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fungus gnats, poss drain flies

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From: Mimi Camp City: Milwaukee, WI
I had what seem to be fungus gnats that came in with my pond plants. I threw all plants out and thoroughly cleaned up any traces of soil. I still have a few flies (gnats), oddly, in the basement--plants were upstairs and no more gnats up there. Drains are clean and I never had them before in 15 years. We covered floor drain to be sure. We had a sump pump installed recently, but it’s completely sealed. Could eggs have been laid while the work was being done? There is NO moisture, food, soil in the basement. At my wit’s end!
	Extension Message From: Richard Hentschel Extension Educator, Horticulture DuPage/Kane/Kendall Unit hentsche@illinois.edu
Fungus gnats moist soil as a food source. Fungus gnats do fly and could have migrated downstairs to the floor drain. Unless the floor drain has constant use, the kind of debris that ends up in there is enough to support a population. You would need to pour enough water into the floor drain to flush out any existing water after taking a long handled scrub brush and cleaning the drain, especially at the standing water level. Flushing should be done periodically and right now more often until the gnat population drops to zero.
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