getting rid of gnats/other pests in enclosure?

[redshepherd]

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.

[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.

[SquirmyPug]

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?

[Bogertophis]

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

Oh that sounds like the MOST fun!

[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.

[redshepherd]

thanks for the tips guys!

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.

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

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.

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!

[Bogertophis]

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.

[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

[Bogertophis]

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

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?

[VereMyth]

Oh that sounds like the MOST fun!

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.