How to get rid of gnats: 12 methods to dispel ghastly gnats

As the weather remains warm, learn how to get rid of gnats to maintain a fly-free home year-round

As the weather continues to be warm, gnats continue to be a problem in the house. Drawn in by moisture, fruit bowls, garden flowers, or garbage cans, these biting pests are hanging around for longer.

Luckily, getting rid of gnats is a simple process, and with numerous ways to deal with gnats in the house, there is bound to be a method that works for you and your home. Just like getting rid of fruit flies, and getting rid of fungus gnats, many of the tricks are natural and use products already in your house - making getting rid of gnats easy in homes with young children, the elderly, and pets due to the lack of toxic chemicals.

Here, we look at 12 ways to get rid of all types of gnats from your home and prevent them from coming back so you can enjoy your home bite free.

From setting traps to good housekeeping and using cleaning tips, there are many ways to get rid of gnats. Here, we take you through the top 12 to try.

Making a gnat trap is easy, and the process can be used for a multitude of other flying pests too. Cut an old, two-litre soda bottle in half, filling the bottom half with a mixture of half a cup warm water, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, and six drops of liquid dish soap. Place the top half of the cut bottle upside down on top of the bottom half so that the spout is close to the liquid line but not touching it.

Gnats will be drawn to the sugary smelling liquid but will quickly become trapped within the inverted bottle, tiring themselves out and eventually falling into the liquid below.

Peppermint oil is a great pest control option, especially when made into a bug spray with water and a few drops of liquid dish soap. From getting rid of mice to getting rid of cockroaches, peppermint has the wonderful ability to deter pests from entering your home and bothering you in the first place.

To use peppermint oil to get rid of gnats, spray the essential oil around your garden, windows and doors to deter the pests from approaching your property. This method is best paired with other preventative measures or removal methods to make sure your gnat problem is taken care of in its entirety.

When using essential oils to deter pests, make sure you frequently reapply the spray to ensure longer-lasting effects - particularly in gardens after periods of rain.

One of the first steps in dispelling gnats from your home is to make their common hiding places hostile. As gnats commonly gather in areas of high moisture and humidity, the bathroom and kitchen can be a hotspot for these ghastly pests.

If you notice gnats hovering around your kitchen sink or bathroom fixtures, consider thoroughly cleaning your drains to kill gnats that may be hiding within along with their egg deposits. To do this, clean your sinks with your usual cleaning solution, using a pipe brush in and around the drain. One simple way to remove gnats from your drain is to pour boiling water down the pipes once or twice a week until you no longer see gnats hovering around your pipes.

Alternatively, combine half a cup of baking soda with one cup of white vinegar to create a foaming cleaning solution. Pour the solution down the drain quickly and leave overnight before flushing with boiling water then next morning.

If you have noticed a sudden influx of gnats and they've never been a problem before, or if they're a regular problem that good housekeeping doesn't seem to sort, the most effortless way to get rid of them – or kill them – is to invest in a few sticky traps designed for the job.

You simply place these where gnats have been seen; the gnats are attracted to the traps and stick to them, where they will die. Garsum Yellow Sticky Traps are the most highly rated on Amazon.

Cleaning with vinegar is a well-known home remedy, but did you know it can be used to get rid of gnats too? Simply combine half a cup of apple cider vinegar with a cup of warm water and a few drops of dish soap into a pretty bowl or cup. Put the bowl/cup where the gnats tend to congregate. They will be attracted by the sweet smell and the chance of a drink. As they reach in to sip the solution, the dish soap traps them and they drown.

We've talked in our gardening pages of 'trap plants' and how they are used to attract pests (or predators of pests) so that your main crops can survive until harvest. Putting out overripe fruit performs exactly the same function.

Simply put some cut up, overripe fruit in a bowl or cup, cover it with saran wrap and poke tiny holes through the wrap. Once inside the bowl or cup, they will find it difficult to get up and out. When there's a critical mass of them inside, you can dispose of the whole lot into the garbage.

Just as gnats are attracted to the smell of apple cider vinegar and rotting fruit, they love the smell of red wine. Mix half a cup of red wine with a few drops of dish soap in a cup or bowl, or leave the dregs of an old bottle of red wine, add some dish soap, and put where the gnats are a problem. The gnats will find their way in easily enough, but are unlikely to emerge.

Ironically, both opening and closing windows will solve your gnat problem. If the gnats are finding their way indoors from your yard (perhaps they've found a drain they particularly love and it's near an open window), shutting or fitting a fly screen will help.

If, however, gnats have gathered in a room and it's windy outdoors, opening up windows to create a breeze indoors will discourage them from hanging about. They are not great flyers and tend to dislike rooms with good air movement.

Keeping drains clean, whether in your kitchen sink, bathtub, shower, or backyard, will help discourage and get rid of gnats.

Simply pour half a cup of bleach down a drain slowly, allowing the bleach to drip down the sides of the pipes where you have seen gnats and you will wipe out any larvae or adults hiding there.

The best way to get rid of gnats is to prevent them from coming into your house in the first place. As we said above, having doors and windows open will encourage them in, but so will a number of untended household chores. So if you have a gnat problem, look to:

Indoors or out, a garbage can with a good seal on the lid will get rid of gnats and discourage all sorts of other pests, too. This doesn't just go for garbage cans that have discarded food in them, but any trash that's moist, which you will find for sure in your bathroom.

You may have noticed that there are a lot of gnats around your indoor plants. This is often because plant soil is moist, which can be a breeding ground for gnats. If you want to get rid of gnats in plants, these are probably fungus gnats, and you'll want to allow your plants' soil to dry out between watering to create a less hospitable home for them.

'Fungus gnats or sciarid flies love damp soil so the more you water your plants the more they will be attracted,' says John Stewart, from the technical team at eco-friendly pest control brand Green Protect. 'They normally feed on decaying organic material but when found in our homes, they are a real nuisance. To prevent and control this species of fly, do not overwater your plants. You can easily monitor for the presence of these pests with yellow sticky traps. There are simple water level indicators or monitors that can be bought from garden centers to ensure that plants are not over or underwatered.

'However, if the flies are established, the larvae can be killed with biological control using nematode worms. The worms will seek and destroy the maggots, and they are safe to use around humans and pets.'

Using cinnamon in soil is also said to get rid of gnats in the house.

Gnats love a warm, humid atmosphere, so if your home is particularly damp or humid, they will be more attracted to it, or to particular rooms in it. The best way to keep rooms cool and dry is to crack open windows (combined with fly screens if there's a gnat problem outdoors), to check for and fix leaks or damp, and to consider investing in a dehumidifier in a room that's regularly humid, such as a laundry room.

Gnats are attracted by:

Warm, humid atmospheres, which you can fix by checking for leaks and damp, airing spaces and investing in a dehumidifier.

Poor housekeeping: wiping up spills, draining standing water, keeping drains clean, sealing garbage cans and putting away uneaten food, fruit and veg will help deter them.

Overwatered plants: you'll notice them when you water plants, as they will suddenly appear from the soil in a plume. Allowing soil to dry out completely between watering will make soil less attractive to them.

Most gnats are not harmful to humans, though some can give you bites a little like mosquito bites. Fungus gnats are those that love your houseplants; in large numbers they can damage plants' roots and growth. Fruit flies are attracted to rotten fruit but love any sweet liquids, such as vinegar and red win. Drain flies can be found buzzing around your home's drains, while midges are more likely to gather around standing water, such as your backyard's water features.

If you have any apple cider vinegar or red wine in the kitchen, mixing half a cup of either with a few drops of dish soap and putting it where gnats are a nuisance will quickly attract them. They will be lured by the sweet smell into the solution and trapped by the sticky dish soap.

Homemade bug sprays can be just as effective as shop-bought, chemical sprays. Mixing half a cup of isopropyl alcohol with a teaspoon of dish soap in a spray bottle, and spritzing it directly on to the gnats will quickly kill the gnats.

Gnats lay their eggs in the places they love to feed and hide, namely, dirty garbage disposals and drains, compost bins, garbage cans and anywhere moist and humid. They will also lay eggs into rotting fruit and vegetables, including those in your fruit bowl or pantry.

No, gnats will not go away on their own if they are happy in their new-found home. The best way to encourage them to 'go away' is to create traps for them to lure them away from where they are in your home now, and to thoroughly clean the areas they are attracted to, such as drains, garbage cans, rotted fruit, wet plant soil, and so on.

Gnats may lay eggs in clothes if they are left damp and undisturbed for a period of time, so making sure your laundry room is equipped to properly dry your clothing is essential. If gnats have laid eggs on damp clothes, there is a chance that larvae (maggots) will hatch within a few days or weeks.

If you find gnat eggs or larvae on clothing, do not throw the item away. Instead, lay the clothing out as best you can outside and sprinkle it with salt to kill the maggots. Throw the clothing into a large bin bag and put it in the washing machine at a high temperature to kill any remaining bugs or bacteria before drying thoroughly. Make sure to dispose of the plastic bag carefully incase any remaining maggots are left inside.

Lucy Searle has written about interiors, property and gardens since 1990, working her way around the interiors departments of women's magazines before switching to interiors-only titles in the mid-nineties. She was Associate Editor on Ideal Home, and Launch Editor of 4Homes magazine, before moving into digital in 2007, launching Channel 4's flagship website, Channel4.com/4homes. In 2018, Lucy took on the role of Global Editor in Chief for Realhomes.com, taking the site from a small magazine add-on to a global success. She was asked to repeat that success at Homes & Gardens, where she has also taken on the editorship of the magazine.

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