We are having a problem of gnats in our house. Is there a natural way to get rid of them? I was told that you mix honey with something and that draws the gnats to it and they get stuck and die. Any ideas?

-- Beth Bender (tabloose@bellatlantic.net), November 07, 1999

Answers

I once hung up those sticky tapes meant to trap houseflies...and got tons of gnats on them! They're pretty inexpensive and work great! Sue

-- Sue Landress (Sulandherb@aol.com), November 07, 1999.

Hang them high though....the sticky traps...that stuff is gross to get out of your hair!!!! (from experience..ugh)

-- Jenny Pipes (auntjenny6@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

Are you sure they are gnats? We have had a terrible time lately with fruitflys in our bathroom area. We found that re-cleaning the drains, the toothbrush holder (vase-like thing) all helped a lot. Also agree with above....those sticky things work great!

-- joe lehnen (joetree@shentel.net), November 08, 1999.

I have been a pest control proffesional for 4 years and I find the best thing for gnats in the house is to make sure they are gnats. They are often confused w/fruit flies, thrips, etc... They may be fungus gnats, which are very common in a home with plants. If you have potted plants inside like I do, take a good look @ them. If you see more gnats around the plants, do not water them as much or as often. Let the soil dry out a bit. The funus gnat breeds and lies mainly in these plants or arears of soil build up around the home exterior. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. By the way, sticky traps do work well also.

-- Jim Ricker (jrdrkr1@prodigy.net), November 10, 1999.

I have heard that if you open a can or bottle of cheap beer (not sure what they mean by cheap!!but maybe an off brand of beer) and pour it into a bowl, or dish, and set it in several different places, the gnats are drawn to the beer for some reason, and they drown. You could try it.Although, just be sure to do it after the kids go to bed, so they don't spill the beer all over everything!

-- Martha DiLullo (MarthaAnnD@worldnet.att.net), November 13, 1999.

Hi Beth, Just found your posting on Countryside. Best way I've found for all flying bugs is to light a wide mouth candle at night with other lights off. Bugs fly 'into the light', get stuck in the wax, and never escape (buggy heaven? flying into the light? ). We have swarms come in at times, but with a few candles burning, the problem disappears within minutes. I greatly dislike chemicals, so this does the job and without any unhealthy side-effects. The best choice is of course to use a candle within a glass container so the wax can melt without dripping. Jars or whatever will do. Use a scented candle once in a while if you want, but I've not found any particular scent to work any better or worse, the bugs just want the light. Hope this Spring and Summer is less gnatty! Larry

-- Larry (sesquiq@mail.com), April 21, 2000.

i found it best to just have sex with them...

-- gnat hater king (gnath8r@ihatethegnats.com), September 15, 2001.

I have been trying to figure out where they come from too. I think in reading from other sites, it appears the culprit may be my new house plants (bought a couple real cheap), I overwatered them when I first got them, and lo and behold, I got those dreaded red fruit flies..UGH. I heard that hairspray helps, but haven't tried it yet. I did see that some of them have made their way into my open dishwashing liquid, I'm going to leave it open, and see if I can draw the rest of them. (and I'm letting my plants dry out really well).

-- jacki (jrpuddin@home.com), November 05, 2001.