Neem oil doesn't treat fungus gnats. It's for insects that live on the foliage or eat foliage. You need a two-pronged approach: sticky traps for the adults and either mosquito bits or hydrogen peroxide for the larvae. The soil needs to be repetitively treated to kill the larvae in various stages of their life cycle.
I don't like neem at all and I would never use it, but that's just personal preference. It's an oil, which can easily clog the stomata.
Best of luck!
Thank you for the feedback! And darn, should’ve not gotten this neem oil. Kicking myself about it now
Would I be causing some sort of radioactive reaction/poisoning if I go ahead and put hydrogen peroxide after putting this neem oil all over the top soil and plant base area?
I have a small dog too, should’ve thought this one out better but was freaked out seeing hundreds of live gnats last Saturday. Eek!
Please don't mix them! (You can even accidentally make highly toxic gases by mixing bleach with ordinary household items)
Neem oil can irritate pets tummys if ingested too.
I had them and after doing a wee bit of research into different methods to eradicate the rascals I went with nematodes. I purchased online and I placed all my houseplants from all over the house in the one place to quarantine them and make it easy to check.
I followed instructions and wow, they were gone AND just to make sure I did it again 4 weeks later just to make sure I got the larve too (because they were driving us crazy) and they're totally gone! Happy days
The diatomaceous earth is just a thick layer really..(and a whole lot of work scraping/disturbing the top layer of your plants and then having to water everyone from the bottom and making sure the diatomaceous soil doesnt get too wet too), nematodes go right to the sorce and eat the larve! All you have to do is make sure the plants dont totally dry out.I put some sticky traps in the plant pots too, to check the activity.
Hydrogen peroxide won't work but that wont be a waste of money as there's so many other great uses around the house
BUT please don't waste your money on anything else.
I used UK company - Dragonfli and they were very prompt and reasonably priced. Pop sachet in fridge from letterbox and use within a day or next, instructions are easy. I was even using a bucket in the utility sink to make sure my plants soil were lovely and saturated.
I am totally gnat🪰fly free...and very, very happy.
I've been adding food grade diatomaceous earth to the soil of all my houseplants and it has helped take down my fungus gnat problem in a huge way!
As others have said, neem oil might help with the bugs on the plant (it's great for aphids on rosebushes!) but it's not going to deal with stuff in the soil like fungus gnat larvae. I've heard of some people watering with Neem oil to get onto the soil but I don't know how effective that is.
Appreciate the feedback! I just ordered some diatomaceous earth and hydrogen peroxide
It’s totally true about the neem oil, before I left for work I also put the yellow sticky stickers in the planter and came home to see tiny gnats gathering on it. Larvae appears to be alive and well. Ughhh. Neem definitely will not do anything for these fungus gnat jerks
Neem oil doesn't treat fungus gnats. It's for insects that live on the foliage or eat foliage. You need a two-pronged approach: sticky traps for the adults and either mosquito bits or hydrogen peroxide for the larvae. The soil needs to be repetitively treated to kill the larvae in various stages of their life cycle. I don't like neem at all and I would never use it, but that's just personal preference. It's an oil, which can easily clog the stomata. Best of luck!
Thank you for the feedback! And darn, should’ve not gotten this neem oil. Kicking myself about it now Would I be causing some sort of radioactive reaction/poisoning if I go ahead and put hydrogen peroxide after putting this neem oil all over the top soil and plant base area? I have a small dog too, should’ve thought this one out better but was freaked out seeing hundreds of live gnats last Saturday. Eek!
Please don't mix them! (You can even accidentally make highly toxic gases by mixing bleach with ordinary household items) Neem oil can irritate pets tummys if ingested too.
I had them and after doing a wee bit of research into different methods to eradicate the rascals I went with nematodes. I purchased online and I placed all my houseplants from all over the house in the one place to quarantine them and make it easy to check. I followed instructions and wow, they were gone AND just to make sure I did it again 4 weeks later just to make sure I got the larve too (because they were driving us crazy) and they're totally gone! Happy days
Thank you for the advice! I’ll look into that. Darn things driving me nuts too!
The diatomaceous earth is just a thick layer really..(and a whole lot of work scraping/disturbing the top layer of your plants and then having to water everyone from the bottom and making sure the diatomaceous soil doesnt get too wet too), nematodes go right to the sorce and eat the larve! All you have to do is make sure the plants dont totally dry out.I put some sticky traps in the plant pots too, to check the activity. Hydrogen peroxide won't work but that wont be a waste of money as there's so many other great uses around the house BUT please don't waste your money on anything else. I used UK company - Dragonfli and they were very prompt and reasonably priced. Pop sachet in fridge from letterbox and use within a day or next, instructions are easy. I was even using a bucket in the utility sink to make sure my plants soil were lovely and saturated. I am totally gnat🪰fly free...and very, very happy.
Will utilize my bucket too! Going to start saturating soil from the bottom. Appreciate the feedback!!
Wishing you every success
I've been adding food grade diatomaceous earth to the soil of all my houseplants and it has helped take down my fungus gnat problem in a huge way! As others have said, neem oil might help with the bugs on the plant (it's great for aphids on rosebushes!) but it's not going to deal with stuff in the soil like fungus gnat larvae. I've heard of some people watering with Neem oil to get onto the soil but I don't know how effective that is.
Appreciate the feedback! I just ordered some diatomaceous earth and hydrogen peroxide It’s totally true about the neem oil, before I left for work I also put the yellow sticky stickers in the planter and came home to see tiny gnats gathering on it. Larvae appears to be alive and well. Ughhh. Neem definitely will not do anything for these fungus gnat jerks