Gnats on Houseplants

How do I get rid of little bugs that look like fruit flies in my houseplants?

By Michelle from Ontario, Canada

Answers:

Gnats on Houseplants

This trick worked overnight! I work in an office and a coworker just brought in a newly potted plant. When she was watering it she noticed these pesky gnats and I told her to mix a drop of lemon essential oil and a drop of lemongrass essential oil and rub it around the lip of the pot. Voila! No more gnats! (07/30/2009)

By cheryl

Gnats on Houseplants

Forget most, if not all, of the suggestions here and on other sites. I tried them all (soap, lemon, beer, vinegar, sand) on my house plants. The lemon one is particularly silly. I think they actually love it.

Now for what will work and it's very simple: Insect repellent wipes, i.e., mosquitoes, etc. The ones that come in those little packages.

Wipe the edges of your plant's pot and then for added benefit, leave the wipe for awhile under the plant itself (if the pot's big enough). They hate it and were gone almost immediately, never to return. (02/28/2010)

By Karikaturist

Gnats on Houseplants

OK, forget everything you just read! The only way to get rid of (and by "get rid of" I mean kill them!) gnats from your houseplants is to kill the source of their food, which is fungus. Most remedies posted here will move them from one plant to a different food source only to return a day later. For the past several weeks, I've been inundated with tons of gnats from several houseplants that I purchased at the big box store.

It's just inevitable. I've tried Windex. I've tried vinegar and orange juice with a shot of oil. I've tried drowning my plants overnight in a tub of water. I've tried skimming and baking the top three inches of the plant soil. I've tried spraying the plants with plant-based Raid. None of them work!

Finally, I went to Walmart and got Garden Safe Fungicide, which is sold in the outdoor garden area, not inside the store with the RAID and other pest control products. It worked in one day! I went from millions of little gnats buzzing around my eyes, trying to get up my nose and simply disrupting my life on a minute-by-minute basis, to having not a single gnat in my house overnight! Spray the fungicide liberally on the top soil of the plant, and on the leaves (both sides) until it runs off the leaves a bit and on the stems.

For an added bonus, spray the air, the area around trash cans, litter boxes, sink drains and even the overflow opening of your bathroom sink. Anywhere they might find a source of food. It works! (03/13/2010)

By Joe