They drive me crazy every summer here in Carthage, Moore Couny. Even in the morning they are so bad my skin crawls with them all over my hands and face and legs and ugh. I can stand the heat with no problem but the gnats make it intolerable. I work in Sanford and am out almost all day long there and we only have the occasional gnat. Adele

I'm convinced it is sandy soil. We lived in Apex went to school in Chapel Hill and I grew up in Asheboro, red clay all around and not a gnat to be seen. I coached football in Angier and we moved to Duncan, sand, sand and more sand and these things have been the bane of my existence. The only remedy I've found thus far is to liberally apply Skin So Soft. That is a pain to do for watering 30 minutes a day. I love our huge lot and being in the country but these gnats make me want to move back to red clay lands.

I thought so too until I started working in Sanford. The property in and around the business is all sand and they don't have a knat problem so it has to be something more than that. I just don't know but I wish I could get rid of them. Adele

I grew up in Stanly County and gnats were terrible there. My father always said they hatched in moist places like mosquitoes -- gutters, flower pots, edges of streams and ponds, etc. We had horses. The gnats and flies were all over the place. He spread lime in the stalls to keep down the flies and gnats.

Here in Chapel Hill, our house is in full sun so they aren't much of a problem. We have frogs in our stream and I think they help keep things in balance. I use bio-safe mosquito dunks in the stream, too.

The park where I walk the dog has acres and acres of grassy fields with a footpath circling around it and leading to trails down into the woods. The path used to be a fine gravel packed down pathway but now it has been paved over with asphalt. I noticed that by walking in the grass I got attacked by fewer gnats then when I walked on the gravel. It was something about the gravel that attracted the swarms (heat? extra light? place to lay eggs?). Now with the hard surface the gnats are barely noticeable and they were never a problem down in the woods.

There are thousands of different kinds of gnats and gnat like relatives. The only way to control them is to identify which ones you have and remove the component from your landscape that benefits them. This will be very hard to do. Almost of all them have a two stage life cycle where the larvae (maggots) live on the ground or under ground and the adults fly about. They are pretty specific about what plants they feed on or live near. The key would be to apply some sort of insecticide to that plant at the propper time to break their cycle.

You might be able to capture some and send them to a lab through the Dept of Ag and have them identified.

Here at home they aren't normally a problem, but i know at the pool the kids swim at few miles away they are terrible. Not sure what their soil's like but mine's clay.

As a youngster I lived in Florence, SC, where we had many gnats. My mother smeared petroleum jelly around our eyes so that we could play outside without the critters flying into our eyes. It worked. Don't know why. I don't have them here in the Piedmont where we DO have lots of mosquitos, but in the mountains we have gnats and no mosquitos. It is almost always moist up there. Don't really understand why the bug situation is different up there.

It depends on what type of gnats you have. Some can be attracted to areas by plants being over-watered or using too much organic material in container plants. Others are attracted to swampy areas and the edges of lakes.

With any type, you have to remove the source of attraction in order to control them. You can get insecticides to kill them but if you don't remove the source of attraction, more will just move in.

Now if you end up with an issue inside the house I know you can use water, a little vinegar, and a little dishsoap will knock them out quick.