Fungus Gnats can be hands down one of the most common and annoying house plant pests to encounter. These funky creatures can be found in the soil of your house plants or seen crawling or flying out of your planter (yuck)! Like any other annoyance we encounter in our gardens and plants, we have a solution for getting rid of these pesky creatures.

What Are Fungus Gnats?

They are tiny black, flying bugs that live in soil. They are attracted to the wetness and will lay their larvae in the wet soil, creating so many more to come. As adults, these creature don’t live long. Therefore, if you can eliminate the process of laying their eggs in your house plant’s soil, you can successful end your gnat problem.

Fungus Gnats or Fruit Flies?

It’s easy to confuse the two bugs but here is an easy fix.

• Fungus gnats hang around your plants particularly the wet soil
• Fruit flies hang around fruit, food, and trash cans

How To Get Rid of Fungus Gnats In House Plants?

Fungus gnats can be troublesome and hard to get rid of because they easy hop to the next plant and lay eggs. Nonetheless, there is no need to say bye bye to house plants. With a combination of pest control and preventive methods, you can say confidently say bye to fungus gnats!

Use Pebbles

As we mentioned before, fungus gnats are attracted to moist soil. A easy and stylish way to combat fungus gnats and their larvae is to cover your soil in pebbles. This method would smother any larvae in the soil, prevent adult gnats from laying any additional eggs, and add a cute flare to your house plants. For application, even distribute enough pebbles to cover the entire layer of soil and leave no room for tiny flies to get through. Also, this method is water friendly. You can still water your plants from the top (if you choose too) and not worry too much about the return of gnats.

Water From The Bottom (Preventive)

We know that fungus gnats enjoy moist soil, right?! We can avoid moist soil by using a technique where you would water from the bottom of planter so the roots can absorb as much as water as needed. This method is also great in encouraging root growth. Be mindful that this method will require you to water more often since the planter saucer can only hold so much water.

Sand

Decorative sand can be use just as you was utilize pebbles on top of your soil. We recommend to only apply 1/2 inch of sand evenly to the top of the soil (preferably when the soil is more so dry). On the other hand, this method requires that you use a preventive method we recommended earlier to water the plant. Watering from the bottom prevents wet sand from smothering out your beloved house plants. Just like pebbles, sands add a stylish flare to your house plants.

DIY Spray

If you are avid gardener already, you may have some neem oil laying around. If so, you’re in luck! A few application of a neem oil mixture (1 part neem oil+ 3 part water) could wipe out gnats and prevent them from returning. Also, there are a few safe gnat solutions already mixed and ready to use.

Remove The Infested Soil

The soil is exactly what fungus gnats love so much. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to get rid of it especially if you plant may have been over-watered. Try replacing the soil with indoor soil that is well drained and follow up with any of the method listed before.

Gnat Traps

We are only mentioning this option because its a great supplement to any other method. Gnat traps are sticky yellow paper that attract the gnats and help control the adult population.

To make life easier, we have a list on amazon of everything you can use to get rid of those annoying gnats (and fruit flies)! Click here for the list.

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