This is something that’s not labeled under successes, nor failures, and you’ll understand why in a moment.
The use of sphagnum moss has its advantages and disadvantages. First, the advantages. It’s a great medium for growing many types of plants, where they need lots of drainage, but also it holds moisture better than most mediums for longer periods, without the need to water them too often. Many plants can root quite well in it.
And now the disadvantages. With using sphagnum moss, you need to be aware of the problems that come with using this medium for planting. One of them being, the development of fungus gnats. Everything can be working quite well for you, but then you start to notice something. Your windows are closed, so you cannot blame anything from coming in like that. You begin to see and hear bugs, flying bugs around the place. It’s coming from the sphagnum moss that’s being used in and on your plants.
NOTE: This happens when bringing in new plants all the time, and it can result from fungus gnats laying eggs in any medium. It can be sphagnum moss, peat moss, etc. It’s a matter of noticing the problem before it gets worse.
From what I understand, and I had this discussion with my plant providers, that the way to counter this, is to treat the sphagnum moss on your plants; to do this, you need to use something called, mosquito bits, and make a special kind of “tea” for watering any plants with sphagnum moss in them. Mosquito bits have something called BTI, which is said to be very effective.
This can be effective in killing fungus gnat larvae, but not the adult fungus gnats, that are flying around in your home already. You may need something like a double-sided tape nearest to the plants to aid in slowing down what’s already there.
NOTE: They have sticky traps made for such things, so rather than use double-sided tape, invest in these. It’s not to say that they don’t have other varieties made for catching fungus gnats, because they do, so choose your tools wisely.
By the way, this does work for mosquito larvae as well; after all, it’s called mosquito bits for a reason. There’s also the use of mosquito dunks, which can have similar results as the mosquito bits.
So what does BTI stand for? It’s short for, wait for it, bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (try saying that fast three times). It does take time, and I’m trying this right now. It’s a non-toxic way to rid your plants of this problem, and it’s a good idea, considering it can aid in extending your lifespan of your plants.
I’ll try this, and see how much of a difference this will make. I’ll discuss my findings in another journal in the future.