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These bugs are back again......

Iridescentone

Iridescentone

gear whore formerly known as templar
Supporting Member
Jan 11, 2005
10,625
14,347
...dancing the night away.
#1
Any bugologists in the house?

Weird, for the third consecutive time, over the course of a couple years, house plants that I bought at Lowe's have brought bugs into my house. Each time little bugs appeared a couple days after bringing home the plants, which always sat near a kitchen window. This time, throwing the plants away hasn't gotten rid of them. I've swatted hundreds of these newest ones, along with hundreds more collected on sticky bug traps that I've set.

The traps worked great at reducing their numbers for a while, all the way down to just seeing one bug per day. But now they're back in increasing numbers. They like to hang near my kitchen window where the plants normally sat, and on my SS fridge door. Def not drain flies or fruit flies. These bugs aren't attracted to food or apple cider-vinigar-dish soap traps. Nor has treating my drains had any affect. A few times when I've swatted them, what looks like a little bit of blood is mixed in with the gooshed bug guts. Sure wish I could figure out where they're nesting. lol

:rage:

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#2
Whatever they are I've got something similar or maybe more than one type, not just fruit flies but tiny little drain flies too I think they're called phorids? Hard to get rid of
 
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#6
Those are fungal gnats. I know what they are because I have dealt with them before. The only way I know to eradicate them is with mosquito dunks. Took me forever to figure that out. I have tons of houseplants.


I took my plants outside, scrapped off the top inch or so of soil to reveal the army of them and pour the dunks in it.

I also did the vinegar traps, because it was so satisfying, but you will not eradicate them with that method alone.

Those little bugs proliferate in overly damp soil, so make sure you do not overwater.

Good luck.
 
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#9
Fungus gnats. Give a good dry back. Watering habits are huge to regulate.

As mentioned a Mosquito dunks or anything with bacillus thuringiensis israelensis. Make sure it’s BTI and not just BT as it won’t work on them.

What I’d do is give a good dry back. Like bone dry. Then hit remaining plants with some aloe gel in water as it’s has saponins and makes water “wetter” so to speak by altering the surface tension “saponification”

Potassium silicate will work as well. Once the soil has been wet and “infiltrated” you’ll water in the BTI. Mosquito dunks work well. Crush them and suspend in warm water. Will last a month. One dunk treats like 100sq feet of pond so yeah…

BTI only works on the eggs and larva in the soil. It will not kill or take care of adults. Keep using sticky traps.

If needed after BTI you can top dress with diatomaceous earth. It will help take care of the adults. You have to make sure the surface of the soil is dry though as it needs to be dry for the DE to work. It scratches the exoskeleton and causes them to dry out and die.
 
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#10
Good info guys, much appreciated. Fungal gnats I'm thinking now. Hard to believe that this time the bugs got a foothold from just one, small basil plant. I have no other indoor plants, and the basil got tossed weeks ago. I'm going to attack the kitchen drain again, this time with more boiling water, bleach, and some other home remedies I've read about online, just in case it's actually the drain.

OTOH, we've had some super-heavy rain storms these past weeks. Yesterday I was down in my crawlspace. The floor is dirt covered by thick vinyl. I noticed a few small standing water puddles on the vinyl that haven't completely dried up yet since the recent storms. Hmm....wondering if the gnats are breeding in those puddles, making their way up into my kitchen somehow. Time to mix a spayer-full of bug egg killer for the puddles...attack! attack! attack the bastards. No quarter! :woot:
 
#11
Can you get a better picture of them close up? Fungus Gnats and Fruit Flies are very different and require different tactics.

Are there any potted plants still in the house?

Not just the offending infected plants(s)

Fungus gnats will not breed in drains. They seek moisture from the drains but they do not infest drains like fruit flies.

I think we need to identify the pest before approaching a remedy.
 
#12
Saetia said:
Can you get a better picture of them close up? Fungus Gnats and Fruit Flies are very different and require different tactics.

Are there any potted plants still in the house?

Not just the offending infected plants(s)

Fungus gnats will not breed in drains. They seek moisture from the drains but they do not infest drains like fruit flies.

I think we need to identify the pest before approaching a remedy.
Click to expand...

No plants in the house.

Best pic I can get, they bolt just approaching them. I was lucky to get the pic above, which can be enlarged enough for a good look. The window area where the plant was is 99% bug-free now. The electric Zevo gadget is still gathering some gnats there. The SS fridge door continues getting all the "live" action. Been swatting 20-30 per day on the fridge door, but they they keep on keepin' on.

I'm going with "fungal gnats" as has been suggested. Fungal Gnats...band name? :woot:

Today I went back down in the crawl space armed with a sprayerful of bug killer, and some chunks of mozzy dunks for each little water puddle. Hoping that's where they're breeding. It stormed again last night, which aint helpin' the water to dry up.
 

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