fungus gnat problem

[MantisMan]

hello, I seem to be having a huge problem with spaghmum moss. I bought some earlier this year and it attracted a ton of fungus gnats, it was called frog moss and I just threw it out when I had the problem. well I used new Zealand spaghmum moss from zoo med the other day to redo a whole cage and now there are fungus gnats. I don't know how to get rid of the gnats without getting rid of the moss, and I kinda did the whole tank with the moss but my mom will be pissed if the gnats take over. help! thanx

[Eric Walker]

Fungus gnats are a real PITA. They don't seem to ever go away completely once you have them. Your best bet is going to be to let the tank dry out completely. Substrate and all. Bone dry. The larvae will die off without the moist moss or soil. You may also want to re stearalize your plants since the larvae will hang out and feed on the roots too. This will all be pointless though if you still have a few rogue gnats in the room. They will just find their way back into the tank and start right back up. Make sure the tank is fly proof as best you can. If you have a bunch of house plants as well I suggest ordering some gnatrol. It can be found on eBay for cheep. Its a biological larvicide and works well for controlling them in your plants.