- If you don't want gnats around, you have to cut off their food supply. This means fruits and vegetables have to go in the refrigerator or a bin the bugs can't penetrate. Make sure house plants stay damp, but not wet, and they must have the proper drainage. Gnats just love over-watered house plants. Empty trashcans regularly and don't allow rotting food to sit in the house. Make sure all trash receptacles and sink drains are cleaned thoroughly, and don't have any old rancid food stuck to them. Never let dirty dishes stand in the sink.
- Your best resource is chemicals. The supermarket and hardware stores have several flying insect spray options for you to choose from. Just about any one of these will take care of your gnat problem. Be sure to check the back of the label to make certain it isn't harmful to pets. If your home is experiencing an all-out infestation, you may need to look into a fogging product. This will require you to seal off cabinets and anywhere else food and eating implements are stored. Be sure to take the pets and leave the house for the day.
- You can also get rid of gnats by using products found around the home. Since they are attracted to the scent of vinegar, fill a jar with vinegar and poke holes in the lid. The gnats will climb into the jar, but they won't be able to climb out. For those that remain in the house, try putting vegetable oil around your kitchen sink drain. Gnats finding themselves coated in the oil will be unable to breed. If you're not interested in potentially clogging your drain with vegetable oil, pouring a cup of ammonia down your kitchen sink is said to get rid of any flies hovering around that area. Let it sit for a couple of hours before using the sink again
- Another way is to take some kind of juice and pour it in a cup.Then you can use powdered bleach in the mix and they should attract and drown.Wine also works without bleach.Or another trick is to take a slightly rotten fruit and put it in a small glass of water.Then pour powdered bleach on it and mix it in. One to several tablespoons of dishwasher soap to every cup of water. This soapy water mix damages the breathing tubes. The gnat can't breathe, and dies.
- Place small bowl of Apple cider vinegar in the area with foil over top and poke holes in the foil with a toothpick.
- It's generally easier to keep them out, with screens, than to actually get rid of them. But you can spray something like Raid house and garden insecticide.
It is important to identify the type of flying insect we are dealing with. Most commonly these insects feed off of organic material and they prefer the moist damp areas. If you are seeing them primarily in the kitchen check your drains. Easy way is to put some clear plastic wrap over the drain before you go to bed and see if there are any insects on the bottom side when you wake up in the morning.
- If so you need to put an enzyme down the drains that are affected. You want some thing that is going to kill the organic material. One product is called drain gel and works great.
- Now if you are not seeing them in the drains make sure you don't not have any potted plants. If you do take them all out side and that should solve your problem.
- If it is not any of those, you need to check real good and see if you have any fruit that may be going bad or any places where water may leak (aka: Plumbing fixtures that may be hidden in the wall by a removable peice of wall.)
