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Tobbaco, fungas gnats

 Try placing the yellow sticky cards horizontally for fungas gnat control
and vertical for white fly control. No idea why this works better, but it
does.
 Liquid Kelp extract has helped me control fungas gnats as well as feed my
plants. Not sure why this worked either, it certainly isn't mentioned on
the bottle, but it seems to work great.

 The best way to keep fungas gnats from returning is to water your plants
less. Fungas gnats like overly wet soil. Watering your plants every 2 weeks
and marking it on the calendar is going to be your best solution with many
(if not most) common houseplants. Either that, or all my plants are in clay
pots way too large for them. <VBG>
 Check the soil an inch deep with your finger every few days. If the dirt
sticks to your finger, the plant still has plenty of water.
 Changing your potting mix to a faster draining ('dryer') mix will also help.
 If it's convienent to switch, clay pots will normally breath better than
plastic and can regulate overwatering better. Be sure to use a plastic
saucer under the clay saucer, or your hardwood floor will look like ours.

 Apparently you don't have a problem with fungas gnats at your home. Just
water the office plants as seldom as you do the home plants. Make sure your
officemates are not kindly "helping" you water your plants.


 As for the tobaco products, it's generally more toxic than anything you
can buy from the store. Stick with "safe" manmade or organic poisons that
you can get in a known strength.

 As for the newer gardeners who think "organic" means "safe", sorry to
burst your bubble. You *are* on the right track, but you *really* need to
look into this more.
 Most fast breakdown organic poisons are generally a much better
alternative than highly stable manmade poisons, but by no means does that
make "organic" POISONS safe.  The key work here is still POISON.
 Finetuning the care of your plants with more accurate watering schedules,
simple suffocating soap sprays, and (sometimes reduced) fertilizing will
usually mean you don't have to apply any poisons.

Hope this helps

Matt Trahan  <matttrahan@ecsu.campus.mci.net>
USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 31, AHS heat zone 7, northeastern N.C.

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