Getting rid of Gnats (also known as fruit flies) in your home is easier said than done. It is one of those pesky insects that always live in drains, on fruit or inside the soil of indoor plants. Gnats are considered as annoying pests that travel in packs creating a large mating group and often invade our house especially when there are some houseplants inside the house. Gnats are flying insects that are similar with the common fruit fly or fungus gnat and they are attracted to houseplants that have very moist soil. They like to lay eggs either on the moist soil or even on the plant’s leaves thus making the soil look like having a layer of fungus or mold growing on them. Right here is where you will find some information on how to get rid of gnats in your houseplants.
To get rid of gnats in house plants, you need:
- A safe garden and fruit insect killer
- Liquid dish washing soap
- Water
- Cider vinegar
- Shallow bowl
Getting Rid of Gnats in House Plants
How to Get Rid of Gnats in House Plants
- First thing that you need to do is to purchase a safe garden and fruit or vegetable insect killer that you can find at your local home improvement store.
- You can spray that insect killer onto your house plants in order to kill the gnats and protect your plants from any invasion of gnats.
- You can spray that insect killer onto your house plants in order to kill the gnats and protect your plants from any invasion of gnats.
Always be extra careful whenever you are using any chemicals or pesticides especially in front of your children. Keep them in a safe place when it is not in used.
- The next step to do is to remove the top layer of your moist soil because gnats have laid their eggs on the top layer of the house plant’s soil.
- When you remove the soil, you should take the house plants outside of your house. You can use a shovel to remove at least one inch of the house plant’s top layer soil.
- You can also add a new soil into the pot.
- When you remove the soil, you should take the house plants outside of your house. You can use a shovel to remove at least one inch of the house plant’s top layer soil.
- Apart from that, you need to also spray insect killer to your window sills and doors because most probably some of the gnats might venture further away from the house plants and hide near your windows and doors.
- You must ensure that your window sills and doors are sprayed with insect killer in order to kill off the gnats and also prevent them from laying new eggs.
- You must ensure that your window sills and doors are sprayed with insect killer in order to kill off the gnats and also prevent them from laying new eggs.
- You also need to mix a tablespoon of liquid dish washing soap together with water to get rid of the annoying gnats
- This technique needs to be done before you start to water the house plants.
- This technique needs to be done before you start to water the house plants.
- You can also trap gnats by using cider vinegar
- The cider vinegar needs to be poured into a shallow bowl at least one cup of cider vinegar.
- Then you have to cover the bowl using a clear plastic cover and then cut a small hole right in the middle of the plastic.
- Cider vinegar will attract the gnats and when they invade the bowl, they will be stuck inside the bowl.
- Once the bowl is full, you need to empty the bowl.
Always remember that gnats are commonly found in,
- Saturated house plants, fruit, compost piles, and other rotting, smelly food or plants.
- You can also add some fine peat moss on top of house plant’s soil in order to deter the gnats from invading the plants.
- Besides that, you can also place yellow sticky traps near your house plants that will trap flying adult gnats.
- Slice ½ inch of raw potato and place it on the surface of your house plant’s soil. This will help you discard the larvae after 2 days and you can repeat this technique until there is no more larvae in the soil.
- The cider vinegar needs to be poured into a shallow bowl at least one cup of cider vinegar.
Getting rid of Gnats (also known as fruit flies) in your home is easier said than done. It is one of those pesky insects that always live in drains, on fruit or inside the soil of indoor plants.
Image Credit: