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Since they thrive in moist areas, find these places and get rid of the moisture. A moist environment is an ideal place for female gnats to lay their eggs. After the eggs hatch into larvae, they feed, become pupae, then grow into full-grown adults. You may only notice their presence when they start flying around.
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Be it black or red gnats in house, gnats are one of the most annoying pests one can encounter. Swarms of them fly all around the house and some even fly to sit on your nose. Before their numbers increase, it is important to control their populations. This article provides information on how to get rid of gnats in the house.
Address Moist Soil
Peppermint oil is a great natural pest control option, especially when made into a bug spray with water and a few drops of liquid dish soap. From getting rid of mice to getting rid of cockroaches, peppermint has the wonderful ability to deter pests from entering your home and bothering you in the first place. If none of these solutions seem to be working and the gnats keep returning, it may be time to call in a professional. A pest control company can help you tackle a serious or persistent infestation. From hanging ribbons and cards to sticky stands specifically designed for potted plants, sticky traps are an easy way to catch a cluster of gnats.
Use boiling water
Fruit flies are another pest commonly confused with interior or fungus gnats. Also called vinegar flies, they are tiny, around 1/16 inch (2 mm), with distinct red eyes and a mix of tan, black, and gray on their head and body. If you have houseplants, ensure they are not being overwatered, as this creates a year-round breeding and feeding source inside your home for gnats and other pests. Once you have treated your gnat infestation, the key to keeping it from coming back is to clean thoroughly and reduce available sources of food and moisture for the gnats.
How To Keep Gnats Away, According To Experts - Southern Living
How To Keep Gnats Away, According To Experts.
Posted: Fri, 03 Nov 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
If you’ve exhausted your options and still have a gnat infestation, it’s time to call in the pros. To kill gnat larvae, try a mixture of soapy water and spray it on your plants’ soil, O’Neill advises. Use one tablespoon of liquid soap (such as dish soap) with one quart of water and spray onto the soil to remove gnat larvae. No, you don’t need to kill your plants to keep gnats out of your home. If the soil is still relatively damp, you might want to allow more time before adding more moisture into that pot, says Fredricks. To kill drain flies and their eggs nesting in pipes, mix 1/2 cup of bleach in a gallon of water and pour it slowly down the drain.
Effective Sticky Traps
This concoction mimics that smell for gnats and lures them in. Once the gnats find the mixture and dive into the slits, the mixture causes them to drown since the trap makes it hard to escape. Glue or sticky traps are strips of paper or tape with an adhesive coating that traps gnats. You can set these traps anywhere in your home that sees gnat activity. Note that the traps will need to be replaced often and may have limited effectiveness for large infestations.
So that’s where store-bought baits, traps, and gnat killer comes into play. Here are a few popular things you can buy to get rid of gnats. While I strongly recommend a natural home remedy, not everyone has the time for that.
Try Aerosol Sprays
Set up as many as you possibly can (safely) and put them in secure areas around your house where gnats are present. You’ll need to adjust them later on anyway to see what gets the gnats to come in. Put the container by the gnats and they’ll fly to it only to drown. You don’t have to go crazy with it- just a few pokes are enough.
Either way, you can be happy about it because they’ll go away on their own if you can’t ever fully get rid of all the gnats. The larvae continue feeding and then pupate for a few days after a month or so of eating. This is determined by temperature, food competition, predators, shelter, and the local environment. They also can be smuggled in unknowingly when you buy new plants.
However, with gnats being able to fly, they can easily get to second or third-story bedrooms. Since no two bedrooms are alike, the types of bugs you bring in vary depending on your location, your cleanliness, and the condition of your property. Sometimes, confused gnats may wander into your property and end up on your walls and ceiling.
The bad news is that they can lay about 200 to 300 eggs during their brief lives. Each egg matures into a larva, and then transitions into a pupa and adult. Depending on the species, a gnat’s entire life cycle can be completed in as few as 3 weeks. In Arizona, the duration of a gnat infestation can vary depending on the species of gnat, environmental conditions and the effectiveness of control measures.
You can invest in a soil moisture monitor to accurately measure the amount of water in your soil, which will help prevent overwatering. Other signs of a gnat infestation are your plants wilting, losing leaves, and turning yellow. Slow plant growth can be another sign of a gnat problem. Gnat infestations can weaken your plants and make them more susceptible to other pests and diseases.
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