Good Idea #24: Getting Rid of Fungus Gnats

Hi my name is Caroline and I have fungus gnats.  Gross.  But actually not all that gross.  If you have houseplants you may be familiar with this pesky little problem.  Fungus gnats are little flies, similar to fruit flies, that live in the moist soil of house plants.  They are completely harmless but are annoying and can quickly get out of control if you don't take action (note:  by "out of control" I really just mean "very annoying and difficult to get rid of").  Today however, I came across some very timely help for getting rid of fungus gnats.  Let me begin by telling you the story of this very sad little lemon balm plant:

I've had trouble with fungus gnats in the past and have often resorted to throwing out entire plants to get rid of them (sad story, I know).  This time, however, I am determined to save my little plant.

Lemon balm is supposed to be an extremely easy herb to grow.  It grows quickly and can be invasive if planted in a garden but on it's own it thrives.  Recently, my lemon balm started to deteriorate and I discovered that it had been growing so well that it had outgrown its little pot.  So I re-potted it in this nice big terracotta pot, but now I have a new problem.  The number one way to get rid of or prevent fungus gnats is to let the soil dry fully between waterings.  But this pot is so big and the terracotta hold so much water that I can't seem to get the soil to dry completely before the plant starts getting very thirsty.  Now I have fungus gnats AND my plant is dying. 

I was just noticing a few little gnats flying around my apartment when I sat down at my computer to scan through a few of my favorite blogs.  Almost immediately I came across a post by Ashli from Maillardville Manor on getting rid of fungus gnats!  Ashli suggest a few things that I already knew about like drying soil thoroughly and using those little yellow sticky fly catchers, but she also gave me two new tips.

I will now by adding potatoes and sand to my fungus-gnat-fighting artillery.  Apparently, if you cover the top of your soil with fast drying sand the gnats will think your soil is dry and won't lay eggs there.  Also, the larvae are apparently attracted to potatoes, so placing a fresh potato wedge on top of the soil each day will allow you to easily throw away many of the little guys before they become annoying adults.

I will be trying both of these tactics and I hope they will help other plant owners out there, too.  Check out all of Ashli's tips at her original post by CLICKING HERE.

Now I'm off to meet with a real estate agent for the first time about possibly buying our first house!  Have you been following all of those new developments?  Check it out at: www.twoseekhome.blogspot.com!