Fruit flies!

[It_lives!]

Hey, I have fruit flies out of no where in my AGB enclosure, it's not a ton but like 15 or something. I THINK i may have seen them before in their larvel form or whatever b/c when i used to shine the light on the soil i would see little shiny things wiggling or something, but i was hoping they were either milli's or rolly's. I have put a class of cranberry juice, with a little clorox on top of the cage, not in it, to try and draw the flies to the poison, but i don't think it will work. Does anybody know how to get rid of them, they like moist places so i haven't fed/ sprayed the cage with water in 2 days hoping to drive them away, but they are still there, so what do you suggest i do? Cleaning the cage out is not an option b/c i have seen them breed atleast twice, and pass the sperm, yadda yadda, AND i have isopods ( rolly pollies) in there and i probably couldn't find them in there if my life depended on it . So what should i do? :wall:

 

[mindlessvw]

do NOT use any fly paper that has chemicals...i heard of someone who accidentally killed off quite a bit of their collection this way...i use fly strips since its just mollasis(sp?) and otherwise just deal with them

 

[Stylopidae]

I've heard beer or a shot of whiskey mixed with sugar is an effective remedy
Flypaper using only pheromones should be OK.

Anyone considered a bug zapper?

 

[Arachnophilist]

I have fig trees in my yard and the fruit flies in the summer are rediculous.. but they do like tonic water.. they will go for it every time. I would have a glass of tonic water with a fly strip (the afore mentioned) hanging above it.

 

[mindlessvw]

i think hanging a bug zapper in a home is a bad idea on some level...

 

[It_lives!]

Well i got the tonic water and put a glass in there that the milli's can't get but the flies can!

 

[Mr. Mordax]

You could just not worry about the fruit flies. They shouldn't cause any problems with your AGBs. If they really bother you I'd get a sundew plant or something like that.

 

[froggyman]

You could just not worry about the fruit flies. They shouldn't cause any problems with your AGBs. If they really bother you I'd get a sundew plant or something like that.

could you put the sundew in with the milly

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Erm . . . dunno about that. If you leave a sundew in the same room, though, it'll catch a LOT of small flying things.

 

[funnylori]

Sundews really should not be in with the milli. If it decides to crawl on it or eat it, it will get very sticky and could cause some bad complications. Believe me when I say that I put a sundew in my bed room when I was having a phorid problem and it trapped thousands of them in 2 weeks. No more problem. Sundews are an amazing and natural way to catch the buggers. Just besure to keep it in deep dish of water (like 2 inches) constantly. Do not use tap water, you must use distilled or spring water. Tap water has to many minerals for the sundew and the chlorine will kill it. Also, sundews typically need plenty of light, so keep it in a window or near a grow light.

 

[froggyman]

Sundews really should not be in with the milli. If it decides to crawl on it or eat it, it will get very sticky and could cause some bad complications. Believe me when I say that I put a sundew in my bed room when I was having a phorid problem and it trapped thousands of them in 2 weeks. No more problem. Sundews are an amazing and natural way to catch the buggers. Just besure to keep it in deep dish of water (like 2 inches) constantly. Do not use tap water, you must use distilled or spring water. Tap water has to many minerals for the sundew and the chlorine will kill it. Also, sundews typically need plenty of light, so keep it in a window or near a grow light.

alright just wondering, i use a jar with a banana piece and plactic wrap over it to catch fruit flies

 

[Duc de Blangis]

how many fruit flies will a sundew plant catch? if let's say you have a 100 fruit flies or so will it be effective?

 

[Mr. Mordax]

It will catch as many as will stick to the leaves. LOTS.

I imagine a larger sundew will catch more, but 100 shouldn't be a problem.

I also just got a Nepenthes pitcher plant and I'm going to see if my fruit fly numbers decline.

 

[Duc de Blangis]

is there a popular, ab-like forum for carnivorous plants? i thought i remembered seeing one a while back but now i can't find it.

 

[Duc de Blangis]

nevermind, found it. terraforums.com

after reading some posts there i've concluded the easiest sundews to start with are probably drosera capensis and drosera spatulata.