On Houseplants and Holistics

Acalypha pendula

I do believe I have mentioned before in this blog that I have a love for many, many things. One of these loves includes houseplants. I had a wonderful terrarium filled with many goodies, a Dwarf Chenile plant (Acalypha pendula), a Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) that I moved inside for the winter and loves to bloom on snow days, a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) which keeps sprouting little baby plants no matter how many I pluck - and a plethora of plants which may or may not continue to grow. A few weeks ago I brought home a $2 fern from Produce Junction -- which has awesome produce in the Phila area, by the way. Anyway!

Passiflora caerulea

Within a few days I noticed little black bugs flying around my house. They weren't really pesty, they were just there... kind of like fruit flies. They got worse and worse and on my terrarium-watering-day, I noticed many of the plants had died back or were dead. I was devastated -- especially about my miniature ivy (Ficus pumila Quercifolia) which I had to wait about a year to get from my local exotic greenhouse. I had absolutely no idea what was going on with them and was just... baffled. Finally, I put two and two together and searched for the small flying bugs. I have decided that they are fungus gnats and the plants died because they ate away all of their roots and sucked at all of the leaves. I've since tried a multitude of pesticide and fungicide sprays with no permanent relief. I have been searching and searching and finally I stumbled on one site which says to use... wait for it...

CINNAMON.
Cinnamon and Chamomile have anti fungal properties, in and of themselves. It states you can soak the plants in Chamomile tea (cooled) and also sprinkle cinnamon onto the top of the dirt where the eggs are laid. This will get rid of the fungus on which the gnats feed. Rid yourself of the source and rid yourself of the problem.

I will be trying this method tonight. Wish me luck, as I have a lot of plants that are still alive and need to devote some serious time and effort to it.
Have any of you tried any natural remedies?? Please share.