Getting rid of gnats

[Ninkylou]

I seem to have a bunch of little gnats in my enclosures. The bouys don't eat them. Anyone have any safe and effective ways to get rid of them?

 

[Lathis]

I seem to have a bunch of little gnats in my enclosures. The bouys don't eat them. Anyone have any safe and effective ways to get rid of them?

OMG the fungus gnats... It's a constant battle with the snail and isopod tubs.

Cover any soil really well with cocofiber mat and rocks. Eliminate all standing water. Vacuum up the gnats daily until they disappear. It may take a week or two. This is the only thing that has worked for me without using pesticides. They will reappear randomly, so this is a maintenance item.

You can also put out a shallow dish of apple cider vinegar to drown them near the enclosure. It will catch the escapees.

 

[werecat]

I've had gnat problems too. So far these are the only things I've done:

1. Place one of those sticky fly/gnat traps outside the cage. I set it up a couple feet from the cage and it caught quite a few.
2. When I replaced the plant (which I had to do anyway), I added about an inch of sand (only sand) to the top of the pot above the soil line. Then I covered this with river rocks as I would normally do. The layer of sand is supposed to prevent gnats and so far it has!

That has worked for me. No gnats since my first outbreak (although I have some other little black bugs living on the outside of the pot that I can't seem to get rid of. Someone told me these were "water-borne aphids" but I'm not sure.)

 

[nick barta]

Venus Fly Trap plants…..

Nick

 

[sandrachameleon]

I seem to have a bunch of little gnats in my enclosures. The bouys don't eat them. Anyone have any safe and effective ways to get rid of them?

gnats lay eggs in moist soil, and the larva feed on fungus that grows in damp soil on roots. take away their opportunity to breed:
let the soil of your plants dry out - completely - between waterings
cover soil with landscape cloth, and on top of that a layer of rocks (not sand).

 

[nightanole]

Venus Fly Trap plants…..

Nick

pygmies...

 

[ridgebax1]

I had the same problem!

I hate those little buggers! I have plants planted directly in soil in the bottome of Omar's cage and I have been battling them as well. Here is what I have done:

I removed all of the plants except his ficus (it had already suffered from being moved in the summer and now has about 6 leaves instead of 2 so I did not want to traumatize it again)
I removed almost all of the old soil. I put most of it outside but did keep some and mixed it with play sand
I replaced/replanted his plants
covered this with weed block
added about 2 inches of play sand on top of the weed block
covered that with river rock
watered thoroughly using this product: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Nema-Gl...8&qid=1389296431&sr=8-5&keywords=gnat+control
I also have the yellow sticky things but have not needed to use them

So far so good but it has only been a couple of days.

 

[melble68]

I still have a few every once in awhile, but have been able to reduce the numbers by limiting the amount of water going into my schefflera. Next time I do a heavy clean, I'm definitely adding the weed block and sand.