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Mosquitos problem

8 years ago

I have a very annoying problem with mosquitos swarming in my houseplants!

All I've tried till now is getting rid of them manually or by spraying them with 70% rubbing alcohol, it killed a lot of them but still there are always more coming out of the soil, and if 2 remain they will produce a new generation -_-

I was relieved for couple of weeks before, but few days ago they've started to pop again.

I've searched a lot for something to repel them naturally but didn't find anything useful.

Someone told me that coal might help, is that true?

Comments (10)

  • 8 years ago

    First, where do you live?

    Unless your houseplants are outside or you leave your doors and windows wide open and screenless, it is strange that you have an indoor mosquito problem .... fungus gnats would be understandable but not mosquitos. The only way I could see this happening -- barring the aforementioned conditions -- would be if you have/keep standing water around such as vases or trays with water constantly in them.

    No, charcoal would be absolutely useless.

    Ran thanked Paul MI
  • 8 years ago

    In PSAs here, they tell us it only takes a teaspoon of standing water to support a batch of mosquito larvae, which is why it's important to clean up any leaf litter that may hold water, to say nothing of plant saucers, bird baths, etc. If you live anywhere warm and wet, they will always get inside eventually.

    There's a bacterial product called BT:i (Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis) that kills both mosquito and fungus gnat larvae. Many people buy "mosquito dunks", dissolve a small piece into their watering can, and use that at every watering. (There's per-gallon dosing on the package.) Another option is what they call "mosquito bits", which is the same bacteria but the bits sit atop the soil and slowly dissolve with every watering. I've read that the dunks are supposedly more effective, but I've never seen a side by side study.

    Good luck.

    Ran thanked Sage TX 9a
  • 8 years ago

    "...there are always more coming out of the soil..."

    Mosquito larvae need standing water, they cannot live in soil.

    tj

    Ran thanked tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
  • 8 years ago

    I wonder about same as tj. Sounds like fungus gnats.

    Ran thanked rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
  • 8 years ago

    Thank you so much everyone for your replies!

    I admit, I might have been over watering, but I have suspensions also on the soil, I've purchased what it's supposed to be a potting soil from a local market, which from the first sight and feel I felt there is something wrong with, it was full of dead leaves and other things from trees, but I had to use it because there wasn't any other kind of soil available... just to discover after a short while that it is totally a fraudulent!

    The soil wasn't draining well and it started to rot and make other things rot, like the bulbs, and those the latter attracted the mosquitos...knowing that I live in a hot and very dry area!

    I've started to change the soil gradually with garden soil, which is much better for now, and I've got rid of most of it, but still there are 2 plants that I'm terrified of changing their soil because they're fragile and newly planted.

    Also I'm letting the soil dry out, I haven't watered them for over a week now.

    But still the mosquitos are there.

    The newly potted plants are golden pothos and purple heart.

  • PRO
    8 years ago

    You don't mention being bitten or hearing a high-pitched whine, both of which would occur with multiple indoors mosquitoes. If one mosquito gets in my house, I hear it whine in my ear as it approaches.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Yes, some of them did approach me but I hit them before they bite.

    They're the tiny black kind, like the ones that are attracted by rotten fruit, not really the blood sucker kind, thank God!

    After searching again it's most likely they're fungus gnats, like the fellows said.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    If you take heed when I mention that garden soil is 100x more likely to be a death sentence than a reprieve from the woes that accompany an unhealthy root system, you'll save yourself a lot of heartache and frustration.


    From my perspective, an appropriate medium is a medium that allows us to water to beyond the point of saturation at will, so we're flushing
    the dissolved solids (salts) that are present in tapwater and
    fertilizer solutions. These dissolved solids are left behind and
    accumulate in soils whenever we're forced to water in sips, which is
    commonly employed as a strategy in order to avoid the sogginess that
    limits root function and wrecks root health. It's important to
    realize that a healthy plant is not possible w/o a healthy root
    system. If you have established goals that include healthy and
    attractive plants, it's critical that you have a plan to avoid the
    limitations imposed by over-watering and an accumulation of dissolved
    solids (salts) in the soil solution.

    Not every grower fully understands the dilemmic issues associated with
    inappropriate soils that force the plant to pay a vitality tax
    resultant of an unhealthy amount of water being retained for extended
    periods when we water correctly – which is to say, when we flush
    the soil to limit salt build-up. On one hand, we have the potential
    for over-watering, and when we act to avoid it by offering dribs and
    drabs of water here and there, we have high salt levels to deal with.
    It's easy to see how we all might benefit from use of a soil that
    allows us to water so we're flushing away excess salts without
    limiting our plant's vitality via waterlogged soils.

    Let me know if you want a much more detailed explanation of how water behaves in container soils, and how significantly that affects root, and therefore, plant health.

    Al

    Ran thanked tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Thanks Al, this is very informative.

    On the other hand and after discovering the real problem, I've read a detailed description about fungus gnats and what attracts them, and how to get rid of them and preventing them from reproducing again, it is as I suspected, it's the bad soil that attracted them in the first place, because it's full of organic things (the dead leaves...) that got rotten because the soil wasn't draining..... and eventually made a perfect environment for gnats to swarm! (Very upset right now from the fraudulent soil!!

    I had the courage yesterday to transplant the purple heart, and I could see the proof of the explained issue with my eyes! (Not pleasant at all to describe again!).. but very happy to say that I woke up this morning to find that it made a huge difference, just few gnats where still there and nothing in the soil.

    Still one pot to go, the golden pothos, and I will be hopefully totally free of gnats forever.

    Here is one good article I've read and I would like to share.