Anyone else suffering from Fruit Flies?

I know this is an old thread but I also had an infestation of what I now know are fungus gnats after repotting some plants! I thought they were fruit flies too. I had to let the pots/compost completely dry out in the greenhouse before bringing back indoors. It took forever

REPORTED

It seems like there is an epidemic of fungus gnats so personally I would microwave all potting compost. It's too late once the plants have been placed in the soil.

Another question. I’ve got an unopened amaryllis and paper whites bulbs gift sets. Should I sterilise the compost before planting them, do you think?

Thank you for the tips about fungal gnats. It looks like that's what it is, and not fruit flies as I thought.

They told me to pour boiling water through the potting compost and microwave for 3-4 mins. So I put some in a sieve to pour the water over and then put the hot compost into a plastic bowl and covered it with a plate. Better keep an eye on it. There may also be people on E-Bay if you do a search.

Thanks for the tips. I’ve binned the pot of hyacinth and will see if my other two plants are affected.

How do you microwave compost? In a bowl or on a plate? Should it be damp or dry?

Here is a possible solution if you have a favourite plant and want to check whether it has fungus gnats. You don't want to throw it out so maybe use some of the sticky yellow traps and then put fine netting over the plant. Any gnats will emerge from the soil and be caught under the netting until they fly onto the traps. You can then easily see if any gnats have been caught. This will stop them flying away undetected. Just an idea.

As I said, I think there is an epidemic of fungus gnats. They seem to be in every bag of potting compost you buy and also in plants. I've never known this before, and I've been keeping house plants for 50 years. I think microwaving the compost is the only way, but of course you can't microwave a plant that's already infected and if you don't get rid of the little pests then they will keep flying around and landing on the clean soil.

Ha, they’re fungus gnats. I’ve got some potted hyacinth bulbs from M&S in my kitchen. I prodded at the moss on the top today and a host of tiny flies flew up!

Obvs the pot will go out - it’s almost finished flowering anyway - but what else? I only have two other plants in the kitchen, a red oxalis and an orchid. Will they be infected as well? I can’t see any flies on them.

Thanks for that info, Chestnut. They look terrifying when viewed at that size! 🤣

Thanks for the tip, Oreo. I'm another one who has inherited the little flies along with a bag of compost. I already have plenty of aquarium gravel so will try that suggestion. Keeping the bag of compost in a cupboard would be a good idea, too. At the moment I have all my gardening items on a trolley.

American in Chicagoland here. Thank you Chestnut and others for mentioning the potting soil. We have been infested this year, everyone said fruit flies but they didn’t go near fruit or apple cider vinegar. Don’t have indoor plants but have left over potting soil in attached garage. After reading your posts looked in the soil and bingo, swarming with them!!!
Wife and I enjoy reading Grandnet.

This is helpful to see the difference:
fruit flies v fungus gnats

If you have gnats I still think it's advisable to microwave your potting compost before use (details already posted). I was told to do that by a specialist cactus and succulent company on Cornwall. If the gnats are already in the soil then use the yellow sticky traps. They work well, I've caught loads of gnats but am still going to microwave the soil and repot the plants.

I've not noticed any this year so far but I have topped all the house plants with horticultural grit.
Last year all the plant were infested. The lemon and orange plants the DGC planted from pips were crawling with them.

Some small insect eats the older leaves of my bromeliad. I wouldn't say I was 'suffering' from whatever the small insects are. It's not as if they are blasted midges or ticks. Everything else pales into insignificance when one has those to deal with throughout the warmer months.

One was crawling on top of my fridge today. I squished it.

Thanks! I’ll try and get a good look, though the darned things move so fast.

SueD fungus gnats look more like mini mosquitoes, but they don’t bite humans!

How can you tell whether they’re fungus gnats or fruit flies? I haven’t repotted any plants and don’t buy compost from Amazon. The flies aren’t near the plants, they’re near me at this very moment!

Here in Germany restaurants had to serve wine with a beer mat on top of the glass to keep out the fruit flies well into the autumn. We had them in the kitchen even near fresh unblemished fruit but finally got rid of them with a small container of vinegar kept nearby. But they were kicking around until well into the beginning of the cold months.

Don't have any at the moment, but I've been careful with leaving out fruit, and regularly checking for fruit going off.

My annoying plague is definitely fungus gnats from repotted plants.

I also has a lot of them around in the summer but they seem to have mostly died off now. Just the occasional one.

I have found that bananas seem to attract them most. Bananas give off some sort of gas which causes other fruit to ripen quickly so that may attract them. I try to keep them covered and eat them as soon as they ripen.

Some may have a problem with fruit flies but I think the majority of these buzzy little pests are FUNGUS GNATS as people have said.
Their eggs arrive in your house in potting compost, so you have to sterilise the compost. Put in a sieve and run boiling water through the compost and then microwave for 3 minutes, giving it a stir. When cool then repot your plants. Maybe shake the infected soil off the root ball if possible and rinse under the tap in case there are eggs or grubs attached.

BUT the problem is keeping those clean plants protected while you do the rest of the plants. If you leave them unprotected the gnats will land on them and lay their eggs! I'm at this stage at the moment, but am determined to repot my plants in clean soil.

I honestly think there is an absolute epidemic of fungus gnats because every type of potting compost sold on Amazon has complaints that the soil is swarming with them. The only way is to microwave the little buggers.

I've got them and they seem to hang around my lemon tree which is growing in a pot in the living room. It's gone quite sticky including the pot.
I think I'll try the cider vinegar. They do seem to like drowning themselves in my glass of milk or whatever I'm drinking in the evenings.

Thank you for your suggestions of how to deal with these annoying little pests. I think I'll have a go with the cider vinegar that some of you have advised. I've also looked online at fruit fly traps which SueDonim mentioned.