Damn fungus gnats!

[cakedaddy]

I was just giving my plants their daily inspection and found a tip nibbled off a new stanhopea root. Did a bit of poking around and came across quite a few larvae...assuming fungus gnats as I saw them alot over the summer while the babies were outdoors. They have just been moved indoors over the last week or so and are under lights, so I would assume the warmth is great for them. I've read plenty on how to deal with them, but there are problems with the methods I saw. Firstly most of my plants in that area are bulbos, stans, etc...water hogs. Second, a conure lives in the room. Most of the info I found was pretty dated...anyone have any non-bird toxic methods to kill the larvae?
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[opaline]

Give the plants a dry spell, no spraying or watering, if you can. i have fungus knats throughout the year off and on but i dont notice damage to roots by the grubs, but will look much closer anyhow, I was assuming that the diet is decomposing organic matter hence removing the element of moisture temporarily as this is essential to eggs and larvae and this dryness will obliterate the population.

[cakedaddy]

The problem is that I cannot hold back water...I have terribly low humidity and I am growing some bulbos on treefern. They are doing amazingly well btw. But for them to do well, I have to soak them almost daily and mist twice a day. I think the biggest problem is with the stans...they are in mostly sphagnum. It's the only thing that will stay moist enough. The only plants I have under those lights are the water hogs...the catts and dends are upstairs in a south facing window. Hmmmm...I cant stand to dry them all out and those eggs stay via le thru drought anyway
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[leafmite]

I am trying a pitcher plant and butterwort but I think the ones I bought take a break catching bugs over the winter. I read there are some that don't so I plan to look into this. Sticky traps hung near the plants and Mosquito dunks added to the water before watering might also be effective. Good luck,
Leafmite
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[cdayinflorida]

I use granular systemic marathon on the plants inside under lights. Works really well. Just sprinkle it over the media.

[opaline]

Hi jason, i have stans and bulbos mounted on treefern,cork and aquarium filter sponge ( the latter being a cheap alternative to tree fern, but looks similar, but has to be customised to retain water). I know how sensitive stans become when dry at roots bringing on the yellowing and death of leaf so its a tricky one, mind you I cant grow 'water hogs' in sphag moss here as i get root rot. Macabre to see how our grow environments are so diverse when using similar methods.

How big were the grubs/larvae? 1 cm? as vine weevil grubs/ larvae are extremely damaging to roots/ tubers/ bulbs....I dont use pesticides and very occassionally use miticide but somehow manage to keep the population down to a bare minimum and i spray daily sometimes twice daily with rainwater.

As leafmite suggests, sticky taps/ cockroach traps and fruit peel (isolated from plants but very close). You can baste the orange/ banana with treacle/ syrup /honey. the odour of over ripe early decomp fruit will draw them in and stick/ die. Unfortunately if you have fruitfly over there this ones a no no aswell. An obstacle at every turn.

have seen products for fungus knat that come in a soil drench to be repeated as a course like antibiotic so that the adults breed but never have babies and so 'apocalypse gnat'.

[cakedaddy]

Thanks everyone for the alternatives! The one I saw was almost certainly a gnat larva-fit the bill perfectly and I do see a few fly here and there. I wish there were enough humidity here for me to grow my Stans in bark opaline! We are planning a move to Florida in the future...I'm sure the plants will be happier there and I am excited about the fact that I will be using the sphag as an amendment instead of the base to my media!
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[Teena]

There are some solutions suggested in this article: Fungus Gnats as Houseplant and Indoor Pests

martha

[pavel]

Immediate resolution will likely require a soil drench with a strong pesticide as well as an "aerial attack". If you can abide a slower approach then you have more options.

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is found in "mosquito dunks" found at just about any BBS.

Pitcher plants will be ineffective against fungus gnats. Droseras (sundews), & Pinguiculas (butterworts) generally wreck havoc upon adult fungus gnats. Terrestrial Utricularias (bladderworts) are useless against adult gnats but can do a great deal of damage to the larva population. As you are keeping the Stan sphag moist, such plants as these could be planted in the pot with the Stan. However, cps do not like fertilizer. With this in mind, if you should decide to use cps, you would probably have to settle for having them close by and not actually in the Stan's media.

[mauraec]

Can you remove them from the bird-room long enough to blast them with systemic insecticide, then flush them out with pure water for a few days until the toxins are gone?