How to get rid of bugs in soil of a ficus tree?

Question

I have an indoor ficus and it is not doing well at the moment. It dropped a lot of leaves. Today I cleaned out the leaves from the pot today and there are knats in the soil! A lot of knats and they are flying around now. How do I get rid of them?

Answer 1

Ficus trees loose their leaves when they are under stress, and these trees are always stressed.  Moving its location, too much heat, too much cold, etc all causes leaves to drop off the ficus.  But they normally grow back.

As for the fungus gnats in the soil, they are there because the soil is too moist and the gnats are attracted to the moisture in the soil.  If you can remove the plant from its pot and wash off its roots in the shower (or kitchen sink) to remove these little insects that may help, but you have to be careful not to damage/stress the tree some more.  While the roots are exposed examen them for root rot or other pests, insects that have borrowed into the soil and roots.  I lost a rubber tree once that had root-eating insects in the pot.

Wash the pot, scrub its sides (fertilizer tends to accumulate in the pot) and replant with fresh, dry soil.  Then keep an eye on the plant.