Miracle Grow Organic Choice Potting Soil with BUGS?

If you look on Amazon for the soil that is most often recomended (Miracle grow organic) there are a ton of bad reviews saying that the dirt is infested with gnat eggs that hatch after adding water. Obviously the bugs would probably not survive in an aquarium (im pretty sure) but I was wondering if this could pose an issue in an aquarium.

What about baking the soil prior to using it to kill the eggs?

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Permalink Reply by 1gh7ijdl92ra7 on September 1, 2011 at 6:07pm

Baking it will kill eggs. Most organic soils contain bugs. Underwater the gnats will die. On top of that, you havent seen bugs in dirt untill you've seen my big compost, so I consider miracle grows bug issues minimal.

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on September 1, 2011 at 8:32pm

not sure why some1 would buy the dirt on amazon in the first place..

the bag can be purchase anywhere in a local store.

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Permalink Reply by Pedro Pedro on September 1, 2011 at 8:59pm

well yea i wasn't thinking of buying it on amazon i was just looking and it had 2 stars so i looked to see why in the reviews. Im hoping my local Home Depot has it though.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Amoroso on September 3, 2011 at 11:39pm

I used the miracle grow organic in my tank and it's been set up for a little over a month. After the first week or so i did notice a few black and silveryish larvea swimming around the top of the tank near the duckweed. I never did look them up to see what they actually were but around the same time my G/F said that a dragonfly was flying around the apartment. She opened the window and the thing flew out no harm there. So, i can only assume maybe they were dragonfly larvea but that's speculation.

I bought my java moss from my one of the IFS near my house. Along with the moss came 3 different species of snail and the tank they keep the plants in has a ton of surface area. this tank has got to be 8' x 4' x 16" and they keep the doors open on nice days so it's not unreasonable to assume that a dragonfly flew into the store laid eggs in the tank with the plants, hatched, and then got scooped up with my java moss.

For your specific question, which has already been answered i just felt like typing, I've never heard of gnats coming out of an aquarium before. We have them because we eat a lot of fruit in my house but not because of my tanks. Even if you do see larvea in your tank do what i did and grab your finest mesh net and scoop'em out. They're quick lil'bastards but you'll get'em. If you got tetras or any other carnivourous fish in your tank you won't have to worry about the larvea reaching adulthood your fish will eat them. Although i saw this thing on nova about dragonfly larvea and they were totally catching and eating fry and smaller fish. Hope that helps sorry to be long winded.