Pot Popper - 8 Pouch

Since the reviews here are iffy and there are no easy better alternatives to these on Amazon, here is my review. Upon buying, you will get some pouches, which you need to put near at the top of the soil (in terrarium pots in my case) where there is space, next to your plant(s) that is suffering from gnats. I had 2 indoor open terrariums that had gnats, which kept multiplying, hence bought these to see if I could rid them. First, delivery was awesome, came on a Sunday morning without extra delivery fees. First 3-4 days: It will not be obvious to you at first if these pouches are making a difference. I couldn't see any of the nematodes and it was not obvious whether the little balls inside the pouches were the nematodes and, if so, how they are going to work. 1.5 weeks: I noticed that there were noticeably fewer (maybe 30% less?) gnats in my 2 terrariums. Since the gnats had previously multiplied at a rate that was noticeable every 3 or so days, I thought maybe the nematodes were working. The pouches didn't change in appearance. You are supposed to keep them damp, which I did. After a whole 2 weeks or so from applying these pouches: - In 1 terrarium (with 2 tiny plants inside), the gnats were gone! Amazing since that terrarium had been suffering from gnats for at least a month and my plants had visibly lost vigor due to those lousy insects. - in the other terrarium, there were no gnats flying about, though upon looking closely there was a few still inside on the soil. This was a big improvement since for that one, I had been killing around 7-20 gnats PER NIGHT before the pouches came. - I still had a good number of pouches left, which you are supposed to keep at a certain temperature range. Since I was worried that the pouches were too cold to keep in my frig but normal temperature in my house was too warm to keep these pouches "effective" long term, I decided to use up the remaining pouches on my (cilantro) plants outside on my deck that had gnats. - overall conclusion: these nematodes work. After they are done, you will know because the little balls look "dried up" (as opposed to moist balls). These nematodes do not move or look like animals at all, so you may wonder what the heck it was that you bought. However, it was clear they were effective because my gnats were gone and they did not just disappear by themselves. You just have to be patient; they will not work overnight but will need about 5-10 days. Be sure to keep the pouches moist. Last word: my terrarium that was especially previously gnat-infested became 95% gnat-free, but my plant never recovered, so after about another 3 weeks (in addition to 2 weeks w/ these pouches), I decided to give up on the wilted plant and put a new plant, with new soil, in the terrarium. So, lesson learned is to try to not have overly watered plants in the first place, otherwise curing becomes bothersome or not effective regardless.

I have a small jungle in my house. These work pretty darn well for fungus gnats. I ope nthe package and separate the balls. I put one ball every 2-3 cm of the surface of the soil. There are some other parasitic nematodes that work more quickly and efficiently, but for a more money. These are good as long as your plant isn't about to die from it's infestation and you aren't going to freak out about the fungus gnats flying around. If I want quick control, I would use this and another nematode product at the same time as applying this. The other works more quickly but these seem to last a little longer. These are MUCH better than using neem oil or some poison in your house. don't do that.

UPDATE: These nematodes worked at first but unfortunately after a couple of weeks the fungus gnats were back so clearly they did not have enough nematodes to eat all the fungus gnat larvae. I followed the instructions to the letter. I had two packs on one plant which has a pot that is about 8 inches in diameter and one pack each on my three other plants which have pots that are 5 inches in diameter. The plants are all in the same room and are the only plants in the house and they reside in a room in which the door is always shut. I did two applications, 5 days apart, making sure to give them a little water each day to keep them moist. In between the applications I had the nematodes stored in the refrigerator (as you're supposed to do). I've had to place an order for Scanmask Beneficial Nematodes, which I've used twice previously and in those cases the fungus gnat problem was eradicated quickly and permanently. These were cheaper and I have such a small amount of soil that needs to be treated so I figured I would try these. Too bad it ended up being a waste of money. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I bought a few indoor house plants recently and they were infested with fungus gnats. I put one pack of the beneficial nematodes on each plant and watered the packet and the fungus gnats were gone within two days. I tried to kill as many as I could see flying around after installing the packets. I picked the packets up off of the soil after 5 days and noticed the packets were empty so clearly the nematodes migrate from the packet into the soil after being watered. I had purchased beneficial nematodes twice previously from Amazon many years ago and they came in a Styrofoam cup mixed in with soil. The advantage of having them shipped in soil is you can spread them over many more plants. For my purposes, the nematodes in these little packets packaged inside of a plastic "egg" was convenient as I only had four plants that needed attention. If you have more plants you will probably want to find nematodes that are shipped in a container with soil so you can apply a small amount to each plant. The nematodes are very efficient and really wipe out the fungus gnat larvae quickly as long as they're alive when you get them.

These do work. After 2 applications for me...the fungus gnats were all gone. I think that I may have needed 2 applications because the first set I got were already expired...and I did not notice till after I put them on the plants. I tried both techniques of opening the bags and sprinkling them, or just placing a bag on the surface of the soil for bigger pots. Make sure to look for expiration date printed on the brown plastic ball, before you open it . It may be older than the sticker on the outside says. One plus side, is that if you do notice it is expired, and tell the seller, they will let you return it unused.

I love indoor plants but hate the gnats. I tried all these natural, stuff you have in your cupboard stuff. The first thing was H202 ( hydrogen peroxide). I mixed it with water, I poured it full strength into the soil, I set out bowls. Nope. Not effective. I used a spray bottle of straight rubbing alcohol. It didn't hurt the plants and there was a certain satisfaction in seeing the gnats try to swim out of the liquid. It only works on the surface though. I put a layer of sand 1" deep over all the soil in every pot. Nope. I tried "earth" (Diamateous powder). Nope. So one day I got to thinking. How do floral shops and garden centers keep fungus gnats away? I googled it and came up with nematodes. They eat the fungus gnat larvae. Hmm. So I bought this stuff. By this time I had tossed out a few plants that were looking sickly due to the gnats so the infestation wasn't as bad. But still there is nothing more annoying than a single gnat flying around your head and landing in your nose. I noticed that one plant had a couple of gnats flying on the surface so I put some nematode stuff into the top of the soil and watered the plant. For a week afterward if I saw a gnat I would hunt down the plant it was after and do the same process. I re-potted some plants and mixed just a little in the soil. It's been about two weeks and I seem to have won the battle. This nematode stuff is a miracle.

Thought I'd try this. Followed directions but still saw continued holes in my plants' leaves and they'd turn brown and fall down. Then noticed my rhizome going to mush. I admit though I did not think to try this until after I laid down my wood mulch. So, I applied them into the iris leaves and surrounding area with hope this would work. Hard to say as the nematodes were not moving at all and actually are so small they look like couscous. Were they alive? I have no idea, but they did disappear in a few days so either they were and got in to the soil or some bird or other creature had a good lunch on me.

This was amazing! I had developed a very intense fungus gnat problem in my indoor overwintering veggies, and was at a loss of what to do. The gnats were not only gross flying around my house, but they were starting to kill my plants. The size of this popper and the packaging of the nematodes was perfect for my needs- I didn't need an industrial-sized application, and I needed them to be easy to use and then stored for repeated application. This product fit the bill. The 'todes are incredibly easy to apply- just open the plastic baggie, take out a sachet containing the 'todes, and drop onto the soil watering daily to keep the sachet moist while the 'todes migrate out into the soil to eat the gnat larvae. For a couple pots, I actually ripped open the sachet and distributed the gel beads with the 'todes into a little trench around the base of the plant in the soil dug with the tip of pencil- I then covered the beads with the soil, and watered the trench daily. This worked as well as dropping in the sachets whole and was invisible (in case you have curious kids- or pets- attracted to handling the sachets). Within a few days I saw a dramatic decrease in the gnats, within two weeks they were completely gone. I probably should have treated again, per the packaging recommendation, but I didn't, and it worked out ok. NOTE- I did also employ the bright-yellow "sticky trap" papers near my plants to trap the adults, since the gnats don't do anything about them (only the larvae and eggs). The combination effectively eliminated my fungus gnat problem, and I saved my plants. Yay for winter veggies! I'm proactively ordering another popper for this year's veggies since those pots are about to move inside... no gnat invasion will be happening this year!

I used this product as directed and it did nothing. After 2 weeks I used my own knowledge to solve the problem. I took the packets provided, cut them open, distributed an even number of the tiny balls among 10 Styrofoam cups. Put in neutral water and left it at room temperature over night. That did the trick. I used the cups the next day to water the plants and the Nematodes went right to work. Other manufacturers do it this way they have you dissolve the product in water and water with them. There are just too many variables when you use a packet on top of your soil. I got immediate action when soaking the balls in PH 7.0 water over night. I chose 7.0 because that is the same PH of water on the ground outside from rain or whatever. So it made sense to me these micro-organisms would be just fine in what they would encounter outside in the real world. I hope this helps someone else because I thought I was going to need to order from another manufacturer because they were not working. This did not end my gnat problem. Makes no sense to me its the exact species it is supposed to attack. I'm sure one could water regularly with these but thats just far too expensive. So keep that in mind if you have reoccurring gnats this likely will not fix the problem. It will put a dent in it but it's temporary.

Best stuff I have ever used ! We have tried many different items for the darn soil flies and nothing works. I saw this and read the reviews and thought I’d try it. So glad I did !!!! It really does work and so easy to use ! I recommend you open 2 pouches per pot and spread all around the top of soil . I recommend this product 👍👍👍

The Pot Poppers were the only thing that got rid of the fungus gnats. I had spent over $30 on other products that didn’t work until my friend researched this and recommended it to me. Now we both swear by it and recommend it to everyone!

It's hard to really gauge the effectiveness of these things, but I can say they aren't easy to apply. I put them on top of the soil as instructed one evening and by next morning the crows had taken about 1/4 of them away or pecked them open and left them strewn about on the deck. I hid them under a bit of dirt after that, but being summer I had trouble keeping them moist for the week they need to disperse. I watered them every morning but by the 3rd or 4th day most were dried up. The bags don't seem to degrade. I am going to buy a 2nd one and try again, trying desperately to control the fungus gnats and weevils on my lettuce planters. The round container is cute but seems like you could just ship these in a smaller ziplock bag.

Have to wait next summer to see the effect.