I've been a gardener for my whole life, until the last 10 or 15 years fungus gnats were NOT in potting soil. I don't know what Miracle Grow is doing, the it is the WORST and always has fungus gnats. And it's a mess if you get them in your house. Good idea here! thanks
Me too. I had no idea it was the potting soil. I didn't have any previously. They have infested everything! I thought it was the cheaper potting soil, now I know it's both.
Omggggg I've been wondering why I'm having this problem, never knew this. I clean every 6 hours and still have them I'll never buy this again 💯I'll stick to fox farm
I happen up your site. Thank for the advice on fungus gnats. Last year the fungus gnats destroyed my patio garden. Your advice has given me courage to try again.
Yes! Always try again, it's worth it!Another defense I use, are the yellow sticky sheets that attract bugs. Last year, I hung them around my squash plants to help with the Beatles! I got them on Amazon
Awesome just may try that. Definitely worth trying. You have to moisten the soil anyways. Only extra step is just to boil the water and a little tin foil. Thanks🙂 Thanks
I've heard the thing about releasing toxins many times, but nobody knows what toxins. I used to work on a mushroom farm decades ago. We would bake compost all day in brick ovens at very high temps without negative effects.
@@szygal6 There are no long term effects. The spent casings are sold as mushroom compost and nobody is dying. I'm curious what you think is dangerous about it?
We have fungus gnats in our kitchen all summer long😭 I have wondered if I might make it worse now that I am growing so many things inside this year. I'll have to try this with my next bag of soil 👍
Try the stick on clearsticky strips that you put on the window. I put one on my kitchen window and one on my sliding door near the majority of my plants.
I bought a bag of soil to change my plant's soil because I saw a few gnats, it started getting worse, so I thought I should change the soil again...opened the bag and gnats started flying out of it 😢 No doubt my poor roses where not doing well. I'll try this, thanks!
miracle gro is the #1 soil with fungas gnats,i buy 60l of soil a week from every soil company out there in canada and miracle gro is the one that continuously has gnats ,get your soil from a hydro store and you wont have this issue, I buy super soil thats organically amended SO I CANT BOIL OR HEAT SOIL so im very aware who has gnats and who dont in there product
After baking soil and it's cool, place in the pot transplant my seedlings and I cover it with a lot of pebbles. This is done for indoor vegetable pepper plant.
I spray my soil down with hydrogen peroxide it kills mold and fugus/bateria. The 10% solution can be used to kill black mold and wood rot fugus under your crawlspace. I just use the 3% from the store it kill the mildew odor in new potting mix.
I recently brought a bag of this soil it was loaded with fungus gnats and eggs that look like "Tiny Green Balls" the bag had small holes in it had gnats all over. Took the dirt baked it killed everything, (TIP) after fill the pot over half way with dirt put the plant in water after it drains cover the top with dry soil when it's time to water it again push back the top soil water it then put the dry soil back over it I'm gnat free now they hate dry soil
Since I watched this video yesterday, I’ve been doing this for all of my already potted plants. The most recent one I did it cooled down pretty quickly. The foil was never too hot to touch maybe because it was a larger amount of soil. Is there a certain amount of time it has to say super hot or is mixing the boiling water up with all the soil good enough?
Hello! I didn't microwave mine. I used hot water. In my zone 5b, I'm 3 months away from planting my onion seeds! Yikes. I will be doing this process in early January. Happy Gardening 🙂
Good video. Once you have gnats, I know it's difficult to get rid of them. Would it be effective to cover the base of your plant with something like a stocking or very tight mesh of some sort so that the gnats wouldn't be able to escape? Thanks
I considered a mesh to cover the stock and soil too.. I plant to try it on my autos.. I'm going to use beard nets.. cuz I think the water will pass through it fine, but the gnats that are pregnant won't fit through.
The biggest problem with fungus gnats is their larva, which lives within the top few inches of soil. The larva will eat the tiny watering root hairs and it can be devasting on your poor baby sprouts. Adult fungus gnats pose no threat other than being annoying. To get rid of the fungus gnat larva you should let the top soil dry out for a few days before watering again, the larva cannot survive dry soil for very long. You use this boiling water method shown in the video to give yourself the best chance of killing any fungus or larva eggs which can stay dormant in your soil for a long time. It's peace of mind before you plant your seedling.
Nice instructive video. Actually, potting soil is not something contaminating? One can also put the soil into a pan and heat it up by adding water. Since potting soil often contains turf one should better not put it into an oven. Turf can burn.
LOVE your cats! I wonder if microwaving would work? Just to burst the eggs. Microwaves are cheap at thrift stores and garage sale and craigslist too. Sjort nuking I think would be good...what do you think?
Hello my friend! I think it's a sound idea, and I love the idea of reusing something. I would definitely want to do research on any of the cons and then make the best decision for the situation. Thanks for the idea!
They are in everything now fox farm, pro mix. I switched to coco and worm castings. But my soil i re use i put in the shed and dust the top layer with diatomaceous earth. It will kill anything trying to get in or out!
People have said that if you put your soil in the freezer that the fungus gnats go dormant just like if it was winter. Then they reimmerge when the soil warms back up, so don't use that method.
It's so unpredictable. I've had different results after leaving my soil in the garage over winter. Some good, some not so good. This year, I bought some that were kept outside, and they were completely frozen. We are also going to be away for 3 weeks and won't have time to clean it. Wish me luck!
If you buy soil from a hydroponic store you will have less trouble with infestation because they keep the bags and bales of soil inside where if you buy from a department store they keep them in the garden center or outside all year.
I use the white bag promix to start most seeds. The boiling water kills everything but no gnats. Pick your poison. You can always add nutrients of your choosing after the soil is sterile.
It helps. It isn't 100% (not sure there is anything that is 100%), but will definitely decrease this from happening. After planting in the soil, I top with vermiculite which also aids in helping. This year, I have started roughly 300 seedlings and haven't experienced any damping off fungus. BUT, last year I did everything the same and had a few cases of this. Happy Gardening
I just watched a video where the poster said there was an experiment in Alaska with soil at 25 degrees below! zero F. 70% of the adult fungus gnats somehow survived. Not sure about the larvae. I've been doing the boiling water and oven methods and both seem to work well. An additional suggestion would be to never open bags of soil or potting mix inside your home. Twice now I have opened bags only to have fungus gnats fly out. Never again!
That's interesting. I live in Ontario Canada and have left bags in my garage during our very cold winters and thought I might be ok. Having said that, I can't say if gnats came from one bag or all. It would be an interesting experiment, BUT it might also be annoying 🙄 🤔 I've never had anything fly out! That's crazy! 😀
If you buy Fox Farm Happy Frog, you won't have to worry about anything in the soil. I've been using for 6 years and I've never seen those little tiny white bugs or anything in it. But you will find a lava rock here and there lol
I think it's gotten a lot worse in the last 10 yrs. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Miracle Grow eliminated a step or two in the soil processing to "reduce their Carbon footprint" & meet new environmental regulations to "save the planet"
@@loloholmes2793 that's a shame as it just about renders a bag of potting soil useless. I know there are ways to kill them but....Perhaps this is an opportunity for the competition to come out with a gnat free soil
Seeds have what they need in the beginning from their seed coating. I usually add a diluted fertilizer after the first true leaves appear. So having sterile mix to start seeds is ok!
Not always , but def possible I actually ended up with springtails thos time they r pissing me off . Came from worm castings I sterilized everything else lmfao . Not a cheap fix in my set up . Hahahajajaja
@@xl9070 helpful if you have lots of organic matter, they can eat your roots , especially with no organic matter around, that being said they can be just ad beneficial as earthworms in the soil if you know how to control populations .
You’re also killing all the beneficial microbes and fungus in the soil. You’re basically making a dead soil. All you need to do to get rid of fungus gnats is water in beneficial nematodes. When you’re using soil you want to use better natural approaches to problems.
I've bought soil at the end of the season, knowing I would need it in January to start onion seeds. I've left it in the cold garage for months, and I've brought it inside to my plant area. Both resulted in bugs. Now, having said that, I have also had years where I wasn't able to clean it, and I barely noticed anything and other years where they are so annoying...
@@GardeningintheNorth that’s interesting, thanks for sharing ur experience , for me ive been leaving the soil stored for 6 months then I treat it with mosquito bits tea then leave it for two weeks then another application of mosquito bits then another two weeks then I use it ! It’s a long frustrating process but it’s better than dealing with another infestation that I had years ago ! My house is insects free for 3 years now
@@GardeningintheNorth it’s misquito dunks ( u can find in ur local nursery or amazon , they kill the larvae 🐛 of any insects ! I call it tea as i soak this dunk in warm water then leave it there for 3 hours or a day then water the plants ! U can find lots of videos on youtube regarding this ! It’s effective in killing gnats larvae
Thanks Victor. The whole video is about cleaning your soil. I talk about the different ways in order to give people options. Not everyone will want to do it just the one way. Thanks for watching.
@@GardeningintheNorth I meant I watch your video, I already trust your experience by definition, and if so, just let people know your best way. The problem with youtube these days is that in order to monetize well videos should be long, Im not saying you follow that, Im just saying that it is like a new thing nowadays . By sharing your best way and NOT giving a choice of failing for others , you save people time, which is life. But I know what you meant.
Thank you Victor. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain what you meant. I understand what you meant, and value the advice and will think about this as I plan out future videos. 😊
