Sand to Protect From Fungus Gnats?

erinisanicon

erinisanicon

Egg
I currently have a rainbow stag L2 larvae (I expect it will shed to L3 any day now), which is kept in a house with many houseplants. Unsurprisingly, I have noticed a few fungus gnats inside its container. I’ve spent a some time searching on here for an answer, and while I will try those too, I was wondering if this may be a solution. On houseplant pages, I’ve seen people put a layer of sand over the top of their soil in the plant pots as fungus gnats can’t lay eggs on it. Honestly as I’m writing this I doubt it would be an option for using the same technique in a larvae container, but I wondered if anyone had tried this before and if there was larvae-safe sand.
 
Try it! Placing a layer of sand on top may work to deter fungus gnats to lay anymore of eggs, but their maggots already inside the substrate cannot be exterminated with sand, of course. Your idea does work preventing any fresh eggs. stag beetle larva has no problem with sand. Don't worry about that part. You can use play sand from Home Depot or other garden supplies.
 
JKim said:
Try it! Placing a layer of sand on top may work to deter fungus gnats to lay anymore of eggs, but their maggots already inside the substrate cannot be exterminated with sand, of course. Your idea does work preventing any fresh eggs. stag beetle larva has no problem with sand. Don't worry about that part. You can use play sand from Home Depot or other garden supplies.
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I’m going to give it a go when my new flame soil arrives. I’ll make sure to heat treat it first this time (what probably contributed to the issue originally). Thanks for replying by the way, I just wanted to make sure the sand wouldn’t harm the larvae!
 
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