Shannon
Help, please! I repotted my airplane/spider plant and pothos plans in March. Today I discovered they have nats. Any help would be appreciated. How do I get rid of the nats?
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Help, please! I repotted my airplane/spider plant and pothos plans in… | Anything about plants | Planta community
11 comments
Daytbh… repot all soil and throw old all away. i tried so much- mosquito bits , neem oil, shower soaks and sprays, hydrogen peroxide mix and alcohol and dawn etc etc etc. NOTHING WORKED EXCEPT REPOT and yellow sticky gnat traps. they are attracted to the yellow color for someone reason, so buy yellow for sure to get rid of adult that lay eggs in moist soil. ensure you’re not overwatering too they loveeee that 😒 good luck 🥰
3 likes- Day
and when i say repot all soil, i mean every single plant. don’t even think about leaving one. i thought i was safe. nope. never was. just do it 😭 lol
2 likes - Waspinator
When you repot and replace the soil, clean and sterilize the pots. Clean off as much dirt as possible using hot water (as hot as you can stand; if it's steaming while you wash the pot, that's ideal) dry it, and then wipe every surface of the pot with isopropyl alcohol (soak a paper towel in it for wiping.) You can also wash off the plant roots (with room-temperature water) and treat them with an insecticide spray or hydrogen peroxide, or add a systemic insecticide to the new soil (pick one! You don't want to be too harsh on the plant.) Pot up the plant, isolate any that were the worst affected from your other plants. Put the yellow sticky traps in as well. This is already overkill, but if you want to be even more extra sure you got rid of them, you can quarantine affected plants inside mosquito netting or a pop-up butterfly cage until you're sure the gnats are all gone
2 likes- Day
love this ^^ 👏🏻
3 likes
- JR
You don’t necessarily have to repot. But whatever treatment you choose, nothing is a quick fix. You will have to treat for several weeks.
1 like - Day
imo^ it is a necessity bc if you get every single egg or even adult that lays. you’re screwed.
1 like- JR
But unless you can repot everything in a day or 2, the adults will be laying eggs in the new stuff. Then in awhile they are hatching out and now you have more adults to lay eggs. Not to mention the expense of repotting if you have a lot of plants I think the key things are to break the lifecycle with whatever soil treatment you choose. Trap as many adults as possible with sticky traps. Decrease watering so the adults aren’t attracted to Kay more eggs on the soil. This is why treatment is not instant. But will take several weeks. Also, I feel depending how many plants you have and what kind (some plants like moist soil) you may just have to come to the conclusion that you’ll always have a few fungus gnats
3 likes - Day
yes and that’s why i made the decision to repot all in one day!!! no joke they won’t be taking over stuff here!!!
0 likes
BrookeThere’s a product I love called fungus gnat death drops from Happy happy houseplant that I love! It’s helped me get rid of my gnats without repotting. You put drops into your watering can every time you water, and it kills their larvae without hurting any of the good stuff in the soil. I pair that with sticky traps and have been treating all winter/early spring and so far after about 2.5 months of consistently using the drops, I have yet to see any gnats! It’s also probably a great thing to use if you want to be extra sure after repotting too
4 likes
Ash meadowI personally tried everything, somethings worked for a little and then it felt like the they got used to what I was using somehow, I ended up putting lava lite no gnats on top of the soil, they are like decorative stones but tinie tiny so that flys can crawl in the soil however they can’t fly out of it so it’s essentially a trap, you will need to alter your water schedule though as the stones lock in the moisture, my tropical plants are loving it. I feel your struggle I have many plants and they got to them all, it got to the point the gnats were flying in face at night looking for the Co2 from my breathing, I put a light in the corner of the room and a fan on my face just to be able to get to sleep.
1 like
KatieMommaI noticed that the gnats bloomed when I repotted because I put a couple of plants in pots that were too large. They could not absorb enough water from the soil to dry out the top layer within a day - perfect habitat for gnats. I should have refreshed the dirt without moving up a pot size. I re-repotted back to a smaller size, used yellow sticky traps, and the gnats died back very quickly. I see 1 or 2 when I water but certainly not an infestation since I did that.
1 like