Nats!

Tulsabonsigh

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I have a tropical indoor tree that is in bonsai gravel and is infested with what looks to be fruit nats. Tiny little flying bugs! What do I do?? I’ve used neem oil 4 times no luck
 

BrianBay9

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I have a tropical indoor tree that is in bonsai gravel and is infested with what looks to be fruit nats. Tiny little flying bugs! What do I do?? I’ve used neem oil 4 times no luck

Often that means you are watering too often, or your soil is too water retentive. Easy short term solution is to put up some of those pest adhesive strips. That catches most of them. At the same time watch your watering. Only water as the soil starts to dry out.
 

canoeguide

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Fungus gnats.

"Mosquito bits" sprinkled on the soil surface to kill them in the soil, sticky traps to kill them in the air.
 

cbroad

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I know a lot of people are scared to do this, but the ladies at the greenhouse where I used to work would use 1/4 cup of bleach per gallon of day old water, and water it into the soil to kill fungal gnats.
 

rawlyn

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I’ve had some luck controlling fungus gnats by adding some hydrogen peroxide (along with plain H2O) to my watering routine about once every other week in the winter. Also hang some flypaper. Peroxide doesn’t seem to have adversely affected any of my trees or houseplants. I don’t think I could bring myself to use bleach, but you never know. . .
 

butlern

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The overwatering diagnosis is correct. The larvae only live in damp soil. You can either let the tree dry out (so that about the top 1"of soil dries), just to the point of the plant just barely starting to wilt (if it's deciduous) and that will kill all the larvae.

Otherwise use a natural, safe and effective bacterial pathogen of the larval form of fungus gnats: Bacillus thuringiensus

You can pick up a bottle at your local greenhouse/garden center. Sprinkle on... easy enough. Just ask for Bt because you have fungus gnats. They will know what you're looking for.
 

butlern

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Also, if this indoor bonsai is a ficus, it'll be absolutely fine going dry for a bit... lots of water stored in the tree itself.
 

penumbra

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All good ideas above. Then there are the natural remedies like cinnamon sprinkled on the soil. All measures work to a greater or lesser degree but none of them address the problem completely. Neem knocks them down for a day. The pest strips are pretty effective. The peroxide again works for a day but can be frequently reapplied. Bleach makes me uneasy. Cinnamon actually lasts longer than some other procedures. I have not tried mosquito bits but it may be worth trying.
A fan blowing on plants helps quite a bit.
 

sorce

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Reckon those are millipedes, been killing them all year in my ficus, and found a gang of them in a nursery juniper today, I flooded em out for a few hours.

Damn them.

Sorce
 

canoeguide

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The overwatering diagnosis is correct. The larvae only live in damp soil. You can either let the tree dry out (so that about the top 1"of soil dries), just to the point of the plant just barely starting to wilt (if it's deciduous) and that will kill all the larvae.

Otherwise use a natural, safe and effective bacterial pathogen of the larval form of fungus gnats: Bacillus thuringiensus

You can pick up a bottle at your local greenhouse/garden center. Sprinkle on... easy enough. Just ask for Bt because you have fungus gnats. They will know what you're looking for.

Mosquito Bits are Bacillus thurengiensis israelensis. Simple to use and cheap.
 

BrianBay9

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Reckon those are millipedes, been killing them all year in my ficus, and found a gang of them in a nursery juniper today, I flooded em out for a few hours.

Damn them.

Sorce

Centipedes and millipedes are predators. They should be cleaning up other bugs in the pot. Not sure I'd try to get rid of them.
 

sorce

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I think some can be predators, even if these are, they are still at the infestation point, which causes problems no matter what.

At first I couldn't cut them in half, then it became easier.

Sorce
 
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