Gnats Are Driving Me Crazy!

[Boboque]

We have been gathering what vegetables we can from our disappointing garden and have been putting up what we can. However, the gnats are driving us crazy! I know that some of the veggies we have found have already started to go bad (we had some blossom end rot) and gnats love that stuff, but they are very, very bad and I have no idea how to get rid of them. Do they respond to citronella as mosquitoes do or is there something else that I could use?

 

[dinosaur]

Sprinkle with food grade diatomaceous earth (shell flour). This stuff is not a chemical, will not harm you but it will kill the gnats. It does not poison them, it operates mechanically making small cuts on the gnats which causes them to dehydrate.

 

[JeepThrills]

I have heard that if you carry Bounce laundry sheets with you that the bugs will stay away, but I have never tried it. I use Avon's Skin So Soft (old bottle) if I think about it. I usually forget until I am already outside.

 

[ppine]

Bobo,
Whenever you are being irritated by something small, think of the big picture to regain your perspective. Do you get enough to eat? Do you have a warm place to sleep? Do you have friends and family that care about you? A few bugs are hardly worth mentioning in that context.

Use a headnet, wear long sleeves, and DEET. If that fails smoke cigars.

 

[Grandpa]

Feel lucky they are driving you, they are making me walk....

Sorry, had to say that. Have you tried wearing a face net?

 

[hummingbird]

One of the mosquito repellant fans may work. Have you tried that? I can't remember the brand but it has a fan and clips on your belt. It seemed to work pretty well the last time we went out to the pond to fish. I don't think I got a single bite from anything that day, including the fish.

 

[carmen]

I like the non poison trick, even if it is a gnat. We had an issue in a random spot in our backyard last year, nothing funky (or fancy) was growing there, nothing for any of our pets, etc. Honestly it was really weird since we never had a gnat issue before, kind of left us clueless at first.

 

[shaun]

I was attacked by a swarm of gnats last week. I was out at night and I didn't know I was being bitten. The next day I woke up with over 30 gnat bites all over my body. The itching in the past week has been driving me crazy!

 

[plsargent]

A friend just tole me that bugs don't like onions and to plant them around the edge of your garden to help keep pests at bay. Does it really work, I have no clue but for next year can't hurt to try and plant the onions on the outside.

Sorry have no advice for this year

 

[Theosus]

I have grape vines... The gnats are awful around them when I'm picking, due to the ones that have dropped and are rotting. But the real trouble is wasps. They like to eat grapes too! I use Off on me for the gnats, and run from wasps.