themahoneys
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Infested! Flying bugs all over garden and house!

We decided to venture in to the world of raised bed gardening this , and have had fairly good success for not knowing what we're doing. I bought a premium organic soil for the bed and after planting, put some mulch on it to help retain moisture. I even installed a sprinkler zone just for the garden. The problem we are having now is that we are overrun with eggs and flying insects. They are covering our porch, the fence near the garden, and anywhere else I seem to look or walk. I bought an organic spray for the plants and it knocks them down for 24 hours or so, but then they come back in even larger numbers. Can anyone point me in the direction of what I can to do get rid of these pests? Thanks in advance!
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imafan26
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It looks like fungus gnats. They are a nuisance especially when they swarm. They like moist conditions and live in the soil. They are especially fond of decaying matter.
You could remove as much of the old decaying matter as you can, or if you are mulching, spray the mulch with pyrethrins and hang up sticky cards. Adjust your sprinklers to water for a longer time, less frequently and let the soil dry out more between watering.

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applestar
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How big are those? The two winged insects with the feathered antennae look like mosquitoes to me.

The middle photo is frass -- caterpillar or beetle poop. Look in the foliage above the pop to find what's making them.

themahoneys
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imafan26 wrote:It looks like fungus gnats. They are a nuisance especially when they swarm. They like moist conditions and live in the soil. They are especially fond of decaying matter.
You could remove as much of the old decaying matter as you can, or if you are mulching, spray the mulch with pyrethrins and hang up sticky cards. Adjust your sprinklers to water for a longer time, less frequently and let the soil dry out more between watering.
Right now we're watering twice a day for 5 minutes, once at 5 AM and once at 9PM. We started doing this when we noticed our tomatoes splitting. I will run to home Depot later today to grab the other stuff you mentioned. Do you have any recommendations for watering lengths?

themahoneys
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applestar wrote:How big are those? The two winged insects with the feathered antennae look like mosquitoes to me.

The middle photo is frass -- caterpillar or beetle poop. Look in the foliage above the pop to find what's making them.
They aren't too big and they don't bite. Just a nuisance more than anything. Thanks for the identification of the other stuff!

imafan26
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The answer to how often to water is "as needed". If you have gnats flying around the soil must be fairly moist. Cracking in tomatoes is sometimes genetic, especially radial cracking. Concentric cracking is more commonly related to uneven watering.

There are many factors that influence how much water you need. The time of year, location, soil type, mulch, and the plant requirements.

if you have a soil high in organic matter and you are mulching you do not need to water as much as if you had sandy soil or a lot of perlite in the potting mix.
If you have crowded the plants with minimum spacing they need more water than plants that have been given a lot of room for the roots to spread out.

The rule of thumb is water until the soil is moist 4 inches deep, which is going to be the root zone of most of the shallower plants. Poke down and check the soil daily and watch for wilting on the plants. The top of the soil may look dry but wait to water until the soil deeper down 2-3 inches is almost dry before you water again. Water until the soil is moist 4 inches down. That is how to figure out how long to water (the time it takes for the dry soil to become moist 4 inches down) and how often (the time it takes for the soil 2-3 inches down to be almost dry without major wilting).

Mind you, if plants are used to a certain watering schedule, they have to be trained especially at this time of the year so you need to check and gradually change the watering interval. It works best when they are trained from the start, that way they develop deeper roots when they are young and are much less susceptible to drought stress. The watering schedule will still need to be adjusted for season.

I turn off my sprinklers for weeks at a time in the rainy season and even in the summer, I rarely water my potted plants more than once a day. In ground plants get watered every 4 days in the cooler months and every 2 days in the hotter months. I check the plants in the yard and will supplement with additional water and usually add more compost as mulch in summer as needed. Grass here will go dormant in summer, so I let it. My community garden gets watered for an hour twice a week unless it rains, then I don't water it at all.

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applestar
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themahoneys wrote:They aren't too big and they don't bite.

Most likely males then.

themahoneys
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imafan26 wrote:The answer to how often to water is "as needed". If you have gnats flying around the soil must be fairly moist. Cracking in tomatoes is sometimes genetic, especially radial cracking. Concentric cracking is more commonly related to uneven watering.

There are many factors that influence how much water you need. The time of year, location, soil type, mulch, and the plant requirements.

if you have a soil high in organic matter and you are mulching you do not need to water as much as if you had sandy soil or a lot of perlite in the potting mix.
If you have crowded the plants with minimum spacing they need more water than plants that have been given a lot of room for the roots to spread out.

The rule of thumb is water until the soil is moist 4 inches deep, which is going to be the root zone of most of the shallower plants. Poke down and check the soil daily and watch for wilting on the plants. The top of the soil may look dry but wait to water until the soil deeper down 2-3 inches is almost dry before you water again. Water until the soil is moist 4 inches down. That is how to figure out how long to water (the time it takes for the dry soil to become moist 4 inches down) and how often (the time it takes for the soil 2-3 inches down to be almost dry without major wilting).

Mind you, if plants are used to a certain watering schedule, they have to be trained especially at this time of the year so you need to check and gradually change the watering interval. It works best when they are trained from the start, that way they develop deeper roots when they are young and are much less susceptible to drought stress. The watering schedule will still need to be adjusted for season.

I turn off my sprinklers for weeks at a time in the rainy season and even in the summer, I rarely water my potted plants more than once a day. In ground plants get watered every 4 days in the cooler months and every 2 days in the hotter months. I check the plants in the yard and will supplement with additional water and usually add more compost as mulch in summer as needed. Grass here will go dormant in summer, so I let it. My community garden gets watered for an hour twice a week unless it rains, then I don't water it at all.
This is extremely helpful information. We thought we spaced everything out enough, but the place have grown much larger and wider than anticipated. I am going to start gradually bringing them off such a frequent watering schedule. Hopefully doing a combination of all of these things will help control these gnats. Thank you very much for all of your help.

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Lindsaylew82
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I disagree with fungus gnat and mosquito.

Fungus gnat don't have fuzzy antenna.

Although I originally thought mosquito, I looked more and keep seeing Non-Biting Midge.
image.jpg

themahoneys
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Lindsaylew82 wrote:I disagree with fungus gnat and mosquito.

Fungus gnat don't have fuzzy antenna.

Although I originally thought mosquito, I looked more and keep seeing Non-Biting Midge.
image.jpg
That's exactly what I'm seeing out there! Will the same treatment work?

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applestar
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Good detective work pursuing this, Lindsay. :-()

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Lindsaylew82
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They breed in water, much like Mosquitos. Standing, stagnant or fresh water. They eat nectar, and pollen.



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