how to get rid of gnats indoors
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Gnats are the bane of my existence, truly. I swear they invade my home at least once a year, whether it’s because I forgot an old banana at the bottom of the fruit bowl, didn’t clean out the garbage disposal well enough, or even just brought home a new plant that had them hiding in the soil. I then, reluctantly, spend the next few weeks trying to banish them from every nook and cranny of my home.
In the grand scheme of things, gnats are pretty harmless—fruit flies and fungus gnats don’t bite (though some other varieties do), but they always seem to be hovering in your face or flying around your food. If you’re sick of seeing these little bugs all around your home, here are some tried-and-true methods to get rid of them, as well as ways you can prevent them from coming back.
There’s a reason these little buggers are referred to as pests. Try a few of our easy solutions to banish them from every room of your house—and fast.
Although they can’t really harm you, gnats are certainly annoying. The mere presence of these pesky insects in your house can leave you feeling twitchy and wondering what brought them inside in the first place. Rotting fruit is a common culprit, but it isn’t the only one. Dirty dishes, trash bags with spoiled food, and even damp potting soil can cause gnats to congregate and drive you crazy.
The good news: There are a handful of clever tactics for how to get rid of gnats in your house that require nothing more than ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen cabinets, pantry, and fridge. What follows is a room-by-room breakdown of gnat-removal strategies that will help you fix the problem before it gets worse.
Know Your Gnats
There are a few types of small flies and gnats commonly found in homes, and each of them is attracted to different things. If you figure out what kind are plaguing your home, you’ll be able to get rid of them more efficiently.
First of all, there are fruit flies, which are attracted to ripe, rotting, or decayed fruits and vegetables. They also like smelly trash, garbage disposals, and open bottles of alcohol. These little brown bugs can often be found hovering around your fruit bowl, and they’re more common in the summer.
Next up, there’s the fungus gnat, which I have personally battled many times as a houseplant lover. These obnoxious little flies lay their eggs in soil, and they’re quite common for nursery plants, meaning you can easily bring them home without knowing. These gnats are black, and you’ll typically see them hanging out on the soil of your plants or around the rim of planters.
Finally, there are drain flies, and as their name suggests, these bugs live in drains, sewers, and septic tanks—pretty much anywhere you might find stagnant water, as that’s where they lay their eggs. They have larger wings than the other two types of gnats, and their bodies are furry, similar to a moth.
how to get rid of gnats indoors diy
how to get rid of gnats indoors plants
“It’s OK for them to be there in small numbers but it’s not OK when they become unmanageable,” says indoor plant expert Jason Chongu.
The tiny flying adults are mostly just annoying, but it’s the larvae under the soil that do the real damage. Baby larvae feast on fungus, algae and even the roots of your plants.
In small numbers they mostly just stick to the organic stuff in potting mix but in large numbers they can do some serious damage to a plants root system.
“Being consistent with your plant care is the key to managing them,” says Jason.
Read on for his tips on dealing with them.
Overwatering can attract fungus gnats
If you remember nothing else from this article, hang onto this tip: “Let the soil dry out between watering!””
Why? Gnat larvae love warm, wet environments so your overwatered indoor plant is like a little paradise for them.
Letting a finger-length of top soil dry out before you water again will help prevent or slow an infestation.
How to tackle a minor infestation
If you already have fungus gnats at home, you’ll need to take a multi-step approach to get rid of them. It’ll involve targeting the flying adults and the larvae under the soil.
“Everyone wants insects to disappear instantly, but it will never be instant,” warns Jason.
“It takes months to get rid of a pest once it’s in your house but with the right treatment it will settle itself over time.”
1. Move the plant
First things first: “Isolate the infected plant.”
“Normally it’s one plant that’s really infested so I always try and separate it out from others by putting it in a sheltered location outside,” Jason says.
It’s best to keep it isolated from other plants, especially pot plants, that you might have outside.
2. Invest in sticky traps or plants
Sticky traps or sticky plants will trap (and kill) flying adults. One adult can lay up to around 200 eggs, so this can slow population growth.
You can pick up sticky traps at hardware stories and nurseries.
Or if a plant takes your fancy, sundews (Drosera sp.) are a type of carnivorous plant who lure small insects like fungus gnats into their sticky leaves.
3. Use neem oil spray
Neem oil is an organic insecticide made from the seeds of neem trees and you can pick up a bottle pretty much anywhere that sells plants.
It’s sold as a concentrate (which needs to be diluted in a spray bottle) or in a pre-diluted spray bottle ready to go.
Jason recommends spraying the soil with diluted neem oil to deal with the larvae.
Soak the top 5-10cm of the soil with your neem oil spray about once a week for at least two months (or for one month after you stop seeing the flying adults). Outside of your neem oil soak, remember to let the soil dry out between watering.
Unlike many other pesticides, it won’t harm your pets or kill beneficial insects like earthworms.
4. Consider creating a soil barrier
Some people have also had success with adding horticultural sand (not the beach stuff) or small pebbles on top of their potting mix. This can prevent female fungus gnats from being able to lay eggs in the soil.
Jason says it’s not his preference because it can make it difficult to see what’s going on in the soil but each to their own!
How to Get Rid of Gnats in the House
1. Gnat Trap
2. Food-Grade Diatomaceous Earth
3. Flypaper Ribbons
4. One-Part Water to One-Part Apple Cider Vinegar
5. Drench the Soil in Potted Plants
