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Fungas Gnats in Houseplants

Argh I hate them! I’m growing basil indoors and have fungas gnats, I know this probably means I’ve overwatered but can I have some tips on how to get rid of please? Or is it easier to just buy a new plant?! 
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Posts

  • Let it dry out a little or replace the compost. Basil plants are cheap though so maybe just buy new?
  • This is a Butterwort, it’s a native carnivorous plant.
    I originally got it for my brother as he likes Venus fly-traps and the likes.
    I had to keep it a few weeks before giving it to him and realised it was keeping the gnats down (not gone altogether but greatly reduced).
    So unfortunately for my brother, he never got it 😀.
    I did, however, tell him all about how good it was 😂.


    You can see the gnats on the leaves.
    Nottinghamshire.
    Failure is always an option.

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    A friend who works in a GC says that they sell Mosquito Bits for this. I didn't realise they work on gnats too. Not cheap, but worth spliting a pot with others. It v effective v quickly against mozzies.




  • Yellow sticky paper is pretty effective. I tried nematodes too but I think the paper worked better. The sheets are bigger than needed- I cut it into 3/4 pieces before peeling and stuck them upright in the compost. Change when they get full 🤢

    The fat houseflies that hang around our elderly cat's leftovers are another story. Totally ignore the flypaper and disappear as soon as the zapping tennis racket is turned on. Makes me almost like the gnats and their naive stupidity!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I stopped growing indoor basil for this reason.
  • Agreed, yellow sticky paper traps work very well and are really inexpensive. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    Yellow sticky tape!  I get a round of gnats about once a year or so.  I place it directly over the soil along the rim of the pot (not touching the soil), so that they get stuck as soon as they try to fly up.  I also have it next to the pot occasionally as well, or a cut strip sticking upright among the foliage of those plants with robust leaves that can deal with a slight tug if they get stuck.  100% clears it up within a few weeks every time. Also, check your sink drains.. I’ve had them lay and hatch out of my bathroom sink before!  🤢. I put toilet cleaner down them a few times a week last thing at night when I have them in my plants, so it sits in the gas trap and kills off any eggs or larve.  
    Utah, USA.
  • Ahhh the dreaded knats! Sticky traps worked for me after trying many other things.

    I had loads of them last year and they were a nightmare to get rid of. 

    But ever since, if i see a few of them, i put out the sticky traps to keep on top of them.

    I also found the larvae growing in the bottom of one of my indoor pots, which the plastic pots sit inside. Water and soil had dripped out of the plastic pot and into the bigger pot beneath and created perfect breeding grounds apparently! 
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @samanthanichols1299Q0YTZpzV Welcome. Thankyou for sharing, I have made a note. Fingers crossed my house plants seem fine at the moment but the problem can be worse in the winter months I have found. 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Steps to remove gnats with dawn dish soap. Step 1: pour apple cider vinegar into a bowl. Step 2: add unscented dawn dish soap. Step 3: Place the dish soap gnat trap.
    Translation: dish soap = washing up liquid.  dawn = a brand, not available in Surrey.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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