I found dead fungus gnat on my freshy transplanted plants 😡

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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PolishGuy
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Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 11:02 pm
Location: Poland, dolnośląskie (lower silesia)

I found dead fungus gnat on my freshy transplanted plants 😡

Post by PolishGuy »

Soo I transplanted my cacti and I found dead fungus gnat lying next to my little beautiful plant.
I think it must have laid eggs especially that it was day after the first propper watering after transplanting.

Im really annoyed since my plants were freshly watered with a lot of trichoderma + beneficial bacteria culture and I really dont want to destroy that microbiome with soil drenches using peroxide or pesticides, also because they were transplanted from peatmoss they will have super fragile roots and I also want to make sure they have some moisture to send those roots out.

The only good thing on my side is that the plants were watered with decent soil drench full strenght imidacloprid (2 times 2 weeks apart) couple months back in the autumn when they still were in the old soil... well more like almost a year now but they definitelly had time to uptake some (I hope that enough imidacloprid is retained in plant tissue that if the gnats try to eat the fresh roots shooted out by the plant it will kill them)

I dont know what to do honestly but I would hate to have fight with the gnats now, also because I live in rural area and have my plants near the window its pretty much impossible to avoid such things. (just today like 1000 little flies flew into my house in the evening because lights were turned on with open window)

Any Ideas?
Poland, dolnośląskie (lower silesia)
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Aeonium2003
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Location: Central California

Re: I found dead fungus gnat on my freshy transplanted plants 😡

Post by Aeonium2003 »

I doubt fungus gnats will be an issue as long as you don't overwater your cacti.
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PolishGuy
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Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 11:02 pm
Location: Poland, dolnośląskie (lower silesia)

Re: I found dead fungus gnat on my freshy transplanted plants 😡

Post by PolishGuy »

Aeonium2003 wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:04 am I doubt fungus gnats will be an issue as long as you don't overwater your cacti.
I had the gnats absolutely destroy my mango plants but I think that was due to the pit rotting out once the plant got older, I dont know if it could be this bad on my cacti, I really hope its not

It also luckily landed on the plant with smallest pot, so the soil will dry out in couple days, but I have no idea if one havent landed in one of the big pots, especially that it might take some time for the soil to dry out there as they were watered yesterday :/

Also because I used a lot of trichoderma culture Im afraid that the larvae might have some food till the soil dries out and the problem is that the top dries much faster than the bottom and the plants havent filled it out with roots yet :(
Poland, dolnośląskie (lower silesia)
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