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BmShroom
Stranger
Registered: 12/19/19
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: Tweeq]
#26948738 - 09/22/20 01:51 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tweeq said:
I know this helps for sure. After dunk you need to respray of course bc most will be flushed out / disseminated (is this a word?) too much.
For real, in a few days most your gnats are gone if you maintain this.
I'm not bullshitting you. We had some really nasty gnat infestations and this was the solution.
Yep, they are almost all gone. Still there, but oil helped a whole lot.
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Tweeq
Tweeq of Nature
Registered: 06/07/18
Posts: 2,056
Loc: Netherlands
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: BmShroom]
#26948911 - 09/22/20 07:57 AM (3 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
BmShroom said:
Quote:
Tweeq said:
I know this helps for sure. After dunk you need to respray of course bc most will be flushed out / disseminated (is this a word?) too much.
For real, in a few days most your gnats are gone if you maintain this.
I'm not bullshitting you. We had some really nasty gnat infestations and this was the solution.
Yep, they are almost all gone. Still there, but oil helped a whole lot.
Thanks for confirming!
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sacredgeomancer
Ehh?
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: Tweeq]
#27032214 - 11/10/20 07:45 PM (3 years, 5 months ago) |
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I must also confirm that peppermint oil works extremely well... I'm amazed.
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Tweeq
Tweeq of Nature
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sacredgeomancer
Ehh?
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: Tweeq]
#27059068 - 11/26/20 05:31 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Just an update to temper (my) excitement.. The peppermint oil worked well in mitigating the masses of gnats that were swarming the surface of the substrates. 6 drops in a 4oz spray bottle made them recede after 2 days.
But.. having multiple tubs going, even with the addition of peppermint oil in the substrate and casing, they're still present. They jump from tub to tub.
I bought a katchy as recommended by ShaperDreaming, but this only gets the loose adult gnats in the grow space. Starbones recommends a rigorous regimen of BTI and fogging (whole house), while Pastywhyte and some others recommend a 2 week grow hiatus. It saddens me to have to halt my process, but this looks like the route I have to take right now. I have houseplants too, so I'm praying this is not a perma-problem going forward.
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eLeSDenes
Mycelium Expander
Registered: 05/25/11
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I use to have those fuckers when I grew in SGFC. The problem is that they can hide in the substrate really well, so harvest everything and just clean your fruiting chamber. You have to do a hard reset cause they will come back. They also like rotten food and probably good idea to empty your bin more often They won't do do much though, they can't really do any harm - just annoying
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sh4d0ws
LSx
Registered: 02/26/08
Posts: 12,086
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Even with a several month growing hiatus my gnats still came back.
They find their way into my house from outdoors, and then multiply from there. It isn't nearly as bad in the winter time, generally goes away a few months...but it always comes back. I gave up on doing any hiatuses from growing due to the gnats. It isn't worth it for me.
As eLeS said, they won't really do any harm they are just annoying.
I tried peppermint oil but had massive pseudomonas outbreaks afterwards - I can't be certain the peppermint oil was in anyway related to that but I've never had pseudomonas outbreaks prior, I think the oil/water mixture may have made it more difficult for water to evaporate from the caps and substrate surface. But it's completely possible there was bacteria in my peppermint oil extract in the first place...
Also possible it is completely unrelated but ever tub I treated with peppermint oil had pretty damn severe outbreak, and ones that weren't treated had none
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sacredgeomancer
Ehh?
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: sh4d0ws]
#27059245 - 11/26/20 08:18 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks for the heads up on this... Do you hold out for multiple flushes with gnats? Seeing a whole swarm of them on the surface makes me uneasy to try to hold on to the sub any longer than 1 flush...
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sh4d0ws
LSx
Registered: 02/26/08
Posts: 12,086
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Depends on the variety. I have a TOC and RW culture that both put out decent second flushes so I usually keep them around. PE are done after 1 flush.
By the time an outbreak gets bad in a particular tub, it's usually not until 2nd flush for me (sometimes not even until well past a 2nd flush). And I dump all my tubs outdoors. So what effectively happens is the worst tubs get opened outside where the gnats get released. The outbreaks never get that bad with this method. Yeah they suck, it's a but unnerving to see gnats inside a tub...but I've never had it get to the point where I had to vacuum them up before like I've seen pasty and RR both suggest in the past.
I do use sticky traps. People seem to hate the idea I guess but they do work pretty effectively for the adults...especially the yellow tinted ones, the gnats love yellow surfaces. These helps reduce any of the ones that actually escape tubs.
One thing I will mention - I would be worried if I had a lot of house plants or an indoor marijuana grow...fungus gnats can really fuck up a plants root system, but the only thing I grow indoors is cacti and they haven't ever touched my cacti pots...probably because I let them dry out and don't water them that often. I started some weed plants indoors earlier in the year and the fungus gnats started to go after those...not a big deal cause they were moved outside when the weather warmed up but just something to keep in mind, if you have house plants that are important to you, maybe you need to take a gnat problem a little more seriously than I am suggesting. Maybe you will find they aren't attracted to your houseplants though. They are definitely attracted to the smell of mushrooms.
The worst gnat outbreaks I have ever had are from working 60+ hours a week and just not ditching tubs soon enough, so like...tubs that are on a 5th or 6th flush that should have been tossed....then you might see hundreds of adults in a single tub. But most of people can avoid that by being proactive and ditching tubs regularly.
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sacredgeomancer
Ehh?
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: sh4d0ws]
#27059305 - 11/26/20 09:11 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Just went around after reading your post checking the plants, giving them a peppermint oil spritz... The gnats don't seem to be going for them (*knock on wood*)
I feel like I'm in a middle-ground situation from the ones you've described. I'm having to ditch tubs after the first flush. It becomes prime time gnat turf around this point.
Considering putting a pair of pantyhose over any newly spawned tubs. I read that somewhere on here in passing... Figure it might be worth a shot.
The longer work at this hobby the more obstacles and learning experiences I'm faced with.. Grateful for all of it though.
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Tweeq
Tweeq of Nature
Registered: 06/07/18
Posts: 2,056
Loc: Netherlands
Last seen: 12 hours, 32 minutes
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Peppermint oil is certainly not 100pct effective against gnats but it sure helps a lot.
Have never had any outbreaks of anything as a result of using it but then I use store bought essential oil with absolutely no contams. We have over 100 houseplants in the same room with our tubs so a grow-hiatus is probably not going to help (and also, I don't want to).
There are always a few gnats present (at best) in the house. For me, having their numbers in check is enough as long as they don't affect my yield and/or cause contams.
If I ever experience a huge outbreak of gnats again I might resort to using BTI as a few members have reported having good results with it.
RW myc seems to be the greatest attractor of gnats. My other varieties usually have way less of them in and on the sub. Weird.
Let's keep sharing that info and we'll find a way to live with(out) them!
Cheers
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FeedYourMind
indiGlo
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Re: Fruit Flies! Yikes?! [Re: Tweeq]
#27060736 - 11/27/20 07:56 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Tweeq, what's BTI? Interested but I might try the oil with some water for a spritz and see how that does it. I swear they come from the jiffy mix I use.
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starbones
I'm an alien, I eat uranium.
Registered: 03/04/20
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It's Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis bacteria.
It kills two things. Gnat larvae. Mosquito larvae.
If things are minor, sticky traps and the occasional air burst of insecticide in the grow room will keep them in check.
If things get bad.. Abort their unborn children with BTI, get your cat and fish out of the house and fog shit down with a pyrethrin based insecticide like Raid Max Flying Insect to kill the living adults.
Enjoy the genocide while it lasts. They WILL be back someday. Treat any plant that comes in your home with BTI as a preventative. They'll come in from outdoors when the temperatures right for them to fly so use BTI granules in any areas of standing water outside, in areas with poor drainage and soil saturation, shady wet areas.
Or build the ultimate gnat trap.
I posted a study from Penn State the other day where they were using testing to see what scent pregnant females went apesehit for as their laying grounds. It's trich, trichofuckinderma drives the pregnant ones nuts and why not? Their babies hatch and eat it, thrive on it and when they're adults and emerge they drag trich with them spreading it. It's a good relationship. Take an old shitty trich'd out substrate you were tossing out anyway and toss it in a covered bin with holes poked in it. Pour a few inches of water in it with some BTI granules. Laugh at the pregnant ones flying to bring their eggs to your Rubbermaid Abortion Center.
Or just use sticky traps while there's only a few airborne, probably a better idea
-------------------- Listen, I'm steel fisted with the iron lung Heavy metal ballads out the guitar where lions run.
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