Gnats, harmful?

[Pyrelitha]

ok so i bought a plant from lowes for my pacman frog,the next day i noticed some gnats, no big deal, ordered sticky traps... they got delayed a week, now there are gnats everywhere in all my tarantulas enclosures, dry or not, especially the slings, holy hell theyre annoying and the sticky traps are killing so many but theyre endless! And i cant put traps in the enclosures what do i do?? How do i kill these things!

 

[Vanisher]

They can be very annoying. Takes lits of effort to kill them if you get a real infestations

 

[Pyrelitha]

I think I've got a real infestation, how do I kill them?

I've tried all the google gnat traps, to no real avail,. the stickies catch a lot, but doesn't seem to reduce their numbers tbh.

 

[StampFan]

I've used a three prong approach in the past: 1) mosquito dunks for more moist enclosures (I have not researched or tested if these are harmful to arachnids or not, but don't seem to have a problem in my isopod enclosures), 2) dry things out as much as possible, 3) electronic gnat/fly trap from Amazon. Uses a blue light, attracts them at night, sucks them in, and puts them on a sticky trap. This thing works very, very well.

 

[Poonjab]

AAAAAHHHH!!!! That’s where those stupid things are coming from. I don’t have them as bad as you, but I got those stupid things in my house. My gf likes plants, makes perfect sense now.

 

[RoachCoach]

You've got to find where they are breeding and laying. If you can't, like others have said its in moist places probably fungus gnats. Pour bleach down all your drains. As @Poonjab said, maybe in potted plants. You can use a mild soap solution to kill them on the soil. If you normally have your windows open maybe they are just all coming from a damp spot near your home?

 

[Arachnoenthusiast]

You can use a hydrogen peroxide and water solution to help cut down in them in house plants if you are opposed to using insect killer.

 

[Arachnoenthusiast]

I've had luck with bonide systemic insect killer. Its granular so you can put it in the dirt of the house plants and limit the tarantulas chance of exposure

 

[Pyrelitha]

Problem is, they started in the planted enclosure of my pacman frog, they're still there. But they're also in all my T enclosures now, mosquito dunks im trying, I have read multiple scientific papers, they're safe for anything outside of larval stage, so arachnids are safe. Dry enclosures attract them less... so that's an option but I cant dry out the frog containers I guess traps will help.

 

[darkness975]

Are you sure whatever chemicals are in mosquito drunks wont leech into the substrate or be absorbed into the spider?

 

[RezonantVoid]

Fill every available surface in the house with carnivorous plants

 

[Pyrelitha]

Uhm, I don't really want carno plants, tbh, and that would be ungodly expensive, and I am positive, the mosquito dunks do not have a chemical, it's a bacteria, Bacillus thuringi- ensis subspecies israelensis, but it doesn't seem to work too well against them.... I am thinking of just getting fresh dirt and rehousing every single animal OUTSIDE. dumping all that old dirt, and then keeping them in my garage since its warm enough now while using gnat traps and a bug zapper to hopefully finish off everything inside the house before bringing them back in... Would that work?

 

[Pyrelitha]

I've had luck with bonide systemic insect killer. Its granular so you can put it in the dirt of the house plants and limit the tarantulas chance of exposure

uhm but many are in with the tarantulas now, and this would likely harm the tarantula if exposed right?

 

[RezonantVoid]

Uhm, I don't really want carno plants, tbh, and that would be ungodly expensive, and I am positive, the mosquito dunks do not have a chemical, it's a bacteria, Bacillus thuringi- ensis subspecies israelensis, but it doesn't seem to work too well against them.... I am thinking of just getting fresh dirt and rehousing every single animal OUTSIDE. dumping all that old dirt, and then keeping them in my garage since its warm enough now while using gnat traps and a bug zapper to hopefully finish off everything inside the house before bringing them back in... Would that work?

Nope, thats just the way things work. If we dont say evidence of this by next week, it may well be too late!!

I was actually joking, but something like a sundew or 3 on a windowsill would definitely help a little bit, we had one on our deck that almost completely eliminated flies during lunch as the sweet sticky nectar becomes harder to resist the larger it grows. All they need is regular, direct sunlight and just plain old tap water

 

[Pyrelitha]

I thought tap water murdered sundews? And will the new dirt for each enclosure outside not work?

 

[Greasylake]

Fill a container with sugar water, the sugary the better. Then add a few drops of dish soap and make sure everything is dissolved/mixed in nicely. Put a container everywhere you see them and try to figure out where they are breeding so you can change the substrate in those enclosures. Just changing substrate won't work because if there are still flies and they think your new dirt is a good place to lay eggs they'll just keep laying eggs, but replacing the substrate is a good way to get rid of a bunch of eggs and try to slow the infestation.

 

[Pyrelitha]

Hm, I'll change the worst ones, and put them in the garage away from the gnats, and try the sugar water.