Pill bugs and fruit flies.

[Anonymity82]

Do pill bugs eat fruit fly larvae? If not, how do I get them out of my millipede enclosure? Will they just go away when the rotting vegetables go away? I don't see larvae but I'm not sure what it looks like anyway. I'm guessing they would look like little worms in the soil. I do have many pill bugs in their enclosure and a bunch of babies too.

I also have very, very tiny mites mostly on the rotting vegetables. There has to be hundreds of them. Are they harmful to my millipedes? Will the pill bugs eat the mites or just their eggs? I really don't have enough substrate to clean out the whole thing right now and being that I have so many isopods I'm hoping that just throwing out the vegetables will help. Any input? Thanks!

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

Do pill bugs eat fruit fly larvae? If not, how do I get them out of my millipede enclosure? Will they just go away when the rotting vegetables go away? I don't see larvae but I'm not sure what it looks like anyway. I'm guessing they would look like little worms in the soil. I do have many pill bugs in their enclosure and a bunch of babies too.

I also have very, very tiny mites mostly on the rotting vegetables. There has to be hundreds of them. Are they harmful to my millipedes? Will the pill bugs eat the mites or just their eggs? I really don't have enough substrate to clean out the whole thing right now and being that I have so many isopods I'm hoping that just throwing out the vegetables will help. Any input? Thanks!

If these are fruit flies in your enclosure, then getting rid of rotting food will help combat their numbers. Generally, the maggots live in the food item. If they're in the soil, they could possibly be fungus gnats. Not sure if the isopods will eat them, but they may possibly outcompete them and mites for food.

If the mites are not attaching themselves to the millipedes, then you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Anonymity82]

If these are fruit flies in your enclosure, then getting rid of rotting food will help combat their numbers. Generally, the maggots live in the food item. If they're in the soil, they could possibly be fungus gnats. Not sure if the isopods will eat them, but they may possibly outcompete them and mites for food.

If the mites are not attaching themselves to the millipedes, then you have nothing to worry about.

Thanks. I've taken out the rotting food and haven't seen any flies or mites. It's too bad. They really like the rotting brussell sprout leaves.

 

[Galapoheros]

I've waited a while to say this, just lazy about it. I think that if you have a vacuum cleaner that has a hose adapter, you could suck up the fruit flies in the terr to keep the numbers down. I haven't tried it, it just crossed my mind. They seem like slow fliers in the terrs so it seems like they would be easy to suck into a v. cleaner.

 

[Anonymity82]

That's a good idea. Out of the fruit flies I have seen in my enclosure, only a few flew when I took the top off, most of the others kept running around. I found two new things in my enclosure. I'm not really concerned though. When you create a warm, humid/moist environment life is bound to show up in many forms. I have found something that looks like a 1mm inch worm and something else that looks like a 1mm leach in the way it moved its head around. Guess I'll wait and see what happens. I have yet to see anything of that little millipede since the one day I found it.

 

[khil]

-remove all rotting foods
-try feeding "drier" foods to your pillbugs like potato or lettuce.
do these and the fruit flies shouldn't last long. let me know how it goes and good luck

 

[Anonymity82]

Thanks Khil! Well, the fruit flies haven't showed up since I moved the rotting green leafy vegetables. I didn't get to spend enough time on the mites though. Last night I noticed brown mites (slightly larger than the white mites) climbing on the inside and out side of the enclosure's top. I have to bring them back to the woods tomorrow.

 

[ScarecrowGirl]

I've waited a while to say this, just lazy about it. I think that if you have a vacuum cleaner that has a hose adapter, you could suck up the fruit flies in the terr to keep the numbers down. I haven't tried it, it just crossed my mind. They seem like slow fliers in the terrs so it seems like they would be easy to suck into a v. cleaner.

Iiiiiiiiiiiii've tried this and it really doesn't work that well unless you have the nozzle right ON the little guys and then when they are flying the vacuum doesn't have a wide enough range of suction to pull the little devils in. And they hang on tight, even to glass so you really have to keep it on them. You'll suck up more substrate than gnats, I promise, its not worth the trouble!

 

[peterUK]

That's a good idea. Out of the fruit flies I have seen in my enclosure, only a few flew when I took the top off, most of the others kept running around. .

Fruit flies would fly immediately the top was removed. If they are running instead of flying around you have Phorid flies, the easiest method to eradicate these is to introduce some predatory Hypoaspis mites. LINK