Fly Problem

Let me start this off by stating that I am a very clean person. I am very OCD with making sure everything is sanitary, swept, and cleaned in my rat breeding area.

My current setup is 2 racks with a total of 14 tubs. I plan I building 2 more racks this weekend, so the problem may get worse. The rack is kept in my garage where the temperature is always at 75, and there is constant air circulation.

Over the past week I have seen a major fly problem come out of no where. Im not sure if they started in the house or in the garage, but it all started by a couple flying in one day when i left my door open for a little bit. But ever since then the problem has worsened.

One morning the other day I woke up to maggots all in my kitchen on the floor and the walls, so these flies are laying eggs somewhere too.

One other thing is that despite changing out bedding of ever rat tub at least once, sometimes twice a week, there is still a constant strong chemical odor, im getting omonia. It is almost unbearable to be in there with them, and after bedding changes, it comes right back within hours.


Does anyone have any advice on how to eliminate the fly problem, and how to deal with the smell?

Thanks,
Tyler

Anyone?

Figure out your smell problem and the flies will probably go away on their own. Bad odor can usually be attributed to overcrowding, poor substrate choice, not enough substrate, poor ventilation. I use the huge concrete mixing tubs for mine and only have 3-4 females per tub. I fill them about halfway with bedding and usually don't smell anything other than pine until day 5-6, then I change out everyone on day 7 before it gets smelly.

I also am using the cement mixing tubs. I keep 4 females per tub, and put 1 male with them for 2 weeks, then rotate. I use pine bedding and I do a full change every sunday. The AC keeps the room at 74, and I have a ceiling fan going full blast all the time.

Do you think thats enough ventilation?

Changing bedding every 10 days here. I'm on AC at 76F with a lot of airflow. I always notice things get a little more odor when introducing a new male to a group of females. 4-5 females and 1 male per cement tub.

Have you ever tried aspen pellets? Absorbs much better than just plain aspen. I find pine to be irritating to my colony (and myself).

Video taken today (Wednesday) and the bedding was changed Sunday. Will be changed again next Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9cagBq7Jdk

Try pine pellets, ideally an exhaust fan would be great as well when it comes to controlling rat smell.

As for controlling the flies in the rat room http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/stor...eg%3B-fly-trap

Thank you both for your replies and recommendations.

Before I saw any of this, last night I cleaned every single rat tub and put fresh bedding. I haven't been filling it 1/2 way, more like 1/4 - 1/3 of the way, but this time I filled the pine 1/2 way.

I didn't realize that I had 6 males in a tub and 5 in another, so I switched them up to 4, 4 and 3.

After cleaning all those tubs, I made a strong mix of pyrethrin + water and sprayed it all over the floor, and corners of the room. I also put a no pest strip in there with them. They are all in a 15x15 foot cement garage type room attached to my house.

I'll take some pics tonight of my setup, so y'all can see.



Do you think I need more ventilation then the ceiling fan? What type of fans do you have in your rat rooms?

Do you guys do a bedding change after each rat births a litter, or do you still wait the 7 - 10 days for a normal change out? I can imagine all the blood can add to my smell issue.

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Do you think I need more ventilation then the ceiling fan? What type of fans do you have in your rat rooms?

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I have an exhaust fan so fresh air circulate in and out of the room at all time.

The room itself smell like rats with my numbers no other way around that, however you can go in the basement and could never tell that there is a rat room in the house even if I produce a few hundreds of feeders a month.

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Do you guys do a bedding change after each rat births a litter, or do you still wait the 7 - 10 days for a normal change out? I can imagine all the blood can add to my smell issue.

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I clean my feeders once a week, with as many feeders as I have litters are born everyday and I just don't want to be in the rat room everyday for cleaning so one day a week is the designated day.

I use the small cement tubs with 4 females per tub. I rotate my males, so only a couple of tubs have males at any given time. I use the pine pellets as my main substrate, with pine shavings as a nesting supplement for the tubs with newborn to 2 week old babies. I change out bedding about every 7 days. I also keep them in my attached garage, but it is not climate controlled and I do not have any type of fan running.

At day 5 or 6 I can usually start to tell that it is time to change the tubs, but it isn't anywhere close to unbearable at that point. If I have to put it off, day 10 is about when it is really bad.

I have never had an issue with any type of pests, flies included.

I would recommend trying the pine pellets, I really like using them. If you do give them a shot, you don't need to use much, just enough to cover the floor of the tub with a single layer of pellets.


John

Small mortar tubs, 6 per rack ×4 racks of rats and 1 of asf. 2 females per tub, 3 males on a weekly rotation between all the tubs. Currently all on hardwood shavings but going back to pine since my source of free bedding is drying up. No smell at all until I hit about 10 days, full change out at 14 days. Maybe consider having fewer females per tub. Also what are you feeding? What goes in effects what comes out, might be something in their diet.

Also, for the smell of the feces and urine you may want to consider "NATURES MIRACLE". It is a product sold at petsmart and petco. You can also find it online cheaper but it works on a enzyme level to biodegrade urine and feces odors in dogs and cats. I would think it can be very effective with rats that are much smaller animals. And the benefit of knowing it's just not a perfume to mask the odors. Probably use it to initially wipe out the cement mixer prior to the pine pellets and the bedding being laid. It might help. :)

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Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Also, for the smell of the feces and urine you may want to consider "NATURES MIRACLE". It is a product sold at petsmart and petco. You can also find it online cheaper but it works on a enzyme level to biodegrade urine and feces odors in dogs and cats. I would think it can be very effective with rats that are much smaller animals. And the benefit of knowing it's just not a perfume to mask the odors. Probably use it to initially wipe out the cement mixer prior to the pine pellets and the bedding being laid. It might help. :)

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Have you used this product with your feeders before? I have looked at it and wondered about it, but I have never used it because I was not sure how my snakes might be affected if the rats were to ingest it or if they had it in their fur, prior to the snake eating them.

John

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

Also what are you feeding? What goes in effects what comes out, might be something in their diet.

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Feeding the purple bag of mazzuri rodent block

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Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Also, for the smell of the feces and urine you may want to consider "NATURES MIRACLE". .

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My complaint wasn't the actual smell of the feces, it was the strong chemical type smell. I guess I was smelling amonia? It was a very very strong almost sour alcoholic type smell. Very nauseating.

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Originally Posted by John Marker

Have you used this product with your feeders before? I have looked at it and wondered about it, but I have never used it because I was not sure how my snakes might be affected if the rats were to ingest it or if they had it in their fur, prior to the snake eating them.
John

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I would use the product recommended, but I'm wondering the same as John. Do you have experience with the product Albert?

Something else that just occurred to me, humidity can make a rather large difference in smell. My house gets extremely dry in winter, and I can go as long as a month in tubs that aren't currently breeding, whereas in the summer when I have moisture issues the smell can be getting bad before 2 weeks has even passed.

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

Something else that just occurred to me, humidity can make a rather large difference in smell. My house gets extremely dry in winter, and I can go as long as a month in tubs that aren't currently breeding, whereas in the summer when I have moisture issues the smell can be getting bad before 2 weeks has even passed.

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Hey Darkbird, thanks for the input. Come to think of it, that garage room is probably around 70-80% due to the recent rain.

I'm probably just going to add an exterior vent fan.

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