Mosquito dunk question

Moonchild90

Moonchild90

Well-Known Member
Hey guys,

So I’m fighting fungus gnats a little bit and want to get going on fighting them before it gets too out of control. I’m going to get some mosquito dunks and sticky cards. My question is do you mix those dunks in with a regular feeding or just a straight water feeding? Thank you in advance!
 
Try spinosad - those 2 items you speak of are poison. The cards off gas poison and the mosquito dunks put the poison in your soil. yuk

A small fan is enough to get rid of the fungus gnats. If you dont get rid of them with a fan you likely have something other than gnats. Leaf Hoppers are an example. You will know when the plants are being eaten. fungus gnats dont eat plants. Sometimes the larvae will eat roots. Best to blow them away with a fan pointed at the soil line. The gnats dont fly very well.

Again spinosad will get rid of them you can water in and or foliar on. I foliar and never get gnats.

The product I use is Monterey Garden Spray (spinosad). It's a bacteria that kills many pests in your gardens including spider mites and is organic. Mix with water foliar on and or water in.
 
Any mosquito dunks I've ever seen have been a bacteria as well.. BTi, aka Bacillus Thuringiensis isrealensis which is considered very safe, EPA says no risk, and definitely not what most people consider poison. Not that I would want to drink it.
There may be other products referred to as dunks not sure..
I've had moderate success with it against gnats and have also used it large scale outdoors for mosquito control which definitely takes out larvae if your timing is right.
 
So I had gnats bad from a new bag of soil. I used mosquito dunks as well. I store my water in those blue 5 gallon jugs. I used to toss a half dunk in there and I used that water for feeds and watering every time. I put yellow sticky traps all over and in a few days they were all gone. BT I the active ingredient that kills the gnats is safe as can be on the plants
 
Awesome, thank you guys. Is it true those traps put off gasses? I’ve used the Raid traps in the past, the ribbon ones, and put them on the soil around the base of the plant. I’m pushing for a good dry out too to help but I just want the extra measures. I’ll be sure to pay attention the the ingredients in the dunks themselves. I just wasn’t sure what a good, natural product was that people use for such things.
 
Everything I have read on the dunks indicates that they contain a natural occurring bacteria as @PE636 mentions. Got me reading up and saw that organic farmers and ranchers can use the water that has been treated with the dunks without loosing the organic status.

The yellow cards might or might not have a chemical that they off gas. What are supposed to be nasty and should be kept track of are the ribbon fly catchers that hang from a ceiling. I have not heard much good about them except that they are very very sticky so they last a long time if that is considered good.
 
Tons of people use the yellow sticky cards including some well respected members here.

Mosquito dunks/bits are a Good natural choice for pest control in my understanding. As previously mentioned they contain bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) a naturally occurring bacteria that kills plant munching pests. It's used successfully throughout agriculture to treat crops that are destined for direct human consumption. Tomatoes and cabbages being a couple of the big ones.
Mosquito dunks and bits are actually labeled safe for organic gardening by USEPA.
 
I've used mosquito dunks for about 7 months-I just add my nutes to the dunk-treated water,and water the plants normally...
The only time I've seen gnats is with new soil-it comes with them...but the dunk water takes them out within a week.
 
PE636 said:
Any mosquito dunks I've ever seen have been a bacteria as well.. BTi, aka Bacillus Thuringiensis isrealensis which is considered very safe, EPA says no risk, and definitely not what most people consider poison. Not that I would want to drink it.
There may be other products referred to as dunks not sure..
I've had moderate success with it against gnats and have also used it large scale outdoors for mosquito control which definitely takes out larvae if your timing is right.
Click to expand...


You're right - its a bacteria - but not effective for adult fungus gnats.

420% sure a fan works.

Adults need to land in soil to lay eggs. Fan blows gnats away from soil.
Life cycle interrupted and problem solved.
 
The best BTI is Gnatrol, it's just straight BTI that's formed into soluble crystals and seems to be much more active than either the dunks or the Microbelift liquid.
No poison at all, pure biological, bug eat bug.

Use that everytime you water for 3 weeks.
Put a yellow sticky card right on top of your pot.

If you were growing organic no-till then I'd suggest Rove Beetles.
I've had zero fungus gnats ever since I added Rove Beetles to my soil, but they need a good habitat to stick around.
 
bobrown14 said:
You're right - its a bacteria - but not effective for adult fungus gnats.

420% sure a fan works.

Adults need to land in soil to lay eggs. Fan blows gnats away from soil.
Life cycle interrupted and problem solved.
Click to expand...
Ya that's where the sticky cards come in to catch the adults. Pretty sure a fan inside a tent is going to do very little to control gnats once they are established. It could certainly make their life harder though. It might blow them around, but not away, at least that's how it was in my tent..I had literally thousands of the little shits in there. I found the best results with a H202 drench actually, that really seemed to destroy a lot of larvae.
 
Yeah the solution is to use un-needed chemicals. It's been proven so go for it.

A fan works, its what I've been using for many years.

Gnats cant fly very well. Blow gnats to the back of the room they cannot fly against the wind to get back to the soil to lay eggs.
 
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