Hey Will, is there a concern with the DE after I sprinkle it on top of the soil? Does it just work its way through the soil with watering? Thanks for allowing me to ask all these questions. 
Roger
You can ask all you want.No it wouldn’t hurt a thing. But when you go to harvest you may want to wash off any left on there .but other than that it’s all good.
Will
DE (food grade) is made of natural minerals and wouldn’t be bad for anything watered into the soil. Some will go deeper in the soil, and it will just help kill any bugs deeper down, it won’t be absorbed by the plant as anything harmful, people can and do eat the stuff as a mineral supplement and/or a intestinal parasite treatment. But yes, you would want to wash/rinse off any applied to the above ground parts of the plant before smoking it, easily enough done while the plant is still growing, right before harvest if need be.
I managed to get a good pic of these bugs bugging me. I got sticky pads which are working. Just waiting on my DE to arrive. But can anyone identify these little !@#$ers
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To me they look more like fungus gnats.
Ok bro… I’ll have a read. They must be very similar. Thanks aye.
In my experience fruit flies are more transparent and orange or reddish with the color pretty bright in their eyes, and fungus gnats are pretty much all black.
There are some good pics in those links.
You can google image search each one as well and you can quickly see what I’m talking about the orange coloring in the fruit flies.
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WOW I guess you do. Have you put anything on then to rid Then
Will
I’ve been using this soap spray. Not really working. Slows them up. I have yellow sticky pads 5 of them which is collecting heaps of adults. I have put slices of potato on the surface. This is meant to attract the larvae and the. You remove he potatoes with the larvae on it after 2-3 days. I am waiting on DE to arrive. But i go away tomorrow be back on Friday. So I hope the stickys and the potatoes work for the time being.
Wow and your leaving them. Boy I sure wish I could be there to help.
Iem afraid they won’t make it while you are gone
Say. I used dish soap and it worked Very Very well.
I did make it pretty strong.
It’s to suffercate them worked for me
Will
I’ll only be gone 1 night essentially. What damage do they do? I read about them and they just seem like pests more than problem??
How do you make dish soap mix??
You don’t make it. You go buy bottle of liquid dish soap go 1/4 bottle or a little less but put 1/4 to one gal of water and spray the hell out of your plants even under the leaves
That should do you tell you get back
Will
There is something called gnatrol or something like that, made specifically to be added to hydro reservoirs.
However, in a DWC with the clay hydroton balls, that is set up properly, I almost never see fungus gnats. However on occasion I have seen setups where something in the hydroton or in the center root-mass was harboring a place for fungus gnats to lay eggs and have their larva survive, sprinkling the DE on this area would also help and not necessarily wash away if the fungus gnat larva are not being washed away in the reservoir, and in DWC you usually don’t have to worry about anything maybe getting plugged up by any DE(food grade).
I moved 9 posts to an existing topic: Sprouted but leaning over
Thank you