aphids on plant in frog tank

toenailsoup

Arachnopeon
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Aug 25, 2018
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i have a bull frog and a water hyancinth, water lettuce, water lotus, and 5 little fish. i look inside i see aphids on the water hyancinth and some on the water lettuce is there a way to get rid of the aphids without harming my frog and the fish
 

Nir Avraham

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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May 14, 2013
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227
Remove the plant from the cage in my opinion. Aphids can spread fast into other cages you have inside the room
 

sseeker

Arachnopeon
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Dec 15, 2020
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Unfortunately I have the same problem: I have a terrarium that is half used for my Pacman frog and half for my carnivorous plants. Now I found aphids on one of those plants. I cut it off right away, but if you can see one aphid, there are ten you can't see.

Unfortunately, I can not take out all the plants because they are already rooted. Taking them out would firstly be a hell lot of work and would secondly probably kill a good number of them.
Also, I read online that pesticides are pretty deadly to frogs in general, but soap is bad for them too.

My idea would be to take the frog out, treat the plants with soap, rinse them and put the frog back in once everything has dried. Of course the soap would remain in the substrate, but the halves are separated by a wall that separates the substrate and water of the frog from the substrate and water of the plants. Therefore, the frog has no possibility to come into contact with the plants or the "contaminated" substrate.

Is this a viable idea?
What could I do else? Have you found a solution?

If there really is no other way, I would have to use insecticide. I would then do it the same way as with the soap, but take the frog out of the terrarium for at least a day so nothing remains in the air.
 

Frogdaddy

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DO NOT PUT SOAP OR INSECTICIDE IN YOUR ENCLOSURE. Amphibians have a permeable skin and could easily absorb any chemicals through their skin and kill them.
You're going to have to the plants out if you want to kill the aphids.

A 10% bleach solution may work, killing aphids and aphid eggs, but you'll have to rinse the plants thoroughly a few times and perhaps leave them out of the enclosure for a few weeks to male sure no residual bleach is on the plants.
 

sseeker

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Dec 15, 2020
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Wow, ok, I didn`t know it was that dangerous to frogs. Thank you for the fast reply, I will refrain from using those. I think tabacco water, garlic water and so on are also not quite the best idea? (besides they don`t really work)

As I said, taking them out isn`t an option either. Without that, the bleach solution would kill them fairly quickly I`d guess.
Otherwise I will have to eliminate them with magnifier and tweezers then...
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

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Aug 1, 2019
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There's no way around this that doesn't involve removing the plants. Even adding predators is unlikely to get every aphid, and they'll come back once the predators have died back. If you want to do a completely chemical-free treatment, remove plants, squish as many as you can with your fingers, rinse plants thoroughly, then hold for observation outside of the enclosure, repeating manual removal as necessary until you're sure they're all gone.
 

Frogdaddy

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The only other thing I can think of would be a CO2 bomb and that would require removal of fish ans frogs.
 

sseeker

Arachnopeon
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Dec 15, 2020
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Wow, thank you for all the replies and ideas!

The fungus sounds extremely cool! But I don't think I'll find it on amazon. :lol:

Maybe I'll try ladybugs. Even if they don't kill any aphid, at least little Covid (thats the pacmans name - because it kind of sounds like "ribbit") and my plants will love them!

Also, I googled about CO2-bombing. It sound very promising. It should be no problem to completely seal the terrarium. And of course I would take the frog out! Do you know for how long I would have to gas those little bastards? An hour or so should be sufficient, I think.
I wonder if one of these CO2 bike pumps would suffice or if I should go for dry ice right away. I will have a closer look on that.

Thanks for your help!
 
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Frogdaddy

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Wow, thank you for all the replies and ideas!

The fungus sounds extremely cool! But I don't think I'll find it on amazon. :lol:

Maybe I'll try ladybugs. Even if they don't kill any aphid, at least little Covid (thats the pacmans name - because it kind of sounds like "ribbit") and my plants will love them!

Also, I googled about CO2-bombing. It sound very promising. It should be no problem to completely seal the terrarium. And of course I would take the frog out! Do you know for how long I would have to gas those little bastards? An hour or so should be sufficient, I think.
I wonder if one of these CO2 Fahrad pumps would suffice or if I should go for dry ice right away. I will have a closer look on that.

Thanks for your help!
An hour would not be long enough. I would keep it sealed with the CO2 for at least 8 to 12 hours.
 

sseeker

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A quick search revealed the following: One CO² cartridge is enough for about 3 liters of volume. My terrarium holds about 160 liters. So I would need about 55 cartridges.... I will go for the dry ice then, which is much cheaper (about 3€ per kg).

Also I found the following thread in a CP forum: dry ice insecticide question. They leave the dry ice in the terra for at least 12 hours (over night), some even talk about a week!

They also talk about a 50:50 solution af water and alcohol. The alcohol shouldn't harm the plants, as it evaporates fairly quickly.
The same goes for the frog I think: if it stays out of the terrarium long enough, the alcohol should evaporate so that nothing can happen to Covid. What do you think about that idea?
 

Frogdaddy

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A quick search revealed the following: One CO² cartridge is enough for about 3 liters of volume. My terrarium holds about 160 liters. So I would need about 55 cartridges.... I will go for the dry ice then, which is much cheaper (about 3€ per kg).

Also I found the following thread in a CP forum: dry ice insecticide question. They leave the dry ice in the terra for at least 12 hours (over night), some even talk about a week!

They also talk about a 50:50 solution af water and alcohol. The alcohol shouldn't harm the plants, as it evaporates fairly quickly.
The same goes for the frog I think: if it stays out of the terrarium long enough, the alcohol should evaporate so that nothing can happen to Covid. What do you think about that idea?
I don't know anything about the alcohol/water method.
If you want more info on CO2 bombing check out the frog forum Dendroboards. Dart froggers have used this method in the past.
 

sseeker

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Dec 15, 2020
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If none of you have any objections to the alcohol water method, I think I will give it a try. At least I don't see any disadvantages.

I allready found some threads from the dendro forum, thank you!

Thanks for the hint Snark! I have read that you want to repeat the application after 2 and preferably 4 weeks. This is the time it takes for the aphid eggs to hatch.

But as some said that their more tropical CPs didn't survive the CO2 bombing, I decided it to be my last resort. Fingers crossed for the alcohol water method!
 

sseeker

Arachnopeon
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Dec 15, 2020
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Heres an Update: I removed all aphids i could find with the tweezers, then I sprayed everything with an 50:50 alcohol-water mixture (I took grain alcohol and added osmosis water until i had 50%). Two days later my plants are still alive and happily growing, Covid does not seem to be drunk and I can't find any aphids anymore.

Thank you all for your support on this!
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
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Nov 3, 2013
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Heres an Update: I removed all aphids i could find with the tweezers, then I sprayed everything with an 50:50 alcohol-water mixture (I took grain alcohol and added osmosis water until i had 50%). Two days later my plants are still alive and happily growing, Covid does not seem to be drunk and I can't find any aphids anymore.

Thank you all for your support on this!
I'd keep on the lookout for aphids for a couple weeks. They're tiny and very good at hiding.
 

RoachCoach

Arachnodemon
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Sep 2, 2019
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703
Don't use lady bugs, they can be poisonous to smaller animals. Removal of the live plants until the aphids die off is the easiest path.
 
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