Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Fungus Gnats
Fungus Gnats are such an unwelcome and vile nuisance in the indoor environment. Here is an enlarged picture of what a typical fungus gnat looks like. To learn more about fungus gnats you can click on this link: fungus gnats
Fungus gnats feed on fungus and rotting organic matter in the medium. If there is not enough food to be found the fungus gnats may harm plants by feeding on the plants themselves.
Fungus gnat larvae are gross because they feed on young plant roots and can also tunnel into plant stems and transmit Pythium or what's known as "root-rot" between plants. The fungus gnat larvae feed on the roots of the plants, in large numbers larvae can do major damage.
Often times the plant's health can be affected by a bad case of fungus gnats and overall yield may be reduced in terms of flowers or fruits. Each adult fungus gnat can lay up to 150 eggs during it's lifetime, which may not seem like a lot at first if you only have 1 0r 2 fungus gnats flying around, but left unchecked, fungus gnat larvae can become a rapidly mutiplying problem.
One treatment or application or method is not enough, and it may never be enough to kill these nasty buggers, unless ALL areas are treated. And even then, they may still come back!
It is important to keep the fungus gnat population in check and control when growing indoors.
The first and simplest defense if growing in a medium like rockwool is rockwool block covers.
Block covers help to keep algae from growing on the surface of the rockwool. The block covers also keep light, and fungus gnat larvae off of plant roots. Here are some of the products that we carry in our shop to try on fungus gnats and other flying insects:
- Organocide insecticide and fungicide
I've also heard that Gnatrol TM is an effective control.
