Another Gnat problem!!! I might have an idea, can you check and give your opinion~!

I just planted two germinated seeds into soil, yesterday. I then covered the soil with plastic wrap and placed into my grow. Well this morning I removed the plastic to air the plant a bit, well when I removed the plastic covers from the plants about 5-6 of the little buggers bombarded my face and went up my nose and in my eyes~! So I immediately removed the two new plants (that I had set up with my other 6 plants, all with a different- non-bug soil....) the other 6 were uncovered and I observed one of the escaped buggers flying around em.... now I'm worried I just introduced a flippin metropTlitis of bugs into my grow..... W......T.......F....... I just bought this "new" soil!!! Jezus just like a bad date, never good when you go home with bugs...... IMHO

So anyway, I have been a succussfull shroom grower for a while, and one thing I need to do is sterilize my grow medium/ shroom food (rice). I fill pickle jars with vermiculite and rice, then place in pressure cooker. I cook the verm and rice to kill of any foreign molds/floating stuff/ anything bad in the mix. I then allow the substrate to cool, then introduce spoors and continue with my operation. So I was thinking, I just bought this huge bag of bug-infested soil, do you think i could put the soil in clean non-used jars, pressure steam it for a bit to kill everything, let cool for a day, then use?!? Do you think this would work, or do you think the high heat would degrade some of the soil/ natural nutrients?

Use 1 table spoon of vanilla extract per one cup of water. Do not put on plants just set the cup in the area. They hate the smell of vanilla for some reason

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pushit

Use 1 table spoon of vanilla extract per one cup of water. Do not put on plants just set the cup in the area. They hate the smell of vanilla for some reason

---

Cool, thx for the info, I def am going to try, to get rid of that mo fo, seen him again, but then he disappeared before i could kill him. That will be awesome to keep em away, I'm thinking about sterilizing my soil though before I use it as more of a preventative measure..... hopefully kill the buggers before they even become a problem!:wtf:

I use the same mixture when i go fishing to keep them away. haha. Hey whatever works i guess haha