- Joined
- Feb 22, 2013
- Messages
- 3,292
Alright, here we go again.
I had a pretty bad outbreak of phorid flies awhile ago, and luckily I've gotten that taken care of. Unfortunately, I'm back to my old fly problem, but I don't believe that these are phorid flies. I'm not sure what they are, but they're quite a bit smaller.
Now, here's the big question. My T. stirmi enclosure (which is kept perpetually moist) seems the be the source of this outbreak. Her enclosure is crawling with these flies, but the strange thing is that I can't seem to find any larvae. With the phorid flies, I was able to find tiny crawling larvae near the water dish and on any moist substrate. Not at all the case this time around, only flies. Before I go rehousing her, does anyone know if the larvae could simply be too small for me to see? Or if this species of fly doesn't lay larvae at all? It could just be that they're attracted to her humid enclosure and reproducing elsewhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT:
Scratch that. They were simply too small to see. I took some of the substrate under a microscope, and sure enough there are larvae. So, new question. I was able to rid myself of phorid flies by mixing peat moss into my substrate - this made the substrate too acidic for them to reproduce, and it solved the problem overnight. Well, apparently these flies are resistant to that. Does anyone know of another means to make the substrate inhospitable to them?
I had a pretty bad outbreak of phorid flies awhile ago, and luckily I've gotten that taken care of. Unfortunately, I'm back to my old fly problem, but I don't believe that these are phorid flies. I'm not sure what they are, but they're quite a bit smaller.
Now, here's the big question. My T. stirmi enclosure (which is kept perpetually moist) seems the be the source of this outbreak. Her enclosure is crawling with these flies, but the strange thing is that I can't seem to find any larvae. With the phorid flies, I was able to find tiny crawling larvae near the water dish and on any moist substrate. Not at all the case this time around, only flies. Before I go rehousing her, does anyone know if the larvae could simply be too small for me to see? Or if this species of fly doesn't lay larvae at all? It could just be that they're attracted to her humid enclosure and reproducing elsewhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT:
Scratch that. They were simply too small to see. I took some of the substrate under a microscope, and sure enough there are larvae. So, new question. I was able to rid myself of phorid flies by mixing peat moss into my substrate - this made the substrate too acidic for them to reproduce, and it solved the problem overnight. Well, apparently these flies are resistant to that. Does anyone know of another means to make the substrate inhospitable to them?