In the battle against Gnats

I have a couple small trees that I want to keep growing throughout the winter without gnats flying all over and I found these paint strainer bags , they come in sizes from 1 gallon to 5 gallon and the mesh is very fine much too small for a gnat they were about .75 cent each at my local paint store 



 

Sweet move Dave !!!

Excellent idea, Dave!  I hope you win the war.

An ounce of prevention....
I saw the buggers flying around a rooted sucker that I'm growing through the winter indoors-found Mosquito Bits at my nearby farm and garden supply, and have mixed a bit into the top inch of soil mix and soaking a couple teaspoons worth in a gallon of water for tomorrow's watering.  Hope those grubs eat it and die!   

Mosquito Bits/Dunks do work well. I thought I had them under control with Neem Oil, but had to step up. The Bits/Dunks are essentially organic if not labeled as such, very safe. I'm now mixing some bits into my potting mix as well to be safe. Too many cuttings I don't want to lose!

Dave,

A nice find!
What is the name of this bag (if I want to Google for it)?

The mosquito bits didn't work for me. I just treated all my smaller plants that have new(er) soil with the nematodes that Homedepot offers online the other day. I got some gnatrol WDG to start using too, but I want the little beasties to have some fun suffering with nematodes first...hahahahahahaha.

greenfig the brand that I bought is Trimaco if you can't find them local they are all over ebay 



   

I will never never never ever use Miracle Grow potting soil again  I lost over 50 cuttings last year the bag that I got was totally infested with those little bastards !!!

Good find Dave! Maybe now I won't have to feel like a moron buying queen size nylon knee highs at walmart lol....

Thanks, Dave!
This year I like a mix of perlite and coco coir, all sterile and hard to overwater.

On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Trimaco-LLC-11313-25-Strainer/dp/B0038RRPI2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416610978&sr=8-2&keywords=paint+strainer

im looking stupid reading this what does the nats do were talking about the small flies right? 

The nats lay there eggs in the soil and the larvae eats the roots killing the cuttings 

Do a search here on gnats you'll see many many sad stories :-(

i think im in trouble i seen a few nats in my rooted cutting pot earlier i didnt even know until now thanks

Nice idea Dave! Thanks, Leon

Last winter I had good success using sand to control gnats in newly rooted plants. By late October I had a nasty gnat infestation. In about 4-5 weeks very few remained. I saw the occasional one but not a problem. The key is blocking the drain holes. I use a  same sized/brand cup to restrict access to the drain holes. They fit so tight that the suckers can’t enter or escape.

Many times when I separated the cups to check the roots 2 or 3 gnats were ready to escape. On many I couldn’t use very much sand because they were already planted. Most had about a 1/2" sand.

Sand is a PITA its always spilling but I’ll use it again this winter

Scientists Prove Bounce Sheets Fend Off Insect Pests

Danny those are 1 gallon pots 

Heres one other product that I am trying for my cuttings Gnat Nix , it's a light weight ground up glass supposable the gnats are not able to crawl through it and the drainage holes are on the bottom of the cup so the gnats can't crawl through those holes either 

   

While I find the gnats to be incredibly annoying, I can't say I lost a single cutting to them last year and I had a terrible amount of them. I really think people need to look at other causes of losing cuttings with over watering being #1 and lack of humidty #2.

That being said, they are incredibly annoying, so I will likely try some of these methods this year as well.

one gallon strainer for a one gallon pot gives you just enough excess to tie around the trunk