The Attack of the Killer Gnats!

My house is infested by gnats and it's driving me insane!!!! Every time I sit down, anywhere in my house, at least one gnat will come flittering around my face. It's annoying and terribly disgusting! Not to mention how many dead gnats end up just lying around the house! Even though I clean them up and sanitize the area as soon as I see any dead ones, it's still completely gross!

I looked up how to cure this problem using common household (preferrably natural) products. First I poured bleach down all the sink and shower and bathtub drains every night for about four nights, hoping to kill any live adults and their eggs that may be down there (yes, I even poured into that overflow hole, opposite the faucet in the sinks). And still, no decrease in the gnats.

Next I narrowed the problem down to my many, beautiful houseplants. Over the weekend, I cleared off the kitchen island, covered it in plastic garbage bags and gathered all of my more portable plants there. I placed 12 small bowls of fruit juice within each plant, hoping to attract and drown as many adult gnats as possible. After a couple of days, though, I only found two or three dead guys in each bowl with just the same amount as usual flying around the house still! How obnoxious!!!

I started this yesterday and am still working on this project but what I'm doing now is pretty complex. We hung a few of those nasty sticky fly paper trap thingies in the areas where we've seen the most gnats. Then I started working on the plants. For each one I'm digging through the leaves, removing as much of the dead leaves and other dead plant matter as possible (there's not that much because I really do keep my plants happy and healthy). Then I'm scooping out about an inch of the top layer of the existing soil, which also holds random dead and degrading leaves, twigs, etc. and throwing that away. Then I microwave large bowls full of new potting soil. Of course, as soon as I opened each new bag of potting soil, two dozen new gnats came flying out! GACK! So I kept those bags closed as much as possible in between 'nuking' sessions. The purpose of microwaving the soil is to radiate and kill any living gnats and/or their eggs within it. Also, it dries out the new soil, which usually comes pretty damp in the packaging. After the zapping is done (about three minutes), I take it out, stir it up and mix in a few tablespoons of Isopropyl Alcohol (also to kill adults and eggs and hopefully making it an unattractive place for future generations to move in!). Then I pack in that new soil on top of the now cleaned-off surface of each plant. Pack it in tightly.

This last step I'm about to describe I've done only on three plants so far and I'm not sure I like it. I packed in some play sand on top of that new, clean, treated soil. This is to prevent any surviving adults from accessing the dirt to lay more eggs. They just can't get through the sand. Unfortunately, after I packed it in tightly and then tested how it would work when I water the plants, I very lightly watered (with scented dish soap within the water...again to kill, kill, kill!) one plant, only to watch the sand expand, move up and expose much of the soil beneath it, thereby making the sand technique completely futile!

I just need to find something else to use instead of the sand to put atop the new clean soil in order to prevent these little buggers from climbing in to make more babies to drive me even more insane! I thought about using very small pea gravel but these guys are so tiny, I'm sure they'll just climb in between the little rocks to get to their destination. So now I'm wondering, maybe you can help!? Do any of you have any suggestions?

The orchid plant is the worst, of course, because the pot it's planted in sits within a deep tray full of river rocks and water in order to provide at least a little bit of constant humidity (which is really important in our dry Colorado air!). Right now, I've got the tray and rocks cleaned out and soaking in a bleach water solution - don't worry, this water and these rocks never touch the plant or its soil so it won't harm the plant, even though I intend to rinse the rocks thoroughly. When I'm done cleaning out the plant's pot, I intend to refill its rocky base, then wrap the tray up to the bottom of the plant with a plastic bag. I'll also drape the plant itself with a clear plastic bag, which I did last year in order to produce flowers because right now it's just a very long green stalk! LOL These plastic bags will also (hopefully) trap in the gnats that obviously looooooove the orchid's wet, swampy living conditions!

I really want to stay away from the bottle of spray heavy duty pesticide Pete brought home for me from Home Depot but last night as I was taking a shower and I witnessed a half dozen gnats around out bathroom, I was about ready to crack that bottle open, kick the dogs and cats out of the room and start fumigating the bathroom!!! I'll finish this work on all these plants throughout the week and then see if the gnat problem decreases at all. If it doesn't then on the next warm day, I'll take them each out one by one to the back porch and spray the nasty pesticide all over them (according to the directions of course). Fortunately, our cats have grown out of paying much attention (if any at all) to the plants and they are all elevated too high for the dogs to reach...but I'll still keep a close eye on them to make sure none of our pets try to inspect the plants after (and if) I use that nasty stuff. This is all a big fat MAYBE, though. I'm praying hard for all my current efforts to work.

Any advice from any of my green thumb readers is more than welcome! Either leave it here in the comments or email me if you have a lot more to say!