I've been seeing a good amount of these insects that resemble mosquitoes in my house lately. They are prevalent at night and I seem to kill at least 3-4 every night. Can anyone help identify if these are a concern? I believe they are breeding from a water source but I don't know where that would be (I've checked plants/soil in the house and we don't have standing water anywhere). I am however, suspicious of a shower drain as they seem to like that particular bathroom.
Thanks for the help!
This looks like a fungus gnat in the family Mycetophilidae -
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/152470137
I occasionally get fungus gnat larva in my house plant soil. When they turn into adults, they like to hang around drains, but that isn't where they originate. Your local nursery can probably give you an insecticide to treat your SOIL with. Or here are the organic controls I use:
Get Bt mosquito granules (like crumbled up mosquito dunks) and put them in the trays under your pots.
Bottom water your plants with the trays and avoid over-watering ( fungus gnats eat soil fungus)
If you can get some yellow sticky trap cards, put them in the worst problem areas.
If there seems to be a plant that is a worst offender, move it away from your other house plants to mimimize spread.
I have quarentined new plants if I thought the nursery had any pest or disease problems.
Great suggestion pollengarden, about the mosquito dunks. I gave that a try this fall. They were cheaper than the mosquito granules. Also the mosquito dunks have a higher percent value of BTi than the granules. My problem is, bottom watering has never helped with reducing an infestation. I find larvaes around the drainage holes and adults crawling around the bottom of the pot. So just adding the granules to the bottom doesn't help me. What does a wonderful job in dissolving the mosquito dunks in a bottle of water for a few days then watering well from the top. Making sure the plant does not sit in the water that has drained. I dump that outside.
Thanks for bringing that up.
The Bti gets rid of the larva but it takes a couple of weeks for the ones that are already airborne to die off. And I assume Bti has a shelf life - old mosquito dunks might not work.
This message was edited Nov 23, 2015 5:26 PM
That's what I read but who can argue with results?
Bti has an indefinite shelf life. I had to look that up too when I was researching.
It sure has made hubby and I happy customers. We have been on the verge of getting rid of all our houseplants for a couple of years. But now we are happy and more willing to expand our collection.
The problems now are lighting and location. So we have to find just the right type.
