Gnats Everywhere

D

Daniel J. R.

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Recently I had moved to a new apartment and although I've had gnats in the past, they were never this problematic. A couple females must have gotten in during the move cause they will not stop spawning;I can literally see their young crawling all through the substrate and on both of my larvae. I froze the substrate over night two times, and then after a thaw I still find tons of them crawling. Not really sure what to do at this point cause this is my only batch of substrate left (around 2 pounds) and my larvae are really huge, yellow, and I don't want them to be harmed in any way. Any tips would be deeply appreciated.

 
Update: I attempted heat treating the substrate and although I still saw many of the gnats and offspring, they were all dead by that point. I'll make sure to keep these two beetles in a better place to prevent infestation again. My roommates were getting agitated at the amount of gnats in our new place.

 
Gnats will always try to breed if they have a chance.

make sure the container that you are using has very tiny holes for ventilation.

I use glass jars, and drilled some holes on the cap. then put those first-aid tapes on the holes.

so even if 1 jar got infested, nothing comes out and fly around.

 
Pewrune said:
Gnats will always try to breed if they have a chance.

make sure the container that you are using has very tiny holes for ventilation.

I use glass jars, and drilled some holes on the cap. then put those first-aid tapes on the holes.

so even if 1 jar got infested, nothing comes out and fly around.
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Yeah I had just gotten new containers for them and I'm now keeping them in a closed off shelf so that nothing can get in. First aid tape is ok to put over the holes? I'm always worried about air constriction or tape fumes.

 
Fungus gnats can be pretty hard to eradicate, seeing as they are tiny and can squeeze into tight spaces, your ventilation holes would need to be extremely small to prevent them from invading your enclosures. Their maggots can come in with your substrate if it hasn't been sterilized, so you gotta watch out for that too. Really most keepers just end up living with them, there's not a whole lot that can be done.

Fungus gnat larva and adults tend to stay away from any larger inhabitants in the cage, and fungus gnat larva are pretty hard to see, so I doubt they are what's crawling over your larva, perhaps you have some other cage pests as well?

Luckily fungus gnats are harmless to your pets, though like your beetle larva, they eat the substrate, so you may need to replace the substrate more frequently as both your beetle larva and the gnat larva convert it to frass.

That's pretty much the only harmful thing they can do to your pets, though they are pretty annoying to us humans, (especially when they fly up your nose...).

 
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I always had a problem with gnats when I use to breed beetles. Heat treating the substrate worked every time.

 
Those will last until the sheet is completely covered with gnats.

I just got in some replacement sheets that I will be posting to the site soon, which should help them last a lot longer...

 
Can say this with my experience, controlling fungus gnats requires a lot of patience! We tried vinegar trap. Simply pour some vinegar into a small bottle or cup mix a few drops of liquid soap and stir to form suds. Adult gnats are attracted to the smell of vinegar so they'll be drawn to the trap and be caught in the suds and eventually drown. But after a few months we again faced this problem and this time we decided to consult the NJ pest control professional to know what else can be tried. They suggested to use biological insecticide and repeat the application every five days until the gnats are eradicated. This was quite effective and also kept our pets safe.

 
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We have gnat issues a lot where I live, since I am surrounded by swampland. It is always very humid so they crop up constantly if we don't keep things pristine. Best I can say is to monitor your moisture levels, too wet and they buzz around looking for somewhere nice to lay eggs. I even have gnats attracted to condensation in my buckets, when I am rotting fresh wood. A good seal will help prevent that. With adult beetles, wet food or fruit also obviously attracts flies, with banana being the worst with that in my experience so far. I will have zero gnats and getting fresh fruit from the store will "bring in" gnats, or so it seems to me. Bags of potatoes that are kept in storage can also have gnats if you have storage like that. Apple much less so. Keeping stuff in the fridge obviously helps with it all. Beetle jelly would be near zero for gnats. I hear banana jelly will attract gnats anyway but brown sugar not so much.

I check my larva every other week and I have not had gnats in any of them, even with chunks of apple buried in them... I do not dig out my grubs. I had a small gnat issue with my female ox beetle's egg bucket last week, but removing her food and changing out her wettest substrate completely eliminated that, as they were attracted to the banana scent on her grass on the top layer of her bucket. Fresh grass and buried food, no gnats.

Also check your sinks! If you have a food trap or garbage disposal in your kitchen or pour soups out in there, gnats will go into your drain and breed like crazy, which will spread that way or from your garbage and into your bug areas. Drain flies too. I keep my buckets in my front room, so when I get gnats, I check my kitchen and that's usually the case, not the beetles. I'm a full time college student with roommates, so our sink is sometimes neglected and this happens on very busy weeks. Grubs fed on nothing but flake soil shouldn't attract gnats unless you are mixing in dog food or bran mash, which can attract them if it's too damp and it's left where gnats can get inside. Best I can say is to do a partial change of your substrate and treat new substrate with boiling water to kill off anything that could be in it if your substrate storage and then dry it out somewhere outside away from your lawn and your garbage.

If your holes on your cups are too big and you don't want to change cups or move your grubs, cover it with a strip of thin fabric! Panty hose is really great. It will breathe fine and then nothing can get through the fabric and through the holes. The guys above have given good advice, so I guess check your sinks and food storage areas and maybe try a gnat trap. Sticky stuff works better than bottle traps in my opinion, but maybe I just have very smart gnats... good luck!

 
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