Last Updated on October 25, 2022 by Griselda M.
Learning how to get rid of gnats with dawn dish soap in succulents is practical for every succulent owner. Gnats are probably the bane of every plant owner’s life. Gnats are small flying insects, which include fruit flies, and drain flies. They usually have dark, long legs with moth-like wings.
These small creatures are mainly attracted to water but you won’t like their presence in your garden. Besides they are irritating, they can evade your plants like crazy. But you don’t have a pest control company to drive these pests away.
You can create a dawn dish soap for gnats, which is a practical solution to keep the annoying creatures. Keep reading to learn some practical ways to get rid of gnats.
4 Practical Ways To Kill Gnats
Do you know how to get rid of gnats with dawn dish soap in succulents? Dawn dish is not the only way to get rid of these insects. There are different ways of disposing of gnats, with five successful ways featured beneath. Assuming that you have a serious gnat invasion, it might take more than one of these techniques to kill the bugs.
1. Make an apple juice vinegar trap
Place a couple of tablespoons of apple juice vinegar, a couple of drops of dish cleanser, and a tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and mix the substance. Set your bowl in a space where gnats are pervasive, similar to your kitchen or washroom. The sugar and apple juice vinegar mix will draw in gnats, and the dish cleanser traps the gnats and ultimately makes them suffocate.
2. Make an organic product trap
Mortgage holders can cover a container of decaying natural product with punctured cling wrap. The gnats will enter the container and stall out in it.
3. Pour a diluted bleach down the sink
Gnats could sometimes start from the drainage. If your drainage stinks and you see gnats starting to live your sink, diluted bleach will not just kill the gnats. But it also helps clean the sink and remove bad odor.
4. Make a flame trap
Did you know that a simple candle can make a good trap for gnats? Simply light the candle and turn off the lights. The gnats are easily attracted to the lights so they’ll eventually gather to the flame and burn.
What Are Gnats Attracted To?
Gnats are generally attracted to fruits. The smell of fruits starting to ripen are too attractive to gnats that they can’t resist it. However, if you see gnats on your succulent, the source of the problem could be different. The following are the most common causes of fungus gnats on succulents.
Overwatering
Succulents are sensitive to overwatering. Soggy soil can invite gnats. For this reason, you should not overwater your plant. Note that succulents are drought-tolerant plants and they can survive many days without water.
A golden rule in growing succulents is to keep the soil dry and not soggy. You can only water your succulent once a week to ensure the plant is still getting some nourishment. But if you let it soak in water, fungus gnats could start attacking your plant.
Wrong Soil
Using the wrong can attract the fungus gnats immensely. Loam soil, for example, is not advisable for succulents because it can hold more water than sandy soil. When the roots of your succulent start to rot, its scent can reach hundreds of gnats. Sooner or later, you will see them feasting on your soil.
Trash Or Garbage
You may not notice it from the beginning, but someone might have thrown some trash on your succulents. If you haven’t checked out your succulents lately, this garbage could have rotted on the soil. The scent of rotting garbage can eventually attract more fungus gnats. In this case, you may need to re-pt your succulents right away. Allowing your succulents to sit on rotted soil will put them in a fatal situation.
Steps On How to Get Rid Of Gnats With Dawn Dish Soap in Succulents
A popular remedy that won’t cause you a dime is dawn dish soap for gnats. It is a simple mixture of soap and water, which you can place on a spray.
It works for minor gnat issues. To begin, just combine 1 tablespoon of dish soap with 1 quart of water in a spray bottle. This will create a 2 percent solution that will help eliminate gnats at an early stage.
You can spray it on the leaves down to the stem. This anti-bacterial solution can drive away unwanted pests from your plants.
How to Use Gnat Trap Vinegar Dawn For Succulents?
Another way to trap gnats and kill them is to use gnat trap vinegar. Simply add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and dish soap, a tablespoon of sugar to a bowl. Stir the ingredients altogether. The sweet and sour smell will attract gnats eventually. The bubbles from the dish soap will trap the gnats and kill them.
There you go. Learning how to get rid of gnats with dawn dish soap in succulents is not that hard. There are many other techniques to get rid of gnats without spending too much money.
For example, you can also use flypaper. This very old-fashioned technique of driving gnats away is still proven effective nowadays.
Traditional ribbon flypaper works in most areas. However, if the pest infestation is severe, it might be good to contact a pest control company. This could happen to business individuals with large succulent plantations. Pest control companies would normally implement a customized treatment plan for your succulent garden.
As a precautionary measure, you should keep your succulents in check. Especially during cold weather days, gnats can be attracted to fertilizers not drying out, moist soil, and rotten succulent roots.
Read more about: Black Bugs On Succulents: Help!
