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[gnosis]

Well I brought my babies "Psychotria Nexus" inside for the winter and they started looking crappy almost immediately,
not only that but all the sudden it seems that they have been infested by tiny little gnats. Or micro flies.
I have no idea what's going on but the weather for the week turned out really nice so I placed them  back out and
they are looking beautiful again.  I'm so sad because I know I will have to bring them back in and I just can't bare
the thought of them dying on me.  I know I have to buy a indoor greenhouse but if anyone has any advice it would be awesome.
I sprayed them with insect spray and it looked like it worked but I just saw a couple of bugs today.  I also tried neem oil before
but that didn't seem to work either.  Here's a pic of my little loves

[Sunshine]

Low humidity....?

Maybe try misting them relentlessly when you bring them in?

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[Saros]

Or maybe sitting up a humidifier in the room where you have your plants if possible... i have a room that I keep closed and run a humidifier in there. My nexus and viridis drooped slightly when I brought them in at first but are looking perky again. I have some part problems too from them being outside but I'm being very meticulous about cleaning them. I'm manually removing the bugs daily and using neem oil weekly. Hopefully that'll take care of them.

As for humidifiers,  evaporative is the way to go I think. . I tried ultrasonic and the atomizer type but they don't last very long. At least with really hard water like we have here.

[TBM]

It sounds like a humidity issue like what others have already said. I haven't used a humidifier before but that would probably work as a buffer until you get yourself an indoor greenhouse, I have a small glass one that's about 1X1.75 ft and maybe only a foot and a half tall at the most, just big enough to keep a few small sprouts   It has hinges on the roof sections so you can open them partially to change the humidity inside, currently both sides are closed, but in a month or two once they're bigger I'm going to use that to try to transition them down to a more modest level (fingers crossed)


As for insects, what is the insect spray that you've already tried using made of? I have not tried using neem oil. I have had insect issues with my nexus twice now on two different plants, and each time I used insecticidal soap once and it killed all bugs. (still unsure what they were... tiny little white crawling leaf eating dots that needed to die). The active ingredient in the brand of insecticidal soap I use is "Potassium Salts of Fatty Acids"(claims to be good for organic gardening). I've used it on nearly everything with any insect issues and have had no issues with it. Only plant I wouldn't spray it on that I have would be my Mimosa pudica.

1 Like Sunshine likes this.

[BubbleCat]

I commonly treat insects that thrive under arid conditions with a simple method, it wont hurt the plant:

I water it well, then take a plastic bag or foil and rubber bands or some tape and simply cover the plant with the plastic, to make a nice "humidity tent" and seal it around the pot. About two weeks and many mites and other bugs will be extinct (because in the two weeks time not only all bugs died from humidity, also all eggs hatched and the resulting bugs died before having a chance to reproduce). Then the plant should be fine, one can simply take the bag off. Cut down plastik jars and bottles work too, depending on size, just be creative, aquariums, plastik boxes ... Everything works.

Also simple but effective: "wash" the plant with a rather harsh jet (?) of water, it will effectively remove the bugs mechanically.

Also submerging the plant completely in water for a few hours wont really bother the plant but the bugs.

The two last methods may be more rewarding if you make sure the soil stays in the pot, maybe by wrapping it around the stem, or putting some mesh over it or just being gently.

If the plant doesnt do well itself (non insect related) because of low humidity, you can "train" it to accept other levels of humidity in a given range. Again put it in any enclosure, make sure theres a small vent, and increase the effectivity of the venting by either increasing size or count of vents day by day. Shedding of leaves can occur, they will be replaced by leaves that are more tolerant to arid conditions.

Saros: demineralising water by osmosis or destillation will greatly help humidifiers

Regarding insect sprays: make sure you inform yourself about the mechanism it utilizes, some for example are simply meant to be sticky in the pores of bugs and have them die, unfortunately some plants can not tolerate theese and will die too from having leaf pores clogged.

Hope they get well soon

[Skautroll]

Have you tried GnatOff?

Awesome way to deal with the flea menace.

Its a mix of bacterias that kill flea larvae, you add a tiny of the bacterial culture to water then flush the plant soil properly. The bacteria establish and keep it free of all sorts of yeast fleas, gnats, blackfleas and the other scourges of high humidity indoor cultivation.

2 Likes Frog Pajamas and gnosis like this.

[gnosis]

You guys are absolutely awesome and I love you all.  Thank you for the help.

 

[happyconcacti]

Gnatrol is another good one:

Click, Click

Plus, the name is so full of puns, it's hilarious.

Hcc

1 Like gnosis likes this.

[Skautroll]

I'm pretty sure you can produce as much as you want of that bacterial culture yourself, stay self supplied for life.

A large water bottle, a bit of malt extract and sterilized yeast protein should start fermentation pretty quick. Haven't tried it myself yet but I sure intend to.

3 Likes happyconcacti, Sunshine and fairdinkumseeds like this.

[TBM]

You would probably need to store that in a fridge after you allow it to colonize, lest you want a bottle bursting... that is if it's similar to a liquid culture kept for making fresh sourdough bread....

[Skautroll]

Apparently the bacteria will sporolate when food runs out, its also aerobic unlike lactobacillus in sourdough. It needs to breathe so a little foam can be expected.

They used sugar and soyflour @30C for continous production, its a decomposer in other words, should be pretty easy to cultivate.

1 Like TBM likes this.

[fairdinkumseeds]

Apparently the bacteria will sporolate when food runs out, its also aerobic unlike lactobacillus in sourdough. It needs to breathe so a little foam can be expected.

They used sugar and soyflour @30C for continous production, its a decomposer in other words, should be pretty easy to cultivate.

So does that mean if I was to get my hands on some of those "mozzies dunks", add some sugar and soy flour, in a large tank at 30c, with an airstone bubbling away in the bottom, and cross your fingers it should grow and reproduce?
I wanted to buy Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis ages ago, but had no luck finding it anywhere in oz. I called and emailed everywhere I could think of in oz.

It's great for lawn grubs, mozzies, heaps of stuff, so I would LOVE to be able to culture my own!

[Skautroll]

Start with dilute solutions, more substrate will not give you more bang for the buck so to speak. Too much sugar raises the osmotic pressure favoring yeast and molds in particular. Add more substrate gradually as it gets consumed.

I would try a teaspoon of malt extract and a quarter of a teaspoon of nutritional yeast, then sterilize the solution. Ideally with a pressure cooker, the same way its done for mushroom substrate. Once you have a few jars of good culture you can aim for bulk production.

You will figure out a good recipe after some experimentation.

Both soy flour and nutritional yeast should be good protein substrates, malt extract covers more or less all the other nutrients.

I'm not sure airstones are necessary, at least not for smaller cultures. A jar with tyvek paper or fine meshed microfiber cloth as a breathing lid should keep contaminants out and allow for sufficient air exchange.

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