Fleas in habitat

nancyanne

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 15, 2017
Messages
1
I see that fleas on other household animals has been addressed. However, I found my cat (embodiment of evil) sleeping on the screen top of my female's habitat a few times, and I can see fleas (many) in the habitat now. Ideal conditions, warm and moist, I suspect. I can see some crawling on her - not good to feed on, but I am sure very annoying.
Any suggestions to get rid of them? Yes, the cat will be severely disciplined. Not that it will help.
Thanks.
 

EulersK

Arachnonomicon
Staff member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
3,292
I don't know this, but I think that they'll just die off in time. They don't have a food source in there, so I think they're harmless. I would be surprised to hear that fleas could feed on or hurt a tarantula.

What I'd be worried about is any insecticides that the fleas could carry into the enclosure. I assume you're battling them in one way or another?
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Put your cat on medication that kills the flea cycle, I did, worked better than anything I had tried.
 

AphonopelmaTX

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
May 7, 2004
Messages
1,816
I see that fleas on other household animals has been addressed. However, I found my cat (embodiment of evil) sleeping on the screen top of my female's habitat a few times, and I can see fleas (many) in the habitat now. Ideal conditions, warm and moist, I suspect. I can see some crawling on her - not good to feed on, but I am sure very annoying.
Any suggestions to get rid of them? Yes, the cat will be severely disciplined. Not that it will help.
Thanks.
I'm assuming you have a female tarantula of some kind in a habitat with a screen top your cat is sleeping on since you didn't specify. To clean out the tarantula's cage safely, take the entire tarantula cage outside. Either outdoors to a shaded area or in a garage, just somewhere outside of your house. Remove the tarantula to a temporary enclosure with no substrate, water dishes, etc. Remove everything in the tarantula's cage and put the substrate in a plastic bag and toss it in the trash. Clean everything that was in the tarantula's cage including the cage itself with soapy water. A few drops of dish washing soap works best. You could even use the cage itself as a bucket of sorts full of soapy water to let anything else in the cage soak for a few minutes. Rinse and dry everything well. Make up the tarantula's cage again with new substrate and put the tarantula back in. That will get rid of any fleas in the tarantula cage safely and without the use of any pesticides.

Now the why this works...

You are right in that fleas have no interest in tarantulas or any other invertebrate. They are strictly mammalian parasites. They are also highly sensitive to movement and as soon as you start moving the tarantula's cage around, the fleas will start jumping everywhere. This is why you need to take it outside before moving the tarantula and cleaning the cage. You don't want them jumping right back out into the room your animals are in and reinfest. Soapy water will instantly kill fleas by drowning as they are soft bodied and the soap will break the surface tension of water causing the water to rush into their respiratory tract (trachea). Rinsing everything well with clean water will wash away any eggs and/ or dead fleas that remain in any cracks and crevices you might have in the tarantula's cage furniture like cork bark or any other wood or plastic hides. You want to put the substrate in a bag and toss it so as many fleas that jump out of it don't end up in your yard or in the surrounding area. Chances are that when you capture the tarantula from its cage and put it in a temporary enclosure, all the fleas that are crawling on it will jump off. Just to be sure though you may want to keep your tarantula in a white temporary enclosure or anything that will allow you to easily see the dark fleas and watch for any fleas that may remain.
 
Last edited:

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
I would do ASAP the 'Mother' of all re-house changing everything, enclosure as well. Just for remain 'better safe than sorry' :-s
 

JoshDM020

Arachnobaron
Joined
Mar 24, 2017
Messages
356
Everyone else covered the fleas so im gonna just throw this out there, if the lid is ACTUALLY screen, you may want to invest in a plexiglass/glass lid with holes. They can get stuck on screen and lose a leg, fall and possibly get injured or die. If its not actually screen then disregard this :)
 

vancwa

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 3, 2011
Messages
405
Yes, the cat will be severely disciplined. Not that it will help.
Thanks.[/QUOTE]

You should not have a cat.
 

Belegnole

Tarantula Guy
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
171
Yes, the cat will be severely disciplined. Not that it will help.
Thanks.
You should not have a cat.[/QUOTE]

I do believe that you are confused and shouldn't be judging others based on the information you had at your disposal. Please reread the entire post in question and notice the humor used in it. Odds are that "the evil one" will not be receiving any punishment at all.
 
Last edited:
Top