your house could
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smalltalk_canceled
Babnik


Registered: 07/13/20
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Re: Fungus Gnats [Re: sh4d0ws] 1
#27050373 - 11/21/20 12:07 PM (3 years, 2 months ago) |
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Agar will take you far, Agar is the best car, Agar i love you so, Dont U ever let me go
-------------------- Willpower is the one true virtue
  
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