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How to get rid of fungus gnats with potatoes

drjohnathan - October 13, 2015
I've read a lot of methods right there, and I've been fighting these little buggers Since 3 months ago, I am like many of us searching for natural ways to grow plants and take care of them cheaply as possible.
Finally I found some guys out there talking about using potato's slices as gnat baits to attract larvae which deeply immersed into the potting soil.
Why we didn't use gnat's love to potato to attract them and kill them. 
So that, I decided to give this potato trick a try.

Actually, many types of soil and potting mixes have a number of very small residents we seldom realize are there, some growers do think they received some fungus gnats courtesy in the bag of organic potting mix such as Miracle Grow, I think too that they could be live in any soil where the conditions are right for them to proliferate and such bags which stored outdoors usually give insect's larvae all the right ingredients they need to grow.
Examples of tiny creatures found on the soil and love to feed on potatoes fruit are: black-headed fungus gnats larvae, Whitefringed beetle adults grup, Spotted and banded cucumber beetles, Systena flea beetle, Wireworm larvae, White Grubs, Sweet Potato Weevil, other critters infesting plants and the list continues with tiny bitsy teensy little white things that crawling on potato to get a fresh meal.

Firstly do you know what does fungus gnat looks like?
They usually moving around, they are not tiny seed looking things, they're crawly things, homing mites, and soil mites. More to know gnats
Do you know where do nats come from?
You might see a few on your plants hopping around the potting soil, or Larvae on the bottom roots of plants.
Read more 

Pros and cons of potato traps:
Potatoes attract all larvae infest the soil because taters are sweet and yellow and rich with nutrients they need for growth and lay eggs.
The potato trap have two sides which maximize their effect to collect more and more critters as you can think it is heavy infestation.
Potato trap is natural, therefore you are not annoying about chemical pollution or contamination by any means.
However, you're not going to worry about good caring of soil, because potato ain't going to hurt potting soil, as well as there is no possible side effects of using potato to kill soil insects.
Using Potato as a natural trap for catching fungus knat is kind of something cheap for your budget, however one potato medium in size can be sliced to make 4 - 6 units, moreover one slice is enough to catch all gnat's larvae in one planting pot for 2 - 4 days.

How to use Potatoes like a magic to capture all insects in the soil?
I will give you the creeps
The best time is when the soil is moderately moist.
  1. Slice a raw potato into thin but strong slices.
  2. Use a slice of potato on each container is enough in beginning, increase the slice thickness and count if one thick slice didn't work. 
  3. Lay the potato's slice on the surface of soil at any site or put inch-long pieces of fresh taters on topsoil.
  4. Gnats Larvae will be drawn to it, because they love it
  5. Wait for slices 2 days or three to start working, sometimes you could see gnats migrate and moving on the potatoes within four hours, depending on the heaviness of infestation and the potting soil itself, when there are potatoes you must see tons of VERY TINY black bugs, crawling all over the taters slices, then your soil infested with gnats and potatoes do work to attract fungus nats in the deeps of soil.
  6. Dispose the slices when overloaded with stuck gnats and put a fresh piece 
  7. Threw old tater slices away in garbage and tightly wrap it up in tape and took it out
Be careful when pulling them out to not get them crawl into your clothes and start feeling itchy and crawly.
Do not forget to close windows and doors to prevent indoor gnat migration which make he situation worse.

Mix to get potato work well
Using Potatoes will trap a ton of larval insects more and more will come with the time but still have some around here and there, however Potatoes is moist and sweet which gnats loves most, but we need to apply some tricks learnt before to keep them hanged until death, yes, I mean something sticky like glue or honey.
Or use potato method to gather nats larvae from the soil and then kill them by methods like hanging sticky fly strips to stop adult fliers, neem oil drench or topsoil Perlite sand or BTi to suffocate the eggs and kill fungus gnats inside the soil, Tobacco juice for reoccurrence.
This Way larvae cannot get out and gnat adults cannot get in, the knats population will absolutely vanished.

Learn the ways to keep gnats away
I am not sure that it will work for you too, hence I have not heard from you yet, leave your comment below.
I've read a lot of methods right there, and I've been fighting these little buggers Since 3 months ago, I am like many of us searching for natural ways to grow plants and take care of them cheaply as possible.
Finally I found some guys out there talking about using potato's slices as gnat baits to attract larvae which deeply immersed into the potting soil.
Why we didn't use gnat's love to potato to attract them and kill them. 
So that, I decided to give this potato trick a try.

Actually, many types of soil and potting mixes have a number of very small residents we seldom realize are there, some growers do think they received some fungus gnats courtesy in the bag of organic potting mix such as Miracle Grow, I think too that they could be live in any soil where the conditions are right for them to proliferate and such bags which stored outdoors usually give insect's larvae all the right ingredients they need to grow.
Examples of tiny creatures found on the soil and love to feed on potatoes fruit are: black-headed fungus gnats larvae, Whitefringed beetle adults grup, Spotted and banded cucumber beetles, Systena flea beetle, Wireworm larvae, White Grubs, Sweet Potato Weevil, other critters infesting plants and the list continues with tiny bitsy teensy little white things that crawling on potato to get a fresh meal.

Firstly do you know what does fungus gnat looks like?
They usually moving around, they are not tiny seed looking things, they're crawly things, homing mites, and soil mites. More to know gnats
Do you know where do nats come from?
You might see a few on your plants hopping around the potting soil, or Larvae on the bottom roots of plants.
Read more 

Pros and cons of potato traps:
Potatoes attract all larvae infest the soil because taters are sweet and yellow and rich with nutrients they need for growth and lay eggs.
The potato trap have two sides which maximize their effect to collect more and more critters as you can think it is heavy infestation.
Potato trap is natural, therefore you are not annoying about chemical pollution or contamination by any means.
However, you're not going to worry about good caring of soil, because potato ain't going to hurt potting soil, as well as there is no possible side effects of using potato to kill soil insects.
Using Potato as a natural trap for catching fungus knat is kind of something cheap for your budget, however one potato medium in size can be sliced to make 4 - 6 units, moreover one slice is enough to catch all gnat's larvae in one planting pot for 2 - 4 days.

How to use Potatoes like a magic to capture all insects in the soil?
I will give you the creeps
The best time is when the soil is moderately moist.
  1. Slice a raw potato into thin but strong slices.
  2. Use a slice of potato on each container is enough in beginning, increase the slice thickness and count if one thick slice didn't work. 
  3. Lay the potato's slice on the surface of soil at any site or put inch-long pieces of fresh taters on topsoil.
  4. Gnats Larvae will be drawn to it, because they love it
  5. Wait for slices 2 days or three to start working, sometimes you could see gnats migrate and moving on the potatoes within four hours, depending on the heaviness of infestation and the potting soil itself, when there are potatoes you must see tons of VERY TINY black bugs, crawling all over the taters slices, then your soil infested with gnats and potatoes do work to attract fungus nats in the deeps of soil.
  6. Dispose the slices when overloaded with stuck gnats and put a fresh piece 
  7. Threw old tater slices away in garbage and tightly wrap it up in tape and took it out
Be careful when pulling them out to not get them crawl into your clothes and start feeling itchy and crawly.
Do not forget to close windows and doors to prevent indoor gnat migration which make he situation worse.

Mix to get potato work well
Using Potatoes will trap a ton of larval insects more and more will come with the time but still have some around here and there, however Potatoes is moist and sweet which gnats loves most, but we need to apply some tricks learnt before to keep them hanged until death, yes, I mean something sticky like glue or honey.
Or use potato method to gather nats larvae from the soil and then kill them by methods like hanging sticky fly strips to stop adult fliers, neem oil drench or topsoil Perlite sand or BTi to suffocate the eggs and kill fungus gnats inside the soil, Tobacco juice for reoccurrence.
This Way larvae cannot get out and gnat adults cannot get in, the knats population will absolutely vanished.

Learn the ways to keep gnats away
I am not sure that it will work for you too, hence I have not heard from you yet, leave your comment below.
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