10 Simple & Most Effective Ways to Get Rid of Gnats in Your House

If you come back home from a one-week vacation and the first thing that may come into your sight is how you can get rid of gnats in your house. That is because you may have forgotten to take the trash out!!

Or maybe you left an overripe banana in the fruit bowl and now just because of this tiny mistake, your entire house is covered with gnats. So, this is never been a pleasant feeling and we all have been there someday.

What exactly are Gnats?

Before we proceed to get rid of gnats in your house, let us first understand, what exactly are gnats?

Gnats are miniature-sized flying insects with two wings that may or may not bite. Gnats resemble mosquitoes. Well, some people consider gnats as mosquitoes but they are highly mistaken.

There are three types of Gnats that we usually see:

1. Fungus Gnats

2. Fruit Flies

3. Drain Flies

Fungus gnats have a black complexion and longer legs. Fruit flies are mostly brown in complexion and much rounder in shape whereas drain flies are fuzzier in shape and have large wings just like a moth and they hang around the sink more often as their name suggests.

Highly Effective Ways to Get Rid of Gnats Once & for All

Image Credit: Emphyrio

Now that we know what gnats precisely are, let us move towards the simple and most effective ways to get rid of these tiny creatures.

1. Set Up an Apple Cider Vinegar Gnat Trap

This is a traditional and effective home remedy to get rid of gnats in your house. Take a small quantity (approximately two tablespoons) of apple cider vinegar, a few drops of dish soap, and one tablespoon of sugar in a small bowl or glass.

Place the bowl in the kitchen or wherever they are more likely to assemble. They will get attracted by the sugar and apple cider vinegar. On the other hand, dish soap will act as a catalyst and will trap the gnats, eventually will drown them to death.

2. Utilize Your Old Wine to Get Rid of Gnats in Your House

If you think that we are requesting you to sacrifice your dearest and most loved wine for these silly gnats, then let me assure you that you are mistaken! In case you have any expired wine that has turned to vinegar, then that will do the trick.

This trick is quite similar to the apple cider vinegar trick. Take a small vessel and pour some expired wine along with two tablespoons of dish soap.

Then, place it where these gnats mostly hover around. Now you have your invitation ready for these gnats.

3. Place Yellow Sticky Traps

Another effective but inexpensive technique is to get some yellow sticky traps to get rid of gnats in your house. You may find these traps at nurseries near you.

Make sure that you place them in the surroundings where the gnats hover around mostly. When the gnats will come to sit on the paper, they will get stuck.

4. Bleach the Drain Pipe

Traps may not be effective that way if there are too many gnats available in your house. Especially for the gnats that are found near the drainage pipes, also referred to as drain flies.

You may consider reading: Solar Panels Disadvantages

Bleach is considered to be the most effective way to eliminate drain flies. In about a gallon of water, dilute a half cup of bleach and pour it down into the infected drain with utmost care.

Make sure to clean or bleach the drain regularly to keep these tiny bugs away!

5. Build a Candle Trap

Another alternative is that you build a candle trap to get rid of gnats in your house. Lay down a candle into the candlestick and place it in a small container or a vessel with water.

Switch off the lights of your house and carefully light the candle. The gnats will be lured to the flame and come closer.

Thus, they will either get burnt in the flames or drown in the water surrounding the candlestick in the container/vessel.

6. Keep the Kitchen Tidy to Get Rid of Gnats in Your House

Image Credit: Jimmy Chan

The kitchen bin is a favorite spot for fruit flies to breed. Yes, you heard it right! Kindly take that filthy trash out regularly if you have not been doing that recently. Especially on summer days when the weather is more humid.

Try to keep the fruits inside the refrigerator that ripens quickly. For example:- Bananas, Apples, Peaches, Plums, Grapes, etc.

Apart from this, adopt a habit to rinse the fruits and vegetables once you bring them from the market. That will wash away the eggs of any insects on the skins of fruits and vegetables if any.

7. Do not Overwater the Plants

The equation is quite straightforward here. The more moister the soil, the more bugs inside your house! Remember that fungus gnats love moisture and humidity so they are more likely to be found there.

Sometimes we water the plants more than what they require. You may think that they might need more water which is not the case actually. Our kindness serves as a grand invitation for these gnats and your home will become a party place soon.

So, keep avoiding over-watering the plants to get rid of gnats in your house. The plants would rather be grateful for this!

8. DIY Gnat-killing Spray

If you love to spray your plants then guess what? There is a similar way to get your home bug-free by spraying! Oh, isn’t it interesting?

Take a spray bottle and pour in one-half cup of isopropanol or isopropyl alcohol, a few drops of liquid soap in 100-150 ml of water, and stir it. The solution is ready. Spray this mixture directly on the gnats and this will do the work for you.

9. Time to Dehumidify Your Home

As mentioned above, if your house has a lot of humidity, these fungus flies are going to stay with you without paying you any rent! Jokes apart, you need to get the excess moisture out of your house to keep the gnats away.

Buy a humidifier in case you don’t own one and switch it on when humidity is high especially on summer days. You can also put it on in the bathroom after taking a shower. While the dehumidifier is on, keep the windows of the bathroom open if there are any.

10. Seek Professional Help

It is the last but not the least effective way to get rid of gnats in your house. If the above-suggested remedies fail or if the gnat infestation looks quite serious then you should seek professional help to get rid of gnats.

Well, it would be considered a little expensive way since you are going to request professional help. You will get an appropriate and genuine treatment plan after investigating your house and deriving the nature of the infection.

This treatment may cost you anywhere between 400$ to 700$ depending on various criteria.

Conclusion

Now that you have a lot of options available to get rid of gnats in your house, you can certainly choose one of them. Hope that any of the first 9 methods works for you to avoid expensive professional advice. Note that we hardly see people go for professional help!