Fungus gnats in terrarium…?
Hi,
I have a fungus gnat problem in my indoor terrarium, are there any ‘home’ remedies that would work for a terrarium?
the terrarium obviously doesn’t have any drainage… it isn’t a ‘true’ terrarium because the top has wholes at the top (its a hexagonal fish tank) … the plants are tropical and need moist conditions but I am drying them outside right now….
What else can I do? I have it away from my other house plants… but is there any natural pesticide that I can make from home?
thanks… Micah
The little gnats you’re seeing are probably fungus gnats. They seem to suddenly (and mysteriously) appear out of nowhere soon after watering plants or after opening a fresh bag of potting soil. Adult fungus gnats like to lay their eggs on moist soil. Soon after they are laid, the eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on fungus growing in the damp soil. After a short period of feeding, the larvae pupate and hatch into adult fungus gnats and the cycle starts all over again. In the case of gnats showing up in potting soil, I suspect that the eggs get laid in the soil before it’s packaged at the plant. The moisture, the nutrient-rich soil and a lack of air circulation combine to create the perfect conditions for growing fungus. It’s either that, or we all have adult fungus gnats in our homes that fly about undetected until we open a fresh bag of potting soil. Seeing as how gnats have such a short life span in the first place, it’s hard to imagine that they would wait around for us to open up a new bag of potting soil.
In any event, the good news is that without food (fungus) to feed on, the gnats cannot develop into mature adults. One way to help halt (or at least disrupt) the fungus gnat reproductive cycle is to let the soil dry out a bit between watering. It also helps to make sure the top layer of your potting soil is exposed to plenty of sunshine and fresh air.
I once had a huge crop of fungus gnats hatch inside a terrarium I planted. When you first plant a terrarium it’s easy to add too much moisture. Sometimes it takes a few days to figure out the right amount of moisture needed to create a self-sustaining environment for the plants. Although I didn’t see any visible signs of fungus growing on the fresh potting soil, I soon had dozens of fungus gnats flying around the inside of my terrarium and getting stuck to the water droplets running down the sides of the glass. The whole project looked terrible and I was understandably horrified and mystified as to where the gnats came from. I ended up taking the terrarium outside to let the gnats escape. For several weeks after that it seemed like they kept right on hatching anyway. I guess they ran out of fungus, because eventually their reproduction cycled stopped and they all died.
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