War of attrition

image from Clipart Library

I've got gnats!  Well not me personally, you understand, it's my poor houseplants 😱 They are bloody annoying, as I'm sure you can imagine, and at the moment I am waging war with yellow sticky traps pushed into the pots.  It's incredible just how many of the buggers the traps are catching, with some plants being much more badly affected than others.  The plant with the biggest infestation is the ctenanthe division I took when I repotted Laura's plant last year ~ and funnily enough Beverly has had the same issues with the division I gave her, too.  I didn't notice any gnats when I was manhandling the original plant, so I am assuming they were lurking in the new compost 🤷

Methinks I will need to be a tad more proactive, though, to try to get rid of them completely.  I really don't fancy having to repot all the plants that I did recently, so after doing some internet research I'm now considering my options.  Diatomaceous earth seems to be a frequent recommendation, along with the sticky traps which I'm already using.  I'm actually very familiar with diatomaceous earth, as it was something that I used to help keep my chickens healthy back in the day.  Every time I cleaned out their house, I generously sprinkled the stuff around on the fresh bedding to help keep mites at bay.  It obviously worked as my girls never had any pests of any kind!  Remembering back, I also hurled about with gay abandon another product, called Stalosan, which was a pink (if I remember correctly), powdered, disinfectant ~ I rather liked the smell of it 😄

After my research, I think I have come up with a suitable plan of action.  The first step will be to tackle the plants that were repotted recently by replacing the top inch or so of compost.  Then spread a generous layer of diatomaceous earth over the fresh compost, and top with fine grit to make it more difficult for the gnats to reach the soil to lay their eggs.  I still have a fair few more plants to repot, so I think that I'll add some grit to the compost to make it a bit more free-draining.  I shall also try to remember to make the effort to water from the bottom of the pot where possible!

Wish me luck, and I'll let you know in due course how my "banish the fungus gnats" campaign is progressing 😉