Bedding

B.L.

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
49
I bought organic potting soil now I have have all these tiny black flies coming out of the cage. I'm going to change to peat moss, its hard to find any that doesn't have chemical fertilzer in it.Should I microwave all bedding before I put it into any cage? Anything that will kill the bugs will kill my T's. I can tell she doesnt' like them. :?
 

lizmotobike

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 12, 2004
Messages
129
anything organic will support other life forms that use that soil including your T. Anything that sits around a store or warehouse will be exposed to all kinds of opportunistic eggs and larva. if it is going into your T's container, wet it, bake it in the oven at 250 - 300 (you don't want it to scorch) til you think the center has sterilized. you can use an instint thermometer like for cooking. mix it up. let it cool. and package it in ziplock bags where it will not get recontaminated. that what i did. thanks to leanne at spidertalk(now defunct). i have not had any problems.
 

B.L.

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
49
anything organic will support other life forms that use that soil including your T. Anything that sits around a store or warehouse will be exposed to all kinds of opportunistic eggs and larva. if it is going into your T's container, wet it, bake it in the oven at 250 - 300 (you don't want it to scorch) til you think the center has sterilized. you can use an instint thermometer like for cooking. mix it up. let it cool. and package it in ziplock bags where it will not get recontaminated. that what i did. thanks to leanne at spidertalk(now defunct). i have not had any problems.
bake it, I'll try that.
 

PsychoChaser

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
59
Microwave Substrate

I've done that as well. Nuke the water out of the substrate.
Good or bad, I don't know but it did get rid of the mites/teeny bugs.:?
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
8,656
You don't have to bake peat moss that just came out of a bag from the store. I use it straight from the bag all the time and have never had a problem. The key to keeping unwanteds out of your tank is maintenance. Try your hardest to spot clean when you can, removing food remains so that there is nothing for visiting flies to come in and feast and lay eggs on. And those flies are harmless to your Ts by the way, pesky and annoying but harmless.
 

B.L.

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
49
You don't have to bake peat moss that just came out of a bag from the store. I use it straight from the bag all the time and have never had a problem. The key to keeping unwanteds out of your tank is maintenance. Try your hardest to spot clean when you can, removing food remains so that there is nothing for visiting flies to come in and feast and lay eggs on. And those flies are harmless to your Ts by the way, pesky and annoying but harmless.
I don't know she paces the cage more now that they are here and she shoots hairs at them I noticed she is balder or maybe she is getting ready to molt I don't know. I never feed anything but crickets and haven't seen any remains.
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
8,656
When I said harmless I meant they are not going to infest your T. If you have a ton of them present in a tank they might drive her nuts and make her kick hairs more and just be stressed in general. But I think there would have to be a lot of them for that to happen.
Those gnats will go away if you dry out the tank. Fill and clean the water dish frequently and don't wet the substrate at all and they should be gone in days. Or change the substrate if you want to, I get those from time to time but I don't change the substrate because of them.
 

-Sarah-

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Messages
570
I've gotten those nasty little black flies too, but I think they came in from outside and decided to have fun annoying the heck out of my tarantulas.

Call me crazy, but this actually worked for me! :D
They wouldn't leave and I did everything I could have possibly done to rid myself of them, I tried one last thing that was a sure-fire trick. I had heard of people making wasp traps out of milk jugs, so I figured, why couldn't I try doing that for flies? I got an old prescription pill bottle and filled about a third of the way full of water. I added a good amount of sugar and after that was dissolved, a squirt of dishsoap that I carefully stirred in. I took a piece of tape wide enough to cover the top and used a paper punch to make a hole in the tape. I set the bottle on my shelf by my tarantulas' terrariums, and when I checked the next day, they were nearly all dead. When they fly in they either get stuck to the tape and fall in trying to get loose, or they tire themselves out and drown.
 

julesaussies

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Messages
577
I've gotten those nasty little black flies too, but I think they came in from outside and decided to have fun annoying the heck out of my tarantulas.

Call me crazy, but this actually worked for me! :D
Cool idea. i'll have to remember that if my same problem ever comes back. My only concern would be the sugar attracting ants so close to my T's. Ants near my T's definitely scares me! :evil:

My first T was a gift for my birthday a couple months back. The C. crawshayi sling came from a reptile store that has a pretty big selection of T's as well. i picked out my T and the guy literally set everything up for me in the back. This sling was less than 2" at the time and he set me up a 5 gallon tank!!!! :eek: Well, i knew i would be rehousing her to something more size appropriate the first 5 seconds after arriving home. However, the upside (so i thought) was that now i had a lot of just the perfect substrate. It seemed to be a mix of some sort of potting soil, spagnum moss and sand. i used this to rehouse my C. crawshayi and the first several T's i acquired shortly after. i had little black flying bugs everywhere! Even in the 5 gallon tank that contained only the substrate. i don't know if it was something in the substrate or what... However, since rehousing and only using peat or peat/vermeculite i have not had any more bugs! i also didn't bake or microwave any of my freshly purchased peat or verm. Maybe its all a coincidence but i'm just glad i don't have anymore black flying bugs!
 

-Sarah-

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Messages
570
Cool idea. i'll have to remember that if my same problem ever comes back. My only concern would be the sugar attracting ants so close to my T's. Ants near my T's definitely scares me! :evil:

My first T was a gift for my birthday a couple months back. The C. crawshayi sling came from a reptile store that has a pretty big selection of T's as well. i picked out my T and the guy literally set everything up for me in the back. This sling was less than 2" at the time and he set me up a 5 gallon tank!!!! :eek: Well, i knew i would be rehousing her to something more size appropriate the first 5 seconds after arriving home. However, the upside (so i thought) was that now i had a lot of just the perfect substrate. It seemed to be a mix of some sort of potting soil, spagnum moss and sand. i used this to rehouse my C. crawshayi and the first several T's i acquired shortly after. i had little black flying bugs everywhere! Even in the 5 gallon tank that contained only the substrate. i don't know if it was something in the substrate or what... However, since rehousing and only using peat or peat/vermeculite i have not had any more bugs! i also didn't bake or microwave any of my freshly purchased peat or verm. Maybe its all a coincidence but i'm just glad i don't have anymore black flying bugs!

Well, using my fly-killing method is something that might pose another problem if it's warm weather. It was cold weather when I did this 'experiment', so I didn't see any ants anywhere (but you can bet I thoroughly inspected for anything, just in case) and I checked the bottle frequently to make sure. I can be kinda paranoid about things. I suppose I should have added that even though it worked one time for me without any problems, that doesn't mean it won't make a bigger mess by calling some truly unwanted house guests later :rolleyes: ;)
 

B.L.

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
49
I baked a new batch of soil for my T Blondi's cage I got the temp up to 160F. Then I bleached and soaped everything in the cage. I put the T in a smaller cage with no soil to get any of tiny bugs that are following her around to die off. I vacumed the carpets and put the T cage downstairs so there is less risk of soil becoming recontaminated with fly eggs. Hope this works.
 

FelanMoira

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
38
don't know if they're the same little black flies/gnats I had last summer, but I used cider vinegar in my traps (similarly made to those someone else posted) instead of sugar and they were attracted to it as well - the vinegar also absorbs foul odors too. :}
 
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