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Infestations and the Fungus Gnat Life Cycle
Fungus gnats living in the soil often travel indoors on potted plants or cut garden flowers. In homes, populations quickly grow out of hand. The pests produce several generations each year and don’t require much time to mature. As a result, residents will soon notice adult Fungus gnats swarming around plants, windows, and lights.
What is the Fungus Gnat Life Cycle?
Each part of the four-stage Fungus gnat life cycle takes only a handful of days to complete. The four stages include egg, larva, pupa, and adult. These pests do the majority of their damage in the larval form.
How Long Do Fungus Gnats Live?
Though a Fungus gnat’s lifespan is relatively short, the pests aren’t any less of a nuisance. During their one to two weeks of life, the insects can cause plenty of issues.
Damage
To develop and move on to the next stage in the Fungus gnat life cycle, larvae must feed. Their primary food sources are fungi, plant roots, and other organic matter in soil. If infestations are large enough, the pests can stunt foliage growth and even kill houseplants.
Unlike larvae, mature adult Fungus gnats are simply a nuisance. These pests spend most of their adult lifespan flying around well-lit areas and landing on people, food, and surfaces. As annoying as they are, the biggest problem the insects create is breeding, which starts the Fungus gnat life cycle anew.
Control
Preventing Fungus gnats can be as simple as not overwatering indoor plants or else tossing away infested plants. However, this method may not work in every case. Homeowners who continue to have issues with Fungus gnats should contact the Pros at Orkin for effective pest removal.
Gnat is the common name for many small, winged insects in the fly grouping. Contrary to popular belief, these tiny flying insects are not “babies,” they are adults. The tiny flying insects that many people call “gnats” could really be fruit flies or fungus gnats. There are many differences between fruit flies vs gnats.
adults may live from about one to two weeks and complete one life cycle in about 18-30 days. Moth fly adults live for about 14 days and complete their life cycle in about 7-21 days.
Fungus gnats go through complete metamorphosis (egg, larva, pupa, adult) and reproduce in moist, shaded areas within decaying matter. One generation takes about 4 weeks. Mated females lay 00 to 200 microscopic eggs. Eggs are oval, smooth, shiny white and semi-transparent, and hatch in 4 to 6 days.
Fungus gnats are relatively weak fliers and remain near plants running or resting on growing media, foliage, or plant litter. They have mandibles for gnawing and tunneling. Females lay tiny eggs in moist organic debris or potting soil.
In cooler weather it can take 4 to 5 weeks or more to complete the life cycle, so winter treatment can take longer. That's why I always recommend treating for 2 months (8 weeks), but at least 4 weeks minimum if you've caught it early and only have a tiny infestation.
Gnat eggs typically hatch within six days. The average adult gnat lifespan is one week, and they can lay up to two hundred eggs in that time. It only takes the pests about 28 days at most to complete their whole life cycle.
Homemade gnat killer spray: A mixture of half a cup of water, half a cup of isopropyl alcohol, and a teaspoon of dish liquid can be filled in a spray bottle. This mixture can be sprayed on the gnats directly to kill them.
A peroxide solution apparently kills larvae and eggs on contact, effectively killing off all infant gnats and disrupting the lifecycle. You should be able to buy hydrogen peroxide from any high street pharmacy or online. Mix 1 part 9% hydrogen peroxide with 6 parts water.
Gnats undergo four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Once they become adults, gnats do not live that long. With that being said, gnats can still pose a problem in your home. It doesn't take much for a gnat to get into a home, especially since they are so small.
The thing about fungus gnats is that you have to stop them at every stage of the life cycle to eradicate them. If you kill only the adults flying around by trapping them, some will get the chance to lay another round of eggs in the soil, and the cycle begins anew.
As I mentioned above, fungus gnats LOOOVE damp soil. To make your plants less appealing, make sure to only water when the top couple of inches of soil is dry and make sure any extra water has somewhere to go.
Fungus gnats are most active at the beginning and end of the summer, and they love damp soil. An adult fungus gnat only lives for 1 to 2 days, but females lay over 200 eggs in one go. Once a larva reaches adulthood, she immediately lays new eggs in the damp soil of your beloved plant.
Can I put vinegar in my plants to kill gnats? You can certainly use vinegar to kill gnats, but don't just pour it directly on your plants! Instead, you'll want to make an apple cider vinegar trap, or a 50/50 spray of white vinegar and water.
Gnats cannot survive in cold temperature and thrive in environment between 70 - 80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, if you have your plants inside during the winter time, you might want to resort to the above methods to kill gnats since the temperature inside your home might not be low enough to get rid of gnats.
The pesky gnats aren't selective about when they lay eggs, which they deposit in the top 2 to 3 inches (5-8 cm.) of potting soil. One female can produce several generations of larvae in a single season. Fungus gnats are weak flyers and they usually don't stray too far from the plant.
The only way to get rid of gnats without killing them is to repel them with scents they don't like: vinegar, vanilla, pine oil, peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus, and lavender. Even dryer sheets could help. Of course, the first line of duty would be to get rid of the infestation's root cause.
Eradicate your fungus gnat infestation for good with the following method: Put up a bunch of sticky traps, top-dress the soil with sand and do nematode soaks every 10 to 14 days until the problem is resolved. Also, stop overwatering your plants and eliminate any unnecessary sources of moisture. That's it.
Gnats are seasonal; they are a springtime pest. Once we get consistent summer weather, they will go away. Their life cycle is short - usually mid-May to late June is when we see gnats. Gnats don't cause major damage to homes.
Adult gnats live about one week and can lay up to two hundred eggs during their short lifetime in moist potted plant soils. Within four to six days, tiny larvae emerge and feed on plant roots during their two-week stage as larvae. Their pupal stage lasts only three to six days.
In addition, other areas can include cracks and crevices of kitchen equipment, crevices where floors and walls intersect and mops or brooms that contain food debris or other organic materials. The fruit fly egg stage is around for only about 30 hours before the larval stage begins its development.
Introduction: My name is Corie Satterfield, I am a fancy, perfect, spotless, quaint, fantastic, funny, lucky person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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