A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Dah! Bugs!

Hi!
M'kay, for the past few days i've been finding these teeny tiny spiderwebs on my tropical plants with large green leaves -- Bird of Paradice, Chinese Prong, Lucky Bamboo, Rubber tree, and New Guinie Impatian.

So ya, i just squirted em off with a squirt bottle, no big deal. Well today i went upstairs and found all the same plants completely covered in lil webs, with little moving baby spiders allllllllll over them >.< ICK! So i got out my wedged sponge and whiped em all off. when i came back later after my date, they were all back! How do i get rid of these stupid lil spiders? >.< They're so ugly, and i don't want em all over the house For now i'll just keep wiping them off.

I've also been seeing these lil bugs flying around. they look like gnats, or fruit flies or something of the like. We used to only see em in the shower when they'd crawl up the drain, and grow giant wings, but keep lil tiny bodies. But ya, i kill atleast 3 to 5 of these per day, and i'm seeing more of them. I see their babies crawling around in the soil of the ficus most of the time. Any idea on what to do with these lil pooheads as well? I was thinking of "bug bombing" the house with the plants in here, but i'm not too sure if they'd go too well with that lol. So ya ^.^ any advice on those lil things would be cool too.

Thanks!

Please help? The spiders are getting really bad >.< I got the gnat problem under control, but the spiders are getting worse, and nothing i do gets rid of them >.<

Phoebe,
Are these on houseplants or outdoor plants/?

I'll move the post to HOUSE plants if they are HP's and Will or Lizheaemma will grab you!!!

Weezie

Thank you ms. weezie ^.^

spider mites hate moisture, and the real trick to treating them is to get all of them! You need to be really through! Get into every nook and cranny with your sponge using soapy water or even better put the plant right in the tub and go at it!

Fungus gnats larva live in decaying organnic matter in your soil. I have found that covering your soil with sand usually fixes that situation. The sharp edges on the sand cut up the larva is they try to get to the surface! Keep in mind that the flying stage has a live cycle of about a week so you are bound to see them around for a bit after you have put the sand on the soil!

Hope this help, let me know if I can clarify anything, or Will should be around with some more helpfull insights!

oh they're not really spiders then? They're just lil mites that can spin webs? *thinks* that would explain the missing egg sacks that big spiders spin that the lil spiders should be coming out of lol. ^.^ well now that i know what they are, i'm excited that i can just get rid of em with water!

What kinda sand should i use? sand i find outside kinda sounds like a bad idea, cuz it probably has salt in it. Same with beach sand... would desertdans desert sand be okay? I can go buy that for a dollar a bag (about a gallon or so of very fine sand)

I just use the cleaned horticultural grade sand! Good questions though I wonder if any one has tested the effectivness of diffrent sands! I would definitly avoid sand that might have salt in it and make sure that it's clean as you don't want a new crew of bugs to deal with!

M'kay, thanks I appreciate it! We don't have any of that kinda sand at our green house, so i may have to resourt to using sand from the beach. My coffee pot will come in handy for filtering out any salt or bugz in it

If you addd a little liquid dish soap to the water, it will be more effective.

Do NOT use sand with salt in it. Salt is toxic to most plants. River sand, fresh water sand, builders sand, and cactus sand are all OK.

You can also put half-inch slices of raw potato on the surface of the soil. The slices will attract the gnat larvea. You will have to replace the slices whenever they start to dry out - every day or so. Eventually you will capture all of the larvae and that will be the end of the flying gnats.

Thank you Will I tried the potatoe thing, and i discovered that its very very icky lol. So i'm gonna try the soap idea... Are you sure its okay to water the plant with mild soap and water solution? I have a weird feeling that my ficus *which is the most buggy of all my plants cuz of the large amount of potting soil used* wouldn't like that too much. My flytrap seems to be doing just fine, cuz its got nothing but pure peat moss for potting stuff.

Phoebe,

This thread is dealing with both gnat and spider mite treatment. Don't confuse the two.

Spider mites are always found on leaf surfaces, not in soil, and can be treated with a soap spray.

Fungus gnat larvae live in the soil. They can be treated with sand, but not with soapy water.

oh okie dokie. Thanks!

i just got back from several nurseries and home depot looking for sterile horticultural grade sand to fix my gnat problem. i've been using an insecticidal spray too - but it killed some of my seedlings, so for my younger plants, i'd like to avoid that...

however, i couldn't find sand anywhere! any ideas? do nurseries usually carry it?


thanks!

slowjane

Actually, i just looked in my greenhouse, and i found sand Its on top of alllllllllll of my plants now, except my orchid, and Pethanyole... or however its spelled. The one with the green leaves, and the funny lookin white flowers lol.

I found my sand in a white bag that looked like a giant capree sun pouch lol. It had pictures of cactuses on the front, and says "Real Steryl Desert Sand"
So yep ^.^ no more fungus gnats, and very few spider mites. They ain't hurtin nothin though, so i'll just whipe em off as i see em. My garden spiders are having a good time though