getting rid of gnats/other pests in enclosure?

Does anyone know of effective ways to get rid of gnats in the enclosure?

I realized all of my pvc enclosures now have gnats, and they go into my room since my snake room and my room are connected... so gross and annoying :S It seems my enclosures are a breeding ground for gnats. I clean, and they keep popping up.

I also saw some kind of very tiny black bug crawling in Pixie's enclosure. No idea what it is, but it's not a mite. Hope I can get rid of those too.

What substrate are you using? You probably have fungus gnats, attracted most often to well-watered houseplants, but damp moss
& other damp organic matter suits them just fine.

I found this suggestion for houseplants- you might need to take snakes out & sacrifice the substrate currently in use this way>>>

How do you get rid of fungus gnats naturally?

Mix one part 3% hydrogen peroxide with four parts water. Allow the top layer of your soil to dry, and then water your plants with this solution as you normally would. The soil will fizz for a few minutes after application; this is normal. The fungus gnat larvae will die on contact with the hydrogen peroxide.

I think the only way to get rid of them is to completely clean out the cages and make sure you get them all out before putting things back together.

It might be worth looking into bug foggers (spray cans that kill everything in a room). You may be able to find one that doesn't leave any residue so you could remove your animals, use the fogger, then put the animals back. I don't know that there's a safe fogger but it's worth checking....

if you can't do that.... release some spiders in the room? :P

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Originally Posted by SquirmyPug

....if you can't do that.... release some spiders in the room? :P

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Oh that sounds like the MOST fun! :D

I've done the hydrogen peroxide bit to my houseplants and it works great for that. I also bought some carnivorous sundew plants to help catch any stragglers lol. I've heard that using mosquito dunks also gets rid of fungus gnats. Nuking the substrate's another option, but they only seem to die back briefly when I've tried that.

I think the life cycle of a gnat's somewhere around 21 days, so even if you think there are no more, the evil devils can pop up a few weeks later and lay millions of eggs before death. 0/10, will fly up ur nose again.

thanks for the tips guys!

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

What substrate are you using? You probably have fungus gnats, attracted most often to well-watered houseplants, but damp moss
& other damp organic matter suits them just fine.

I found this suggestion for houseplants- you might need to take snakes out & sacrifice the substrate currently in use this way>>>

How do you get rid of fungus gnats naturally?

Mix one part 3% hydrogen peroxide with four parts water. Allow the top layer of your soil to dry, and then water your plants with this solution as you normally would. The soil will fizz for a few minutes after application; this is normal. The fungus gnat larvae will die on contact with the hydrogen peroxide.

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How interesting! If this is safe for snakes, I'll definitely need to try this.

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Originally Posted by Starscream

I've done the hydrogen peroxide bit to my houseplants and it works great for that. I also bought some carnivorous sundew plants to help catch any stragglers lol. I've heard that using mosquito dunks also gets rid of fungus gnats. Nuking the substrate's another option, but they only seem to die back briefly when I've tried that.

I think the life cycle of a gnat's somewhere around 21 days, so even if you think there are no more, the evil devils can pop up a few weeks later and lay millions of eggs before death. 0/10, will fly up ur nose again.

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LOL yeah, it seems like no matter how much I clean the substrate, they always come back eventually. Have you used the hydrogen peroxide mix for your snake? It sounds like it acts as a pesticide so I'm not sure if it's totally safe for snakes, it would make me wary... And I'll have to try mosquito dunks if it's safe for snakes too!

You wouldn't want to use hydrogen peroxide any place it can contact the snake...it's pretty harsh on tissues. (it used to be used to disinfect wounds but while it's
good for debridement, it's actually detrimental to healing tissues) Sorry, I should have been more clear...

You didn't say what your substrate is: IF it's either sphagnum moss* or orchid bark*, I was thinking that maybe you could take it out & treat it to kill the gnats, then
thoroughly rinse it out & re-use. (*those tend to be pricey substrates) Otherwise, you just need to clean all your cages at the same time so the gnats don't simply
move from one cage to another. They're annoying but harmless as far as I can tell.

There's other kinds of gnats that are attracted to fruit (& you can bait & kill those w/ apple cider vinegar) but I can't imagine why those would be in your snake cages?
So I'm assuming that what you have are fungus gnats.

Apple cider vinegar in mason jar or something the. A rolled paper tube and some seran wrap around it. They will go down and drown it

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

Apple cider vinegar in mason jar or something the. A rolled paper tube and some seran wrap around it. They will go down and drown it

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Yes, the gnats that are attracted to fruit will go for vinegar...but probably NOT the ones attracted to decaying organic matter (hence they are called fungus gnats). I'm
assuming she has the latter kind in a snake enclosure, since most of us don't leave a bowl of fruit in our snake cages?

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Oh that sounds like the MOST fun! :D

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I actually tend to keep one or two of the little typical house spiders that find their way into my rooms remote corners they don't bother me any.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Yes, the gnats that are attracted to fruit will go for vinegar...but probably NOT the ones attracted to decaying organic matter (hence they are called fungus gnats). I'm
assuming she has the latter kind in a snake enclosure, since most of us don't leave a bowl of fruit in our snake cages?

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Where did you read the term “fungus gnats” or are you just assuming again....?

i don’t live w the OP nor do you, as far as I know... I was simply stating a way that has worked for me to remove gnats and fruit flies...

bowl of fruit in our snake cages where do you even come up with this stuff... I wish I had the time.

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

Where did you read the term “fungus gnats” or are you just assuming again....? ....

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http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7448.html

And I quote:
Trapping

In home situations where fungus gnat adults are a nuisance, it may be possible to reduce the problem by using sticky traps available at retail nursery and garden centers. Yellow sticky traps can be cut into smaller squares, attached to wooden skewers or sticks and placed in pots to trap adults. Also, raw potato chunks placed in the soil are very attractive to fungus gnat larvae. These may be used not only to check pots for larvae but also to trap them away from plant roots. After a few days in a pot, remove infested chunks, dispose of them, and replace with fresh ones.

So following their advice (in above article)-
I guess you could use those sticky traps in a snake enclosure IF you put some sort of cage around it so your snake doesn't stick to it?

I'm trying to picture your cage with a sticky trap hanging somewhere & chunks of raw potato to catch the larvae? :rolleyes: Tossing the substrate is probably the best.

We have the fungus gnats in our office and unfortunately they do not come to apple cider vinegar...we have tried. However they seems to have a knack for ending up in my hot tea. :bleh:

Several folks in the office have brought in houseplants, which introduced the gnats. A lot of houseplants from nurseries or big box stores will come with these, an unwanted bonus. :( If you have moist soil, or substrate in this case, they thrive in it. For houseplants, you can treat with some chemicals but they aren’t safe for animals. I’ve read that you can add an indoor mulch layer on top of the potting soil, which gives a dry layer to keep the gnats from the moist soil, but don’t know if that would work in an enclosure...particularly if you have a snake that likes to burrow.

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

Where did you read the term “fungus gnats” or are you just assuming again....?

i don’t live w the OP nor do you, as far as I know... I was simply stating a way that has worked for me to remove gnats and fruit flies...

bowl of fruit in our snake cages where do you even come up with this stuff... I wish I had the time.

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Phillydubs, there's no need to get your shorts in a bunch. Re "fungus gnats" see my response in post #12. (asked & answered)

Apparently YOU were "assuming" that all gnats are the same...they are not. "Fruit flies", as the nickname implies, are attracted to ripe fruit & CAN be trapped with wine
or vinegar. It's UN-likely that fruit flies would be in a snake cage as there is nothing to attract them...so I assumed that the OP is dealing with "fungus gnats" which dearly
love some of the nice moist moss & similar substrates that many of us are using.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

LOL yeah, it seems like no matter how much I clean the substrate, they always come back eventually. Have you used the hydrogen peroxide mix for your snake? It sounds like it acts as a pesticide so I'm not sure if it's totally safe for snakes, it would make me wary... And I'll have to try mosquito dunks if it's safe for snakes too!

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I haven't, though I'd probably do Bogertrophis' advice regarding treating the substrate, then rinsing it with water if I did.

Mosquito dunks are designed to be used with horse troughs and contain a bacteria that target pest insects like mosquitoes and fungus gnats, but are fine for other organisms.

You might just be better off ditching all the contaminated substrate, even the stuff stored in a bin somewhere, and hoping the new stuff doesn't attract gnats. Expensive, but that's most likely where they're hiding.

I've also done the apple cider vinegar traps for fungus gnats-- and they work IF you add large amounts of sugar as well as a drop of dish soap. Fungus gnats loooove sugar lol.