We are plant people! We love our plants. Over the years, we have been building our plant family one at a time. Presently, we have between 30-40 plants that we have either bought, inherited, or propagated. Recently, we have discovered our propagated tiny Swiss Cheese Monstera had gnats flying and running around in the soil.
macro close-up of gnat taken with my iphone 13 pro max
Our baby Monstera plant
We tried several home remedies such as using hydrogen peroxide mixed with water to water the soil, completely drying out the soil, setting apple cider vinegar and dish soap traps and more; all to rid the soil of these nasty pests to no avail. Soon, we noticed other plants started having issues. It was time to go up a notch in our pest control.
Bring out the heavy-duty pest control.
After several days of researching some of the best ways to rectify this issue, we found that most plant enthusiasts used various sprays or water treatment that did not harm the plants but combatted only the bug issue. We hoped that their tips would help so we went to Amazon and ordered a few things to help tackle our issues.
- Sticky gnat traps: These traps are placed into the soil and have a VERY sticky surface to capture the gnats. You can find these HERE.
- Neem Oil: Kills eggs, larvae, and adult stages of MANY plant invader insects. You can use it safely on plants and is more organic than some other plant pesticides. Find product HERE.
- Bonide Systemic House Plant Insect Control: Granules that can be applied both via watering or sprinkling on your soil to effectively treat your insect issue. Find this product HERE.
We are currently treating our plants with the three above products and have seen some mild results initially. We hope these products work and we look forward to happy and healthy plants for years to come.
Any Advice?
Now that you are learning about our plant issues, tell us what you would do. How would you treat this issue? Do you have any tricks or tips to share with us? Have you dealt with this before? We are always trying to educate ourselves and look forward to your feedback!
Happy Planting!
Shannon and Fuad
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