25ea. 3" X 5" Yellow Sticky Traps for White Flies, Aphids, Fungus Gnats & Leaf Miners

Years ago I bought a box of sticky traps that included green stakes that each held two strips that were about 1" X 3" and that folded back on themselves without a crease. They worked great, but needed replacing when they became full of dead flies and unsightly. When I could no longer find the product in stores, I tracked down the U.S. supplier online who sent me a new box. In subsequent years however, that supplier quit the business and I tracked down another who sent me her last box, then she quit the business. Trying to find another resource for the Swedish made product, Silvatrap, became fruitless at the time, though I think they or a brand virtually identical are now available online; companies buy and sell manufacturing rights, and patents expire. But regardless, they aren't particularly cheap for what they are .Every fall when my wife brings her perennials inside from the patios, the fungus gnats start hatching and flying throughout the house, becoming especially annoying buzzing around the light of the computer screens. The Silva Traps finally put an end to that without having to resort to insecticide sprays on the plants inside the house. But stymied by having run out of them, I researched alternatives. The sticky traps reviewed herein seemed to be an affordable one, among those now available online, so I thought I'd try them this time, though they weren't configured the same as what I had purchased previously. I discovered that a hunch I had was correct.Unlike the Silva Traps, these larger sheets were coated on both sides and wouldn't require folding. By cutting a sheet into 4 one and a half by two and a half inch pieces, I had effectively the same thing as the old Silva Traps, and they had glue-free edges that easily slid into the old Silva stakes. There was a little messiness involved in cutting the sheets, but it was extremely minimal and the scissors were easily cleaned of any little residue. The backing sheets made cutting, handling, and putting the pieces in stakes reasonably clean and easy.This season so far there hasn't been a massive outbreak of gnats like usual. We sprayed the pots' soil in August, weeks before bringing them in. So the new traps haven't had much of a test yet. But there is no reason to believe they would be any less effective than the spendier Silva or Safer brand sticky trap models; ours do have a couple of gnats caught so far and none have been flying around the house yet. When deeper winter comes, the furnace is on more, and eggs start hatching from the potting soil, I'm sure the traps will get a workout. The young flies are attracted to the yellow, especially if oriented so window light brightens it. I fully expect good results, and now have a long-lasting supply - a 25-pack yields 100 traps in my configuration.One issue I have will be that the original Silva green plastic stakes are dwindling with the occasional breakage or loss. They are plastic with two trap holder stubs per stake, and once in a while a thin holder stub will get snapped off during repotting or something. The package reviewed here doesn't include stakes. But I intend to make my own stakes out of 4 inch lengths of stainless wire, double-curled with pliers at one end to hold the trap sheets. Having two holders per stake like the Silva is unnecessary anyway. And wire holders may get lost or bend, but they won't break.In my estimation, this 25-pack of double-sided cards is the best and most affordable way to control pesky black fungus gnats year-round, but especially if you bring plants inside for the winter. Gnats hatching indoors from those will lay eggs in your other indoor pots, and an explosion of bugs all winter can be the result. Been there, done that. The yellow sticky traps have proven to be a pesticide-free, highly effective control measure. If you do have an existing large infestation, it can take some time to get ahead of the problem with this method and no pesticide application to the plants and soil. The only other minor issue is that plant leaves stick to the paper, so you have to be judicious in placing the traps in the pot, avoiding leaves and anywhere young growth can spread to.Eventually the gnat population will die off, get trapped, and the new hatches in the pots will get trapped before they can reproduce and lay more eggs. Place one or two trap stakes in each pot in the house, be patient, and in a few weeks the problem will dissipate. Replace the traps annually thereafter, and put them in any new pots you get or make (eggs can be in bags of fresh potting soil), and leave them in pots going outside in the spring where the traps can minimize insects getting established out there. They will work; the evidence is in the bodies accumulating on the paper. Just be patient.

Since I've purchased these a second time, I guess I'll give them 4 stars. They do the job fairly well, getting gnats to stick to them (and some other little bugs which aren't gnats, but I don't want them either). They, along with another product which works as a soil flood to clear the nymphs from the roots and soil, but I can't purchase through Amazon are working to begin to bring into control the horrible gnat problem I have when I bring in my plants from their summer vacation outside.They aren't attractive for people to see with all the little gnats stuck on them, but I'm glad at least THOSE gnats aren't bothering us.They are very sticky, and you don't want to stick them to other things (fingers, counters, etc) but they have a place on one end which doesn't have the sticky so one may handle them there. They may either be staked in a plant or, if a hole is punched in them they may be hung with twist ties or pipe cleaners. They must be near the plants and other places where gnats like to fly (I also have one near my monitor because they seem to be attracted to it). So place them near the soil and up a bit from the leaves (but not so close as to have the leaves stick to them; that leaf will be a goner. I've seen these sticky papers in the shape of a butterfly (again, not on Amazon), so I purchased some butterfly and flower shapes at the dollar store, and carefully cut the papers to go onto them. Of course you're losing one of the sticky sides, so that's a bit wasted, but they look nicer, until the gnats stick to them (which, after all is their purpose).They will last as long as you can stand to see the gnats on them. If stored, they stay sticky at least until the second year.Next year I think I'm going to put them near my plants before I bring them inside for a few weeks to try to stop their cycle before they come inside.

I went nuclear on fungus gnats this winter/spring.The Safer brand Sticky Stake traps worked the best. However they are expensive, only come with one little sticy strip per stake, and they don't seem to provide replacement strips.The generic 3"x5" cards offered much more sticky surface area per dollar. However they were not nearly as effective as the smaller Safer brand sticky strips - especially when left flat. I finally took a cue from the Safer sticky stakes and started looping the 3x5 cards over, so both ends of the same card were in the same stake holder. This seemed to really make them more attractive to the gnats and increased the catch rate, but still a bit less than the smaller safer strips.gnatrol finally worked after I doubled the concentration to the maximum recommended 8tsp/gallon and doubled my watering frequency to twice a week (it is only effective for ~3 days). However I blame it for stunting my plants, particularly my new veggie seedlings.My gnats seemed to prefer coco-coir over peat-based mediums. So you could try setting up decoy trap pots with coco-coir laced with gnatrol and surrounded by sticky traps. That's how I got rid of the last bastion which had moved into my basement.

I brought some geraniums and an ivy into my house this fall and placed them in my living room window. It wasn't long and we were breathing in fungus flies while we read or watched TV. So annoying. Read about these lovely traps on a garden blog and sent to Amazon to get them. I put a card in every plant to see what would happen. The card in the ivy plant was black with flies after a week. I have resorted to putting two cards in that ivy and I need to change them every three days or so. Now we have an occasional gnat bother us but nothing like inhaling a lot of them with every breath. What bliss! I will never be without these in the future.