Drain flies and fungus gnats???

[GaryE]

I just read an FB post from a guy who accidentally developed a culture of fungus gnats (sometimes called drain flies). They turned out to be an excellent live food option that got some of his fish to colour up. He mentioned them as an aside, and when questioned, wasn't quite sure how he'd started them.
I have one whiteworm culture infested with these pests, and was about to sterilize it when I read his comment. Normally, I keep affected cultures beside my carnivorous plants, but if larvae (not the flying adults) are a good fish food - that's interesting (and gross, but after years with live food for fish, I don't gross out easily).

Has anyone here ever cultured this pest, and taken if from being a problem to being a positive? Any suggestions?

 

[Colin_T]

I have had the fuplie things right through my unit for years and whilst they aren't gone completely they are nowhere near as bad as they were last year or the year before when I was on the edge of killing myself because I couldn't deal with them. I used parasitic nematodes to kill them but need to do another batch now before winter.

They would make a good live food if they were easy to harvest, but short of letting them breed out of control and catching them in the air with a fine mesh net, I don't see how they could be harvested easily. If you have thousands in the air you could catch them with a fine mesh net but probably go nuts in the process because they land on and in everything, including eyes, ears, nose, mouth and any food or drink you have out in the open. The larvae are in the soil and would be harder to harvest than the adults.

 

[GaryE]

I'm in a different climate, and probably see different species of gnats than the ones you describe as so hellish. The individual who posted seemed to have his on scrubber pads, and was harvesting wriggling white larvae and not flying adults. However, he was in Europe, so diversity being what it is, might also have had a different species going.

 

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