i have a serious gnat problem all the sudden. my garden is full of them . do gnats do damage to plants?
From what i have read it seems as though they eat the soft root tips, which causes slow growth....in all honesty I have yet to see any major problems but I try and keep their population down by fully flooding the flood table every few days....i could add some sort of pesticide, but i would rather smoke bug piss over pesticide any day How well do the lady bugs work?? I'm a bit skeptical as the gnats live below or on the medium whereas lady bugs i've seen live on the foliage
they are the adult's which lay eggs in the soil that hatch into larva and then eat the roots of your plant, and yes they will do damage to your plant. To get rid of them is easy. First let the soil dry out as much as possible between waterings, and make sure your drainage is good, there should be no standing water at the base of the pot. Next get some fly paper traps, they make some where the sticky fly paper is protected by a plastic little cage around them so only the fly's can touch the paper. I laid theses on the top of the soil between watering. The adults will be caught in the traps so they can't start the process all over and lay eggs. This has worked great for me. If you have a heavy infestation then it may take a week or two to get rid of them. After they are gone just keep a fly paper trap next to each plant during their grow to prevent any more fly's. Later
