House plants are a lovely way to add colour and vibrancy into your home, and there are even varieties that are said to help you sleep. However, with temperatures outside dropping, many homeowners are finding pesky fungus gnats seeking shelter in their house plants and once there, they can be tricky to remove.
Fungus gnats will typically be found near house plants as they like the moisture the soil provides. If you find yourself over-watering your plants, this is the first factor you should consider cutting back on. But, while that preventative measure should reduce the level of fungus gnats, it won't get rid of the entire infestation completely and they are unlikely to go away on their own.
Stuck with this problem myself, I found an effective way to get rid of the gnats in just one week, and the products will set you back less than £13.
How do I get rid of fungus gnats?
Step one:
To reduce the number of fungus gnats flying around, these Double Sided Fungus Gnat Sticky Catchers are excellent. Simply poke the £4.99 product into the soil and the flies will stick to the non-toxic and odourless item.
Each kit comes with 30 individual catchers so you can pop them into multiple sides of the house plant, or in more than one around your home.
Amazon customers are also as impressed with the product as I am, with one person saying, "These did an amazing job of dealing with a gnat problem. After repotting several plants, I started to notice gnats flying about. I came across these, and thought I’d give them a try. They worked a treat. I have lots of potted plants in my house, and they had all become infected with gnats, which had quickly laid eggs and had spread to all my plants. You can see immediately the results."
Another person said: "Put these traps in with my plants just yesterday and have done their job well! Really good product for a really good price." Some people did observe that they can be "a little fiddly when removing the backing," but "after 1-2 tries it is very easy to use."
There are also alternative fungus gnat catcher brands on Amazon, such as Plant Fly Ninja and Trappify.
Step two:
To fully break the life cycle of the fungus gnats, you will need to prevent the gnats from laying eggs. To ensure they are not able to hatch and don’t infect other plants in the home, the second step I found that worked wonders was to layer the top of any house plant soil with LAVA-LITE No Gnats.
This natural solution works by creating a barrier between the soil and the air so no gnats are able to lay their eggs. Available on Amazon for £7.95, one shopper praised the product saying: "After having tried absolutely everything to get hold of a severe gnats infestation, this is the only thing that actually worked."
It doesn't look unsightly on your house plants and I found that the small grey stones actually looked quite nice, however, I did find that after watering, the stones tended to go more yellow in colour. One person confirms this by penning: "It turns yellow when in contact with water but if it keeps those pesky flies at bay, I really don’t care."
You can also shop LAVA-LITE No Gnats on Homebase for £7, or a similar product is Plant GPs Anti Fungus Gnat Treatment. It's £13.99 on Amazon, and is pet and child safe.
After using these products in combination for one week, I found that my home fungus gnat infestation was completely gone and my house plants were healthy again. To keep the pests under control, you might want to consider running a dehumidifier, particularly in damp areas of your home, as fungus gnats thrive in warm, humid conditions.