I SWEAR…I ain’t never gonna put nothing away ever again when I’m stoned lol. Promise?
Still haven’t found it, and I have been looking all damn day. lol. That’s what happens when you grow good dope.
Marty
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So right you are, been reading up on them a bit. I don’t get bugs in my grow room unless I bring them in, in coco or peat or one of the amendments. It’s in the back of the basement in an old coal room. When I built it in I glued plastic sheeting to the ceiling walls and floor and sealed the seams with silicone completely then I framed it in. So I don’t have a problem with them coming in through the walls or floor, and trust me spider mites will do that through cracks in the concrete, had a buddy get a horrible infestation like that. We took his room apart and sheeted it in plastic like I had done and then put up white styro for insulation and he has been fine since. But yeah the directions now say to make a tea from the bits 3 Tbls per gallon let it soak for 1/2 hour and then water with it. I figured I might as well water and feed and kill the gnats all at once lol.
What I was wondering is if you have a pot of organic soil cooking, inside a plastic bag like mine are for 4 weeks now, will the fungus gnats breed and lay new eggs inside that bag or do they die if they can’t get out into the air like normal ? Oh well, I’ll just water em with soaked bits for a few weeks that should kill anything in the pots if they are there.
Marty
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That is why I was asking Bob. I have the pots that are cooking the Earth dust covered in plastic bags, but I wouldn’t call them airproof. The tiny size of the fungus gnats I would imagine would let them live just fine in the air spaces at the top of the bag, and in the soil. What I was wondering about was if there are no plants in the soil and no roots and it’s just cooking will the larva die? They certainly have been cooking longer than the life cycle of the gnat.
Marty
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Marty, The larva cannot tolerate much HEAT so if your soil is actually heating up similar to a good compost pile they cannot survive.
I make a recommendation to guys that dump their used media in a pile and save it for reuse…
If you liberally spread some ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) over the top of it and then water that in real well, throw a tarp over the pile and it will HEAT UP! The other thing is the sulfate component changes to sulfuric acid in the pile and that will help with killing MOST insect larva and even SOME nematodes…FWIW
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Yes i have sterilized compost before but used the two sheets of clear plastic method chemical free, make it about 2 inches thick and lay the clear plastic sandwich in the sun on your driveway and it will kill most everything as it gets in excess of 200 degrees inside the clear plastic. give it some moisture first and it will literally steam shit to death lol. But that wasn’t what I was asking, I was asking if the fungus gnats would die inside these plastic wrapped pots in my tent at about 75 degrees with a lack of roots to eat ? But like I said not important, I will just water them in with the mosquito bits and water when I transplant the little ones. Also going to till in some extra Earth Dust nutes to the first 4 inches or so of soil. Be interesting to see if there are any more fungus gnats flying around in the morning. I smished 4-5 of them this morning and didn’t see any more all day, and now the cups have the killer bacteria in them, so hopefully it will start killing the larva. Then kill off the rest that hatch in the next two weeks of watering them with the bits each time.
Marty
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They would live just fine in 75 degree pots if adequate moisture was available…
BTW the larvae can survive just fine eating any organic matter in your media…they don’t ‘target’ your roots, they are just munching away as in grazing…once they find root hairs or new root tips, that’s like inviting them to the uptown cuisine boutique!!!
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Just popped the tent open and gave a look, they musta just started hatching yesterday as there were only about 4-5 flying around, just now there was about 10. Put a yellow sticky card in there and within 2 minutes there were 2 stuck on it. Aparentely this coco is loaded with them. I read where if the medium dries out they die, but that can’t be the case as I used Canna coco compressed blocks and they are dry. Mixed everything and it was still pretty cold outside so they couldn’t have come from there and all the old coco from the last grow I put on the garden outside it has snowed since then. Anyway I’ll just kill them now that I have the tool to do so. Maybe they came from the ProMix? It was damp inside the plastic bag it is packed in. Who knows.
Marty
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Little late to the party but I’m pulling a chair front row if you don’t mind. Looking real happy
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Personally, I’ve never had them in a freshly expanded brick of canna, botanicare, generic etc. I always look to inside sources, like I said my common ones are sump pit / floor drains, fresh fruit and vegetables from the grocery.
I purchased a “new to me” product BMC Biological Mosquito Control for ponds, its a very concentrated BTI, I forget the dilution but its crazy like 15ml/1000gals of water, I’ll report on it when I get to try it out.
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I hear that, I have never had a fungus gnat problem either till the last grow and now this one. The only common denominator is the Canna coco. Both grows used new bags and all new coco and this grow the coco/ProMix 50/50 mix. I haven’t seen a single one except in my tent after I put the cups in there, and it took 15 days before they came out so it matches the life cycle of them being in the medium already. Where did you get the super concentrated BTI ? Is it dry? When reading up on the BTI it said that it does not stay in the medium, that it must be replentished by adding it once or twice a week for 3-4 weeks to control them.
Marty
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Well there is feeling stupid and then just plain ol’ butt stupid ! Found the controller, the splitter and the jumpers for the digital controller for the Rapid boards. Took all my plastic tubs completely apart (they hold all kinds of grow stuff, rope hangers timers hydro tubing and on and on. Had three of them took them all completely apart and nothing. Took my hall closet apart (keep all my phone chargers etc in there…nothing. Looked in cubords drawers you name it…nothing. This morning I sat down at my computer desk, turned it on and started looking at the forum. Needed a thumb drive for transferring my pictures off the Nikon…and right there I mean RIGHT THERE ON THE DESK in front of me every single day was the box with the digital timer jumpers and splitter in it. And it gets worse lol…I wrote what was in it right on the top in black majic marker. Ok that’s my story and I’m sticking to it lol. DUH!!!
Marty
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Marty,
It is by Microbe Lift same parent company folks as Microbe-Life makers of Photosynthesis+. It is a concentrated liquid.
https://microbelift dot com/product/biological-mosquito-control-bmc/
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Yo Dog, thanks so much. Man that stuff is concentrated. 2 oz for 450 gal of water and will treat for two years. Do you use anything else of theirs ? Got about 6 gnats stuck to the yellow card now, and a couple flying around. Doesn’t look too bad yet. I had hundred and hundreds of them last grow. Maybe even in the thousands, I had 8 yellow sticky cards in my tent and they were all covered front and back pretty big cards too about 6"x4".
Marty
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I use the MicrobeLife Photosynthesis+ for the two strains of Bacteria that are photosynthesis instigators that no-other product I’ve seen has in the mix. Stinks like a porta potty on a 100deg day, but plants seem to like it. I like that the sales rep Scott is readily available to answer specific Q’s too.
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I don’t see a way to buy it right off their site. Looks like you have to go through a retailer. Did you get yours direct from them? I was looking at that photosynthisis stuff. Do you think it works?
Thanks!
Marty
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The BMC I got from amazon, was $22 for an 6oz bottle, was cheapest I could find.
All the Science White papers I could find on Rhodopseudomonas Palustrus and Rhodospirillum Rubrum say Yes so I didn’t doubt and likely cant hurt. Also has a handful of the typical bacillus - amylo/lichen/subtil/mega and a mix of other common Myco’s …maybe Bob will chime in if he has any experience with those specifically or knowledge of bunk science on it.
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Hey Dog!
No honestly, I am not familiar with them at all !
If I have no basis for commenting either pro or con, I always try to put that out there up front!
I would be much more interested in grower comments regarding their results !
As we’re all aware the microbial inoculant market is very competitive. I think we all look for a competitive advantage, and certainly marketers are well aware of human nature. In the marketplace it really boils down to are you willing to spend $X to test the product yourself ! If after a period in the market the product has beneficial ROI it will prosper…if not, it probably wont be around long !
LOL, I guess I’m saying the market will be the final arbiter !
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How very true, was also reading up on their zero lawn inocculant that has no primary nutes in it at all. A supposed answer to N/P/K runoff into water souces. Apparently Florida has a lot of local bans on lawn fertilizer, amounts and application times, including blackout dates where none is allowed. With the Everglades I can see why they would. Question is does it work.
Marty
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I put nematodes in my front lawn for grubs, and my yard is one of the only ones on the block that doesn’t get filled with weird yellow blotches mid season. I’m a believer in the magic of bugs, pick up a small quantity and try in in your yard in Charlie Brown Stripes.
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Oh I believe in them, just not sure that spray on foliar feed bacteria can replace N/P/K totally. I have for the past two years gotten the hated green Japanese June bugs, Last year I put in killer neamatodes and last fall and now twice since the weather warmed a little put in milky spore to get the grubs, both in my garden and in my lawn. The control is three applications for 2 years. Won’t keep those out of everyone eleses yards though. They don’t bother me but they are very territorial and very aggressive, if you get around where they are sitting on plants they will fly at you and then all around you trying to run you off. Doesn’t work with me lol. Hopefully it will kill off the population close enough to my garden to keep them from finding it and breeding and eating in my garden. When I was reading on them apparently they just crossed the Mississippi river a couple of years ago from the east.
Marty
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