I’m a new plant dad taking care of a handful of house plants and just learned about how much fruit flies love the potting soil. My house is full of them now! What can I do to limit their living conditions and free my home of fruit flies?
Mix 4 cups of 3% hydrogen peroxide to a gallon of water and water plants with that. You can also mix in a spray bottle half water, half rubbing alcohol and a few drops of liquid soap, spray top of soil. You can also use that for any pests your plants might get. That stuff will kill anything.
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Fungus gnats are very common if you use an organic potting mix. My favorite medium is coco coir because it’s considered “soilless” and pests hate it. If you’re already battling them, you can spray the top soil heavily with neem oil and it’ll knock them out over night. I did not personally have luck getting rid of them with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or dish detergent spray. (If you dunk the plant in a dish soap mixture for 5 minutes, it’s a more effective method).
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Are they fruit flies or fungus gnats? I think for both you can mix in 1:3 hydrogen peroxide and water whenever you water your plants (so they can’t lay eggs in the soil and the larvae die) and add lots of yellow sticky traps, at least one in each pot (to kill the adult flies)
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Mosquito bits work great, you have to use them consistently and they will be gone.
2 Likes Thank you all for the helpful tips!
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