Are Fungus Gnats Harmful?

Will I get bitten or stung by fungus gnats?

Fungus gnats are an interesting bug, they have a lot of characteristics, but harming humans isn’t one of them. Gnats don’t bite humans, but they eat and sometimes KILL something else you love.

Why are we getting rid of gnats? Well, apart from their annoying tendency to fly in front of your face, or being too quick to smack, having gnats in your plants isn’t good.

Gnats lay up to 100 to 150 eggs per week!

The life cycle of a gnat is two weeks, and during that time, they can do a lot of damage. Gnats lay their eggs along with the hair roots of the plant; they are the fine roots that check if the plant can grow in that direction.

15 to 40 strings of gnat eggs are laid on these roots, and once the larvae hatch, they instantly start eating the fibre-filled threads. This occurs for a whole week before they’re ready to surface. By eating these roots, the plant is getting signals that they can’t grow in that direction as there is danger. It means they’ll try growing in other directions, but when gnats have infected to soil, and there are gnat eggs on every root, they have no choice but to be stagnant and eventually die.

Larger plants have more durability when there is a gnat infestation; gnats can’t eat through large roots, however seedlings or propagations are at the highest risk. As they are growing roots from scratch, it means they are vulnerable as they only have hair roots! eek

Fungus Gnat Treatment

To protect your plant from fungus gnats, you need two things.

1. Kill the larvae with Neem Oil

2. Remove the breeding adults with sticky traps

These two steps must work in unison, so if you kill the adults, the larvae still have a week before they surface. And if you only kill the larvae, the adults can breed again.

The uBloomd kit covers these stages and ends the cycle by working together.

We use Neem oil to kill gnat larvae and end their ability to eat your plant's roots. Neem oil also protects your plants from other pests like thrips, fungal disease, leaf eaters, caterpillars, whitefly, aphids, mites, mealybugs, and so much more! However, I will warn you neem oil has a very pungent smell which many do not like.

We pair this natural, organic pesticide with sticky traps which attracts and kill adult gnats. Having an incredibly sticky surface that traps the gnats from flying away and laying more eggs is essential.

So, all in all, fungus gnats are not harmful to humans. You can not penetrate the skin, but they will break through your plant's roots and slowly end their life. Act quick when dealing with gnats; it only takes five gnats to suddenly 500+ in a WEEK!

If you’re struggling, look into our uBloomd product today.