My girlfriend and I have two Lilly plants in our apartment. A couple weeks ago I left the door to our backyard open on a particularly humid night. The next morning there were roughly 30 gnats flying around the apartment. My girlfriend said she had been bitten a dozen times the night before. I killed all the gnats and haven't seen one since. Last week though, after watering the Lillys, I noticed thousands of white microscopic bugs crawling around on the soil. I only noticed them in one plant, so I moved that plant outside. I thought it was an isolated incident and that these bugs had only gotten to one plant but today I noticed some bugs crawling around the soil of the 2nd plant. These bugs were even smaller and were not white. There were not as many either, maybe 20 that I could see. I moved that plant outside. None of the bugs I saw in either plant looked like gnats and none seemed to have the ability to fly. Now my girlfriend is thinking the gnats (another botanical website thread described these bugs as Fungus Gnats) may have infested the couch cushions and couch (which was right next to the affected plants). Is this possible? Please help. Thank you.
Fungus gnats like very moist environments. I don't think it would be likely for them to set up house on a couch. (Probably true of most plant eating insects-no water or food there.) There are several suggestions on these forums for dealing with the pests, although we cannot be certain that is what they are. Often a layer of gravel/sand on top of the soil will take care of them. Make sure water does not stand in the trays below your plant pots. This is a long running thread on the buggers: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=717&highlight=fungus+gnats
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/nonflash_index.shtml?black_fungus_gnats Don't know if this might help?
