Fox farms ocean forest soil has bugs in it

Does anyone using ffof soil have a bug problem before opening bag? If so did you still use it? Would mixing de food grade in with the soil get rid of them?

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It’s a recurent problem from what I notice in FFOF… DE food grade will work best if you put it on top soil… That’s the recommand way to do it

Hoping that’s helping you @Macadon

~Al :v: :innocent:

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They are soil gnats and I had them in my grow.

I want to say the best way we figured to get rid of them was to take the fresh soil and put it in a pan and heat the soil to like 160 for 20 minutes on a BBQ grill or something similar and kill off the bugs that way.

Kill them before you use the soil. I had used Food Grade DE, neem oil and the potato skins deal but they really are still with me.

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OK thanks @Niala and @bob31 I really like the soil but I hate these bugs. I have a whole bag of ffof so I might still use it. Thanks again for your help​:grin::grin:

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Slow cook it on low heat. I’m gonna do it to mine before the next grow. I hate those little buggers.

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OK @bob31 I’ll do that before I use it. They are hard to get rid of but the mix of hydrogen peroxide and water plus de food grade powder and sticky pads have them under control now but I think they did damage to my roots on some plants.

Gnatnix works great too. A nice 2" layer on top of soil mixed with a lil DE for extra preventive will kill them off.

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OK thanks @Dr.DankThumb420​:grin::grin:

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Yep every time mix 2 cups DE in and sprinkle the top and it helped me

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Really…? The best way is not to use it at all. The way that I see it is that your just asking for it so why even go there…just my humble opinion

will

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If you do end up baking it make sure you got all day to air out the house because it stinks a bunch . My original ffof I had a spider mite problem at the start of my grow so I worked in DE to the surface soil sprinkled some on top and started a neem oil treatment. Now I haven’t had another issue with nats , mites or anything else. When I said I mix in 2 cups and dose the top it is strictly prevention. I would try to return it for a exchange or call fox farms and complain . You never know they might send you a couple of extra bags . Good luck

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I was going to try that on my last grow. I think that is the one thing I didn’t try.

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@garrigan62 I just got my 2 new bags of ffof and have not even opened them yet so I have no idea if it has critters but I will still be mixing DE prior to planting and sprinkle the top . My question is if this is a waste of time and 2nd what type of sand is it that people layer over the soil for a insect barrier that doesn’t effect the grow ? Thanks in advance

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I’ve noticed some soil nates but that’s it as far as bugs :ant: in my ffof but I’ve noticed them in all the organic soils I’ve tried weather it be for my veg garden or my MJ garden
I use the potato trick to get rid of larve perilite on top of soil
Other than the flies though i haven’t seen any other types of bugs
My 2 cents

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Yeah my first time around I had spider mites by the time they were getting out of the seedling phase of the grow and couldn’t figure out where else they could have come from . So now since this is in my home and I really dont want bugs I am just trying to do things for prevention. And perlite you say ? I thought that changed your soil to much with trace elements. I thought I had seen a post talking about a type of sand that adds nothing just forms a barrier that bugs dont even like to get on .

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@Oldstoner do you have to reapply the sand after every watering?

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I dont think they did just put like a half inch layer on top and water sinks rite through it like a screen . It looked like sandbox sand for a kid a kind of course sand

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So you mix the de with the ffof soil and sprinkle on top. You do add more de after watering though right on the top of soil the way you do it now?

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Do a search for Wtf are these little flies or mozzies and scroll down to @garrigan62 answer and bookmark it this is a quick overview of pests and prevention that has great info

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Hummm sand you say interesting will need to look into that

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