Possible fungus gnat infection

[stephenw429]

I have little bugs crawling all over in my orchid bark medium, which I presume are fungus gnats. so what I am attempting to do here is remove the orchid from its medium, let it hang out in open air for a day, and then use a fungicide/ larvaecide called Gnatrol(this covers a fairly broad spectrum of bugs) to soak the medium for that roughly 24 hour period as well. I plan on soaking the orchids a time or two down the road in a week or so with the Gnatrol to try and kill off any stragglers that are still eggs at the moment. I then will beam also segregating my orchids and keeping the processed plants separate from the unprocessed plants. Any suggestions on something that I should be doing differently, or is what I am doing a good way to try and take care of this?

Also here are a few links to the information on the gnatrol product.
http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/mnla/gnatrol.pdf

http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/m...es/gnatrol.pdf

Thank you for any assistance in advance!!!

- Steve

[cakedaddy]

I used to have a problem with those little @&$holes. From what I understand, they aren't a danger to the plants. They CAN be a symptom that something is wrong in your media. I never tried controlling them chemically. Have you seen any flying about when you disturb the pots? If not, you could have a colony of springtails. I've had those as well. They will set up shop just about anywhere there is moisture.
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[stephenw429]

I have in the past had fungus gnats flying around the house. Hence thinking that it is a good possibility of what it is this time, and trying to get ahead of the little buggers this time. (Pun not intended) I've re-potted all of my Catts and my 1 Brass into hydroponic baskets from the Clear plastic orchid pots in an attempt to get better air flow, and a little better drying out between watering so that the bugs hopefully don't infest the new or treated media. I will hopefully soon get all of my Phals into similar baskets, though for some of the Phals being that they are recent rescues I am trying to hold off until I can get them a little better established and re growing in their current pots. Hopefully that helps fill in a little more of the info you might have been wondering about.

- Steve

-Steve

[cakedaddy]

I've had mosquito dunks recommended to me in the past. They are probably less expensive and I think it's the same general makeup as gnatrol.
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[Dorsetman]

Have you thought of glue traps? The yellow sticky sheets you hang up, and which they land on, and never get to take off again ?

[stephenw429]

I have some sticky traps stuck in the bottoms of windows, not only do they catch the little buggers for me, which there are a few small guys on there so far, but they have prior to now been used for large bug control, the nasty wasps tend to find their way in the house some how on me. But I just now looking at the sticky traps see that they have caught a few of the small bugs too.

Thanks for the tip though just the same.

- Steve

---------- Post Merged at 11:04 PM ----------

I'll have to look that up, and see what the best way for me to obtain some is. The Gnatol I have from a while back(not to the expiration date for a year or so) when I was nursing a bunch of young plants that required a fairly high soil moisture. So I'll use that until it's gone then I'll have to give mosquito dunks a shot if the issue still exists.
Thanks for your assistance.

- Steve