Fungus Gnats

Over the past few years, I have noticed that when I start to plant seedlings indoors, I eventually get a few groups of tiny flying gnats around the seed beds. Identification was difficult since I never got around to taking entomology and had to run through a list of possible suspects.  They weren't fruit flies as I had plenty of experience working around those, and I ruled out the onion fly as well, even though they were first noticed by those seedlings. I had a suggestions that they might be drain flies, but then again, they didn't fit the characteristics I was seeing. In the end, they happened to be fungus gnats.

 I pretty much ignored them for the most part, because they didn't seem to cause a lot of problems until I planted the brussel sprouts for the first time this past year. I planted the seeds in early June (much too late from what I hear), and as they were growing I noticed a rather large number of slimy writhing maggots in the soil. I was using coconut coir as starting material (seed starting material is a whole other problem I am hoping to correct this year) and dry fertilizer from Espoma.  When it became evident that the maggots were stunting the growth of the already slow growing brussel sprouts, I panicked and dumped them outside with a covering of diatomaceous earth.  I was able to salvage a few plants, but their stalks were rather deformed on a few of them. I may also have had an issue with dampening off as well.

 This year, in preparation, I bought an excessively large row cover (something like 6.5 feet by 50 feet). I cut a good portion to throw over my grow light, and the remainder will be used to fight off squash vine borers. It looks a little ridiculous, but I am hoping it will make a difference for the seedlings.