There are several houseplants that can actually help you eradicate annoying fungus gnats. Even better, they’ll also make great additions to your plant collection.
Adult fungus gnats are harmless unless you have a greenhouse-scale infestation, but they’re still super annoying. Fungus gnats lay their eggs in the minuscule top layer of potting mix and then hatch before you even know they’re there. The larvae are only a quarter of an inch long and impossible to see.
If you see fungus gnats flying around, don’t panic. Instead, head out to your favorite carnivorous plant retailer and pick up a few new plants for your collection. After all, these plants evolved over thousands of years to catch bugs just like fungus gnats. Place one or a few of them among your houseplant menagerie and let nature run its course.
What you’ll be looking to buy is a type of carnivorous plant that is flypaper or sticky paper plant. Plants that are classified as flypaper traps are covered in a combination of sticky nectar and mucilage that traps any bug that happens to come close enough to touch the leaf.
Carnivorous plants like Drosera, Pinguicula, and Drosophyllum are all flypaper traps that can quickly take care of fungus gnats. Here’s what you need to know.
Sundew (Drosera)
Sundews, also known as drosera, are super cute — and super dangerous to fungus gnats. Of the more than 150 species, Cape sundews tend to be the easiest to cultivate. You’re likely to get one of these if you’re buying a beginner pack of carnivorous plants. Sundews have been naturalized all over the world, but the most cloistered populations are in Australia. They’re native to boggy areas where tiny, flying insects are prevalent.
Butterwort (Pinguicula)
Butterworts, also known as “pings,” are just as cute as sundews. Pings are native to North America, Europe, Asia, Central America, and South America. There are currently 80 species, some of which are tropical and some of which are temperate — but all of them are flypaper traps and will take care of those fungus gnats for you.
Dewy pine (Drosophyllum lusitanicum)
The dewy pine is native to Portugal and southern Spain. While they tend to be more difficult to care for than the above pings or sundews, they do have quite the reputation for being one of the most successful insect killers in the carnivorous plant world. The leaves are so incredibly sticky that in the wild dewy pines are typically found completely covered in bugs.
Another thing that makes this plant unique is that it’s one of the only carnivorous plants that can grow in the desert environment.
Monkey cups (Nepenthes)
The monkey cup plant is found is tropical areas such as Borneo, Sumatra and Malaysia. The carnivorous plant is known as a monkey cup because monkeys have been seen drinking water from them in rainforests, as monkey cup vines produce a leaf called a pitcher, which, according to Hungry Plants, can sometimes be big enough to hold more than a litre of water. Their cups passively collect and digest prey.
Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)
The Venus flytrap is one of the most well-known carnivorous plants and it eats mostly insects and arachnids. A small plant with around four to seven leaves that grow from a short stem, it’s the pair of terminal lobes that are hinged at the midrib that form the trap. According to Listverse, the plant is so advanced it can tell the difference between live and non-living stimulus, and the lobes can snap shut in 0.1 seconds. While there is only one species of Venus Flytrap, there are many varieties.
Catapulting flypaper trap (Drosera glanduligera)
This carnivorous plant species possesses both flypaper (such as the Butterworts) and snap-trapping (like the Venus fly trap) abilities. Endemic to Australia, this carnivorous plant catches its prey with sticky outer tentacles. When the prey puts pressure on these tentacles, plant cells break underneath it and send the object catapulting towards the center of the plant, where it’s eaten.