Updated: How To Get Rid Of Gnats on Succulents

“Is that a fruit fly?”

“Probably nothing…”

“Okay, that was definitely a fly. They’re everywhere!”

So you have indoor succulents and you’ve seen your first gnats flying around your babies. If you haven’t encountered this problem yet, you’re lucky! Succulent gnats aren’t the worst or most dangerous insects you can have on your succulents — look up mealybugs and pray you don’t get them! While not harmful, finding gnats on your succulents is annoying, to say the least.

Lucky for you, I’ve got just the tips and tricks on how to get rid of succulent gnats! (p.s. these little guys can also be called succulent fungus gnats)!

Table of Contents

1. What Causes Succulent Gnats
2. 5 Steps: How To Get Rid of Gnats on Succulents
   1. Dry Out the Soil
   2. Get Rid of the Eggs
   3. Top Off With a Layer of Protection
   4. Use Bug Traps
   5. Use Non-Toxic Pesticides
3. Bonus Step: Repotting

What Causes Succulent Gnats

I‘ve had gnats on my succulents nearly every year, around the same time in the fall, but the first year was the worst. It was the beginning of fall and I had just moved into a new apartment with a few friends. I set out my cute little succulents along the window sill in my bedroom, the one living room window, and the one, small kitchen window. A few weeks went by and I started noticing small little bugs occasionally flying across my field of vision. I was sitting at my kitchen table one night doing homework when I realized that these little bugs were on the succulent on my table! I felt so bad — I didn’t want to be THAT roommate that caused an infestation tiny, flying succulent gnats in the apartment.

I immediately took all my succulents back into my room and started doing research on how to get rid of the little pests. I had to find the cause of these pests — they were everywhere. I had succulent gnats flying in the air and crawling around in the soil laying eggs.

If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that over-watering is definitely an issue for me and nearly all of my succulents are in glass pots. So of course when I learned that succulent gnats flock to excess water and love to lay their eggs in extra moist soil, I immediately knew what the cause of my infestation was.

I just laughed. I had been over-watering my plants a little bit and the glass containers I keep them all in don’t help one bit with that issue. I had gnats reproducing like crazy.

So how did I get rid of the fungal gnats? I tried five things and was able to finally get rid of the pests!

5 Steps: How To Get Rid of Gnats on Succulents

Dry Out the Soil

The first step to getting rid of my succulent gnat issue was to fix my over-watering problem! I let that soil get COMPLETELY dry and then some. My succulents were fine without water for a month or so — if anything, this type of watering makes the roots stronger by stressing them out a little. By completely drying out the soil, you eliminate the breeding conditions that are perfect for succulent gnats.

The fungus gnat lifespan of an adult is only about one to two weeks with a complete life cycle in about 18-30 days. Avoid watering your succulents for 5-6 weeks and you should be able to kill off all the mature gnats and their eggs.

Get Rid of the Eggs

While I was letting the soil dry out, I searched through the soil and under the succulent leaves for any signs of eggs. The last thing you need is for a new round of succulent gnats to hatch after the mature gnats have just died off. Another good way to ensure that you get rid of all the eggs is to repot your succulents.

Top Off With a Layer of Protection

After you cut back on watering and search for eggs, you’ll want to top off your pots with a layer of protective coverings. This covers up the moist soil and makes it harder for the succulent gnats to get to their breeding grounds. Some materials that work great for this include:

• Sand
• Decorative Rocks
• Moss

Use Bug Traps

Now that you’ve taken care of your succulents, the last thing you’ll want to do is to get rid of the pests that are flying around your home. An easy way to do this is to hang up a few rolls of that sticky, yellow fly paper. Each strip can hold hundreds of flies, which should more than take care of your succulent gnat problem. You can also make an apple cider vinegar fly trap, they might be attracted to the smell and make their way towards the slightly rotting stench.

Use Non-Toxic Pesticides

Your last resort should be to use pesticides to get rid of gnats. If you’ve tried all of my other recommendations and still can’t seem to get a handle on your infestation, look for a non-toxic pesticide for ornamental plants.

Once the soil had been completely dry for at least five weeks and I was pretty sure I had gotten rid of all the gnats flying around, I watered my succulent babies just enough to make the soil damp again, then waited to water my plants until they were dry as a desert. It took some time, but within a few weeks I had eliminated my gnat problem and I was able to return my succulents to the kitchen window.

Bonus Step

Like I mentioned above, one of the things I do to prevent fall succulent gnats is to re-pot all my succulents. This can be a lot of work depending on how many succulents you have, and if you’re anything like me, it’s a lot. But there are so many benefits to repotting succulents. I typically try and repot my succulents twice a year in the spring and the fall.

Benefits of Repotting Succulents

1. You are replenishing your soil with nutrients. Your succulents have likely sucked out all the nutrients from the soil and it’s a good idea to replace those. If there were gnats in the soil of your succulent, it’s also a good way to make sure you really got rid of all of them. Drying out your succulent soil got rid of all the adult gnats, but you want to make sure you get rid of all the succulent gnat larvae as well.
2. My soil gets hard because we have really hard water where I live. After six months to a year, the soil in my succulents is more like a solid clump of dirt than it is soil. I like to replace the soil and make it a little easier for the roots to move around and grow.
3. Now is the PERFECT time to propagate your succulents! Read how to do that here!
4. If it’s springtime, your succulents just spent a long winter just fighting to stay alive. If it’s fall, your succulents are about to enter a cold winter and you want to give them their best chance to survive. Trim up your plants and replace the dirt with nutrient-rich soil.
5. If you have an over-watering problem or have planted your succulents in containers that don’t drain well, your soil may have some green fungi growing in it. It’s pretty harmless, but it also doesn’t hurt to replace the soil and get that stuff out of there.

I did have a very small problem with gnats again the next fall but between the new soil and making sure my watering was back on track, I only saw a handful of gnats and was able to get rid of them pretty easily!

Got a gnat problem? Tell me about it! How have you gotten rid of pesky succulent gnats?