Plant Pests: Houseplant Sticky Traps

Ooooo those pesky fungus gnats!

I JUST spotted a fungus gnat on one of my houseplants. Time to break out some good old sticky traps! Flighting fungus gnats (and other flying plant pests such as whiteflies) involves both monitoring and population reduction methods. In greenhouse production, sticky traps are a standard go-to for monitoring pest populations. But they are just as handy for the home plant parent.

Sticky traps are an easy low-impact way to knock out the adult fungus gnats currently flying around your plant, as well as prevent them from laying more eggs in the plant’s growing media. Those larvae that hatch out around your plant roots will want to munch on organic matter. If there isn’t any in your container, that leaves your plant roots!

I usually apply a diluted soil drench of hydrogen peroxide to knock out the larvae (I use a 10:1 ratio of 3% HP to Water - it seems to be a really heavy infestation you can go a bit stronger). and then you may try Bt (Bacillius thuriengensis) for longer term control or prevention.

I have some handy pest and disease charts as well as control methods in my books “Gardening Under Lights” and “Plant Parenting” if you need a good walk through and reference always at your fingertips.