Fungus Gnats - Bad or Ok ?

[RichFrye]

I was curious as to everyones take on these bugs. I have ,what I believe to be, fungus gnats in many of my vivs and they seem to be a great supplemental food source for smaller Darts. I have read some posts with a negative tone towards fungus gnats and have been told by one frogger that they can be a pain, but so far , so good as far as I can tell.
Anyone have any good/bad experiences?

Rich

[AceKing]

I enjoy and except all free foods. I don't even get mad when i have a mite problem, i just shake the culture into my vivs. I feed the baby spiders from my room to my frogs, not easy but it works and frogs go nuts fro them. Fungus gnats are really cool in my book, sometimes you can have quite a few in each viv, which means quite a nice meal even for a larger frogs. but retics, pums, ands vents really go for them and i don't ever think that you can have to many types of food.

[brazilnut]

I had a 15 tall with a major infestation of them one of my imitators pairs were in. I usually allow my pair to raise their own tads and after their froglets morphed out they grew quick and I think it was because of the fungus gnat larve.I'm not real sure of that though, there were alos lots of springtails in it too.
I do know the adult male and female didn't seem real hungry when I would feed them so I think they ate them alot too.
Mark

[alexislake]

I think people don't like fungus gnats because of the larvae. The adults bury their larvae into the soft stems and bases of plants and eat the plant stem. The larvae can also eat the roots of plants. I had some that entered my screenroom and killed two or three orchids by laying eggs in the medium and base of the plant. They even attack cactus.

[barracuda]

I realize this is old and I'm new here but here is a tropical plant guy's opinion on fungus gnats:

1st of all many of you already have them and haven't really noticed. they look just FFs only they actually fly. They feed on a variety of things which can include the small hairs of roots which are the newest root growths. if there is a large pack of them feeding on a seedling that seedling will die because it has no other roots to draw water with. This is only a problem with absolutely new seedlings. -

They're preferred dinner (as one might guess from the name) is fungus and mold. You can reasonably expect them to tidy up any mold that finds its way into your viv. +

They have very specific conditions that they like: overly wet soil. that is where they will live and deposit their eggs and eat. if you want to attract some for your viv put a plant with wet soil somewhere in your house make sure it is a pot that does not drain and in no time at all you'll see the adults squirming at the window sill.

Any bag of soil that has been stored outdoors in the rain will have them, miraclegro always seems to have them.

I think you should treat them as another source of food that can be colonized in the viv. the potential bad that they do is extremely minimal

[D3monic]

Only problem I got with them is when they are flying around my living room cause a gnat is a gnat and it needs to stay the hell out of my margarita....FF's are a problem enough as it is. I do have fungus gnats in most my vivs in small visible numbers and I always see a frog lunging for them.

[Philsuma]

^^^ Agree.

Has anyone actually seen or heard of an "outbreak" of gnats - like hundreds ? I've only ever seen a few of them, here and there and they eventually peter out and go away.

[stevenhman]

The only time I've seen an 'outbreak' was when I kept tarantulas/scorpions. Not hundreds but, dozens and dozens.

[ZenMonkey]

I wanted to bump this old thread just to see if there was any new info on the downsides to gnats. (Other than the occasional nuisance.) I like them because they get the frogs climbing around on the back, sides, or plants to hunt, and I especially like them now that I've learned they eat mold and fungus. Of course I haven't stopped feeding dusted flies almost every day.

[frogfreak]

They also feed on the roots of plants.

[JayMillz]

With the very first viv that I built (55 gallon), I had an absolutely insane amount of those buggers in my viv with no frogs to eat them. Literally thousands of them. I wasn't getting frogs for a while still so what I did was use saran wrap as the top of the viv and misted it with water. The gnats would stick to the saran wrap and eventually die. I had to change the wrap every day because it became a very effective gnat trap, catching thousands every time. Eventually the terribs showed up and order was restored.

[frogfreak]

I had a large outbreak this summer and almost have them under control. Between very large sticky traps, tubs of water and the shop vac the numbers have dwindled fast. A royal PITA though! I hate these things buzzing around my head! hock:

Thousands Phil...

[Philsuma]

just making sure here.....

[frogfreak]

They are/were Gnats. They behave every differently.

[Philsuma]

yeah, the fly kinda like a mosquito right ? Sometimes they 'hover'.

[frogfreak]

They walk a lot before takeoff too lol

[JayMillz]

Hey Glenn, do you have any regular potted plants around your house that aren't in vivs? I was having problems with the gnats at my place and my grandma was at hers too. We sprinkled cinnamon on top of the potting soil of all of the plants in our places to act as an anti-fungal agent and they all died off. I'm not 100% sure if that was the perfect solution but it seemed to work anyways.

[frogfreak]

Hey Josh,

Just a few that are hanging on for dear life. If plants aren't in a viv they have a tendency to die. lol

The Gnats started in my Iso bins, which aren't sealed. I use KIS containers. They spread to the tanks, but are almost toast now. I'm only seeing a few around.

[Philsuma]

Fungus Gnats need high humidity/ moisture right ? Are your Iso containers on the wet side ?

[frogfreak]

They need real high high humidity and moisture right ? Are your Iso containers on the wet side ?

They do fine for me. I have a 1" layer of turface on the bottom that is wet and never have to mist.