Kirsten
7th February 2009, 11:13 PM
Here's another one of Kirsten's cheap-and-environmentally-friendly gardening tips:
Sticky cards (http://www.learn2grow.com/problemsolvers/insectsanimals/insectdamagecontrol/usingstickycards.aspx) are brightly colored sticky cards that attract insects due to their color. The insects fly towards it, get stuck, and voila.
Supposedly yellow is the best color to use for fungus gnats, etc, but blue and hot pink have also been shown to work.
I made my own yesterday using some tips from online: I cut up a sheet of yellow paper and glued it to a piece of cardboard of the same size. Then I cut up a clear plastic bag (the kind you get vegetables in at the grocery store) and covered the yellow surface. For the sticky bit, I used vegetable oil, though it seems that motor oil and petroleum jelly work too - I just didn't have access to either of those. Then I just spread the little yellow cards (they're about the size of my palm) around the table where all my plants are - I seem to be having a bad fungus gnat infestation recently.
So far I've caught five gnats, but the overall population seems to have gone down a lot. This isn't a particularly effective way of getting rid of ALL your insect problems, but since I'm always on the lookout for non-chemical methods and I have such a small indoor garden right now, this is great for me :)
Sticky cards (http://www.learn2grow.com/problemsolvers/insectsanimals/insectdamagecontrol/usingstickycards.aspx) are brightly colored sticky cards that attract insects due to their color. The insects fly towards it, get stuck, and voila.
Supposedly yellow is the best color to use for fungus gnats, etc, but blue and hot pink have also been shown to work.
I made my own yesterday using some tips from online: I cut up a sheet of yellow paper and glued it to a piece of cardboard of the same size. Then I cut up a clear plastic bag (the kind you get vegetables in at the grocery store) and covered the yellow surface. For the sticky bit, I used vegetable oil, though it seems that motor oil and petroleum jelly work too - I just didn't have access to either of those. Then I just spread the little yellow cards (they're about the size of my palm) around the table where all my plants are - I seem to be having a bad fungus gnat infestation recently.
So far I've caught five gnats, but the overall population seems to have gone down a lot. This isn't a particularly effective way of getting rid of ALL your insect problems, but since I'm always on the lookout for non-chemical methods and I have such a small indoor garden right now, this is great for me :)