Help for gnats in house - small update if interested #14

[mamamary]

Started noticing a few gnats the other day. Cannot find any source of where they are coming from. Seen them on all 4 levels of my house. I have no fruit laying around, garbage, have only 1 plant and I've checked it. I've also checked the drains in my house. I've put up that sticky paper and have only caught 2 on 6 traps that I've hung. I've put out the mixture of apple cider vinegar etc. on all 4 levels and only caught 1 that way. That's what I saw online to do.

Any of you have any other ideas? Thx.

 

[wenrob]

Started noticing a few gnats the other day. Cannot find any source of where they are coming from. Seen them on all 4 levels of my house. I have no fruit laying around, garbage, have only 1 plant and I've checked it. I've also checked the drains in my house. I've put up that sticky paper and have only caught 2 on 6 traps that I've hung. I've put out the mixture of apple cider vinegar etc. on all 4 levels and only caught 1 that way. That's what I saw online to do.

Any of you have any other ideas? Thx.

Have you tried putting the plant outside for a day or two to see if they go away? That or something draining incorrectly would be my guess. Did you check your washing machine drain? Your dishwasher? You have to find the source, no amount of apple cider will fix it until you do.

 

[mamamary]

Dishwasher drain looks good but haven’t checked washer. No I have not put the plant outside since it looks fine but maybe I should?

 

[mrodgers]

My experience (fruit flies) is it takes a long time to get rid of them with the fly paper or the apple cider or commercial bought stuff. You will eventually get them if you eliminated the source, but it took like 2 weeks for me to see them gone.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Are you sure they are fruit flies or gnats? We had drain flies one time. They are a tiny bit bigger that fruit flies. They were breeding in our bathroom sink drains and then also moved to the cat’s litter box. We had to scoop the box twice daily to prevent the eggs from hatching in the house. We also cleaned out all our drains with a special gel cleaner that got rid of any organic matter. Bleach won’t do it. As a preventive we now clean all our drains once a year. I also put dishes of cider vinegar, sugar and dish soap in all the places they were concentrated in. I got tons of them that way. It took about a month of diligence to get rid of them all.

 

[disneychrista]

I use these. They work fairly well.

 

[wenrob]

Dishwasher drain looks good but haven’t checked washer. No I have not put the plant outside since it looks fine but maybe I should?

I would. My plants looked fine but they ended up being the source. It would be down in the roots, poor drainage being the issue. From my reading it would take months of work to rehab them so I chose not to. I’d also do all my drains. Something like that or ants makes me crazy so I go in like Rambo on these kinds of things.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Fungus gnats are generally what you find in plants. They’re poor fliers and tend to stay close to the dirt. If they’ve migrated to every level of your home and you aren’t seeing them in the plant itself, then I think it’s unlikely that the plant is the problem.

ETA: Watering your plant with a bit of dissolved mosquito dunk will kill off fungus gnats if that’s what you have, or if you just want to cover all your bases.

 

[mamamary]

Are you sure they are fruit flies or gnats? We had drain flies one time. They are a tiny bit bigger that fruit flies. They were breeding in our bathroom sink drains and then also moved to the cat’s litter box. We had to scoop the box twice daily to prevent the eggs from hatching in the house. We also cleaned out all our drains with a special gel cleaner that got rid of any organic matter. Bleach won’t do it. As a preventive we now clean all our drains once a year. I also put dishes of cider vinegar, sugar and dish soap in all the places they were concentrated in. I got tons of them that way. It took about a month of diligence to get rid of them all.

No I’m not sure that they are gnats but are similar. Can you tell me where you got the drain cleaner? Thx

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Are they fat bodied with red eyes? That’s a fruit fly. Smaller, solid black, and only flying low, short distances is a fungus gnat.

 

[mamamary]

The top picture.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

The top picture.

Check your drains, trash cans, the plant, and any other place you have organic materials like fruit or leaf litter. When you find the source, dry it out.

 

[mamamary]

Check your drains, trash cans, the plant, and any other place you have organic materials like fruit or leaf litter. When you find the source, dry it out.

I will. Dh will be off tomorrow so we’ll work on it. Thx

 

[mamamary]

Small update: I see the gnats in between my windows and the screen on the other side. Maybe they’re not gnats. Will still go around the house looking but for now I went outside and sprayed the windows.

 

[Feralpeg]

Are you sure they're gnats? They could be pantry pests (cigarette beetles). They are extremely small. You will see them on ceilings of the area infected. If so, they can be in just about anything. I had an exterminator out several times and could not get rid of them. Finally, out of desperation, I got rid of the broom I kept in the pantry area. Gone! They were nesting in the broom.

 

[mamamary]

Are you sure they're gnats? They could be pantry pests (cigarette beetles). They are extremely small. You will see them on ceilings of the area infected. If so, they can be in just about anything. I had an exterminator out several times and could not get rid of them. Finally, out of desperation, I got rid of the broom I kept in the pantry area. Gone! They were nesting in the broom.

No I can’t say for sure that they are gnats but they aren’t that small - almost what I would picture a baby fly to look like. I may wind up calling my exterminator.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

No I’m not sure that they are gnats but are similar. Can you tell me where you got the drain cleaner? Thx

I think I used Drain Gel. You can buy it on Amazon, but I found it at a hardware store.

AMERICAN BIO Drain Gel Organic Bioenzyme Cleaner

 

[missnic]

I had the same thing awhile back. It drove me nuts, because I could not figure out where the heck they came from. The ONLY thing that had changed was my neighbor (townhouse) had moved out. We think they were coming from there somehow, because when a new tenant moved in, they disappeared.
I cleared the drains with vinegar/boiling water/etc. and nothing. The sticky strips did nothing. The only thing that actually caught them was a mixture of apple cider vinegar, honey, and dishsoap. That caught SO MANY of them. So, new tenants may have just been coincidence, but who knows.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

To the poster who really seems to know his bugs.
About twice a year we get little tiny fly like bug. Super fast and seem to often come from bathroom. Not sure but I get the feeling they might bite. Its so weird that they only show up twice a year, there is a motor vent in the bathroom that blows into attic. Any idea??

 

[BrianL]

No I can’t say for sure that they are gnats but they aren’t that small - almost what I would picture a baby fly to look like. I may wind up calling my exterminator.

Is it possible they are termites? I had them earlier this year - they swarm on the outside of things when the colony gets full. They are small and black with wings. They started getting into the house by eating a tiny hole in the ceiling drywall. A professional treatment took care of that mess.