hese are the small flies that don’t bite the human being. The fungus gnats cannot cause to any human infection or disease. They only creates frustration for you, when they were attacked your household plants. They looks like a mosquitoes and small in size of 2 ½ millimeters long. Their color is grayish to black flies with longer skinny antennae as compare to head. They have long and slender legs. There are the relatively weak fliers and breeds near the potted plants. They lives, runs, and rests on the soil and over the leaves.
They may not be dangerous to human health but People just hate to see them. They can be the vectors for your plant diseases, which is not satisfactory. Here, is a question. What is the vector? It is an organism that shifts the pathogen. For example, if you have any sick plant in your garden, the fungus bites it and spread the organism to all the healthy neigh hood healthy plants. They also vector to plant roots, as the fungus larvae enjoys their breakfast, lunch, and dinner from your plant roots. The adult fungus can live for one week only.
Fungus Gnats
Steps to kill the fungus gnats
The fungus problems occur on plants, a wet and moist environment of the soil supports them. They like to eat fungus and spread the bacteria with moisture, so they lay eggs on the plant. Indoor plants suffering from fungus need the different treatment procedure, from outdoor plants to kill the gnats. The fungus is the long-winged and long-legged creatures’ insect, till the soil and adds the fungicide to kill them. Allow the soil to dry to cover up the extra moist. Always apply the insecticide on the plants to be safe them.
To the kill the gnats, it is necessary to repeat the procedure of insecticide and fungicide sprays. If there are a humid environment in your home, cut down the moisture and removes all the containers of liquid. For outdoor plants, the first step is till the soil of gnats affected areas. Do the fungicide spray on the ground that will not be harmful for surrounding fruits and vegetables. You can use the organic insecticide to cover the plants from gnats. The insecticide process can be repeated according to the direction printed on the label.
The natural ways to avoid the fungus gnats
The good news is that the adult gnats can live for one week. The bad news about fungus is that, the female gnats will lay the 100-150 eggs on the plant’s surface and these eggs can hatch within a four days. Some precaution steps will helpful to avoid the fungus. The first step is reducing the frequency of watering to the plants; allow the soil of the r to dry. Allow the plant to soak the water completely. One to two hours after applying the water, removes the trays under the pots to drains the all accumulated water.
Removes the decaying material from the affected plant, discard the wilted flowers, dropped leaves, and bulbs that have died. Don’t stay the plant in the same pot for a longer time, if your plant is in the same pot from 1 year. It is the time to change the pot, brush the soil before planting into new place. Place yellow sticky traps around the pot, plant stand or windowsill. The fungus will draw at that sticky portion and stuck. Throw away the card and set the new one until there is no fungus to capture. You may use anti-bacterial sprays to target the fungus.
These sprays can be use according to the manufacturer’s instructions, In the case of any severe infestation, where the elimination of gnats is impossible either by the natural way or by the sprays. It is good to discard all the household plant.
“Dark-winged Fungus Gnat” by John Tann is marked with CC BY 2.0.
