How to Get Rid of Houseplant Gnats

Whether you’ve recently bought your first indoor plant or you’re a houseplant aficionado, fungus gnats can be any plant parent’s worst nightmare. Gnats can appear overnight in hoards, making it difficult to know where they came from in the first place. Like many pests, gnats—especially fungus gnats—are drawn to excess moisture. This is why they commonly infest houseplants in Tennessee homes. To avoid the frustration of these tiny pests, it’s important to know how to eliminate the conditions that attract them in the first place.

The pest control experts at Leo’s Pest Control know how frustrating houseplant gnats can be. We’ve gathered our top tips and tricks to get rid of gnats in your home for good—read on to learn more.

Why Do I Have a Gnat Problem?

There are a few reasons why you may have a gnat problem in your home. If you have a tendency to overwater your houseplants, fungus gnats will lay their eggs on the moist potting soil. The larvae will develop within the soil and quickly hatch. Once they’ve established themselves, fungus gnats can quickly attack other nearby plants. If you are noticing gnats outdoors, it may be due to an overwatered lawn, a flat roof that lacks proper drainage, or dirty garbage cans that have grown fungus. Once you’ve identified where the fungus gnats are coming from, you can learn how to prevent them in the first place.

5 Steps to Get Rid of Houseplant Gnats

Keeping gnats away requires knowing how to make your home less attractive to them in the first place. The easiest thing to do is make sure you keep gnats from laying their eggs in the soil of your houseplants. Here’s how:

1. Never overwater your plants to the point where the soil stays wet for days at a time. You can rake the soil to help it dry quicker.
2. Avoid letting any water sit in the drainage tray beneath plant pots. Always make sure your houseplants have the best drainage possible by incorporating gravel, sand, and more into your potting soil mix.
3. Considering “quarantining” the houseplant with the gnats to keep them from spreading. Consider taking it outdoors and removing the top layer of wet soil entirely.
4. Place sticky traps in the plant soil to target and trap any adult gnats that are already flying around.
5. To get rid of gnats in your yard, make sure to not overwater your lawn, keep your garbage sealed properly, and make sure you have proper drainage on your roof and elsewhere.

How to Keep Gnats Away For Good

Gnats may be tiny and mostly a nuisance, but they can also spread germs that cause diseases like salmonella or E. coli. For that reason, it’s crucial to keep them away. If you’re having trouble controlling the gnats in your home, the experts at Leo’s Pest Control can help. We can help identify the conditions that are attracting them, and provide you with a plan to keep them away for good. Contact us today!