Carnivorous plants to discourage phorid flies, etc?

Moltar

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In another thread we were talking about phorid flies and airborne pests in general. A big pain to say the least although there are worse thins that could happen. I've got them in my house but not in great numbers at this time. I think they're hatching out somewhere though as i'm seeing more little ones these past couple days.

Does anybody have some thoughts on using venus flytraps, pitcher plants etc. to control flies, gnats, etc? I'm thinking if i locate these plants in the general vicinity of the t's i could get rid of any in the room. One challenge would be keeping them humid enough to live but also open to the air to serve as traps. I'm thinking of using a shallow tray with aquarium gravel and water and setting the plants right on it. This is a trick used for humidity loving bonzai trees. Problem w/ that is if the phorids don't go for the plants then i'm just providing them a great place to lay eggs. Also i could get the japanese beetle trap effect where i end up attracting all the phorids in the house to that room and making it worse on my t's.

I know that i need a household wide eradication effort to completely get rid of them but this is specifically to keep them away from the T's while i'm getting them under control elsewhere.



Questions, comments or ideas?
 

Talkenlate04

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Actually I have found my solution to flies. I run a large humidifier in my T room. It’s a simple one. All it is, is a basin of water with a lit that has a fan on top, there are slits in the basin of water so while its being blow it gets blown out into the room. But the cool thing is when the waters gone and its time to refill there are dozens of flies and gnats that have flown in the basin to get to the water then got trapped and died. I should take a picture sometime. I never really see any flies but their dead bodies are proof that they are in my room.
 

Moltar

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I had one of those type humidifiers but couldn't buy the replacement wicks anymore. Now i have this little sonic type humidifier. It doesn't catch bugs but it humidifies quite nicely.

I've also thought about some sort of homemade trap maybe like i'll smear petroleum jelly on the inside of a bottle and put some fruit juice in the bottom. I don't even know if phorids are attracted to sweetness like fruitflies are. I assume they're phorids cuz they run away when threatened, seldom flying.
 

Talkenlate04

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Well on top of that I have noticed that 90% of the flies I see or have seen do nothing to my Ts. They annoy me more then anything else.
 

SouthernStyle

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I get more of the smaller fruit flies and gnats with just a simple piece of fly ribbon...Seems to work quite nicely, and (thank the wife) she bought about 4 of those Venus Fly traps from Walmart (they're pretty cheap, 4.00 each I think if I remember right) and they seem to be doing quite well with what they do end up catching...Never used the pitcher plants, but I have heard that the sundew (smaller version of the Venus) works REALLY nicely on the smaller flying pests :)
 

P. Novak

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I had a mad out break of these flies in my enclosures and I found a real simple solution, catch a couple of cellar spiders, aka "daddy long legs, and just put one or two in the cages. THis will only really work if they are breeding in your enclosures like mine did, so check out your cages and if you find some there; then they are most likely breeding there.
 

Talkenlate04

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I have heard though that pitcher plants work really really well. I dont know the scientific names for those guys. But I hear they are great natural cures to loose flies all over the house. I am not sure how easy they are to keep though. Heliamphora something rather...... I am bad with all the latin names to everything. :8o
 

Amanda

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I have heard though that pitcher plants work really really well... Heliamphora something rather...
Thank you!! I bought a few plants at the Daytona show yesterday for a new vivarium. One of them was a small pitcher-ish plant, and I've been kicking myself all day because I chose a specimen without the little plastic label in the dirt and didn't think to snag one out of a different pot. A quick search for "Heliamphora" gave me exactly the i.d. I needed (H. minor). Bonus: All members of the Heliamphora genus are confined to the region of S. America containing P. irminia... the future-inhabitant of the tank! I never expected that. :clap:
 

kellygirl

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My parents were having some trouble with fruit flies and small moths that were attracted to their parrot and lizard's foods. I bought 4 different types of carnivorous plants to see if that would help with the problem: Venus Fly Trap, Pitcher Plant, Sundew, and Butterwort. The Pitcher Plant and the Venus Fly Trap didn't catch anything... maybe the bugs were too small? The Sundew, however, was constantly working on multiple bugs and the Butterwort occasionally caught something. They were generally an ineffective method of bug control, but then again, the bugs were not all concentrated in one room.

Whenever I put all 4 of the plants outside on the deck for a little extra sun, all 4 caught plenty of bugs. They were doing so well, in fact, that a spider took up residence among them and did pretty well herself. The Sundew caught a ton of mosquitoes on the deck. I ended up leaving them there, as they seemed to be thriving better outdoors than indoors.

-Kelly
 

UrbanJungles

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Won't work

I keep several different kinds of carnivorous plants and very few would work with T's. The majority of the American pitchers and sundews (Sarracenia & Drosera) need a winter cooling period or they will tank. Most also need incredibly high ambient humidity and BRIGHT lights.

The Heliamaphora you've got won't last long unless it gets cool down into the 60's at night with the warmest part of the day never exceeding 75F. Those heliamaphora occur in very precise and unique habitat where it's very cool and constantly shrouded in mist. Not conducive to T's. Some P irminia may inhabit them but then again it's the animal's ntural habitat where I'm sure it has warmer retreats to duck into...the plant alone does not provide the proper environment as there is no specialization here.

Good luck, the yellow sticky traps are the best for phorid flies which is what you are seeing, no fruit flies.
 
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