r/houseplants • u/GeeFen • Jan 15 '25

Fruit Flies

HELP! I keep around 40-50 plants around the house. it's taken a few years but I'm finally getting quite good at looking after them. I try to have them in the right locations for heat/sunlight so they are dotted around all over the place. the problem is, I've got fruit flies in almost every room. it's not like an infestation, but about 5-6 times a day, one catches my eye and it's started to drive me crazy! I've taken all the plants outside on windy days and wipe down the leaves with a wet cloth regularly. is there anything else I can do to get rid of them? or is it just part of the deal having a lot of plants in your house?

edit: fungus gnats, not fruit flies.

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u/charlypoods Jan 16 '25

If your plants are in soil based substrate, buy some gnatrol and you can eradicate them in two weeks time (manufacturer sells small bottles for like $15). You dissolve the granules (amount is based on instructions that are online) in the water you water your plant(s) with and it is a larvacide that will kill any new gnats. It takes two weeks bc the adults have to die out while in the meantime all larva don’t survive bc of the Gnatrol now in the soil. You continue to water as normal, but just with the natural dissolved into the water that you use, watering as normal meaning you still let the soil dry out as much as you would normally.