tarantulas and Phorid flies.......

[atavuss]

I just got done getting rid of Phorid flies for the second time.....both times the pesky things were shipped with cricket orders (I even had german cockroaches in one shipment! I don't use that cricket farm anymore).
I let everything dry out for 6 weeks and it really pushed the limits of my t's........I lost an adult female a. moderatum, an adult male p. regalis (he was old and might have just died of old age), and an juv h. maculata out of 100+ inverts. I have 4 of those sticky fly traps hanging in the room and they are loaded with the phorid flies. I have not seen any Phorid flies for at least 1 week, hopefully they are gone for good! I even let the long legged native spiders web all over in my herp/invert room to help catch the flies.......all the enclosures are kept clean and any dead prey items not eaten are promptly removed. most of my collection are dry species with a few avics and robustums and amblypigids being the main humidity sensitive sp. I keep. I got so frustrated I came close to selling off the majority of the inverts.
just had to rant, thanks for reading.
Ed

 

[MrT]

Ed,
Sorry to hear about the flys.
Are they little black suckers about an 1/8" long?
I see those every once in a while, and it freaks me out thinking I might be having an outbreak. I saw another nightmare thread a few months back about flys.

Ernie

 

[belewfripp]

Phorid flies are a nightmare. Fortunately I never had them as bad as that, but I have had them bad in some tanks. I've noticed humid tanks with lots of webbing attract them, which is why as soon as my regalis had a wall of web erected to live in and my cobalts and such had burrows I cut the moisture down drastically. I also had a bad batch of jungle mix that as soon as it got wet attracted phorid flies by the busload. I'm not sure what I would have done with such a large scale infestation, despite your losses I think you did what was best. My condolences on your losses, I hope the flies are gone for good.

Adrian

 

[Henry Kane]

Ed,
I feel your pain. I went through a nightmare experience with the damn things! I can't begin to tell you what a pain in the ass it was getting rid of them, then again I don't need to either.
I unknowingly brought the flies in with a batch of new house plants.
You're completely justified in your rant bro!

Now, I always check any prey, substrate or any other accessory intended for the bug room. Also, when I get any new invert I never ever introduce it to the bug room until I mist the deli cup and carefully watch it for a day or two. Only when I'm convinced there are no flies or mites do I move them to their place in the bug room.

Best of luck in the mass annihilation of the little *!#+*!@!

Atrax

p.s. Sorry for your losses dude.

 

[Pyrdacor]

I also have some plants in the room were my T's are set up. These plants get infested with those little flies from time to time (I don't know if it were Phorid flies) but they didn't ever make their way into the cages. But getting rid of them infesting your plants is hard enough not to imagine in the cages...
sorry to hear about the loss atavuss, but don't hang up.
btw, that might be the time to "fight fire with fire" like Schultz says in the keepers guide (yes we have that brilliant book in Germany too ) If it happens again, you might try some predatory mites of the species Hypoaspis miles. They are supposed to eat up the fly larvae and the the flies themselves. I have never tried them but Schultz points out that they do not irritate the T at all, although occasionally crawling on them. After the problem is solved they will live some time after and then die.

 

[rknralf]

What cricket farm did you use?

Ed,
Which cricket farm were you using? I purchase a lot of crickets and want to make sure I don't purchase from the one you got yours from.
Thanks!
Ralph

 

[atavuss]

Re: What cricket farm did you use?

Originally posted by rknralf
Ed,
Which cricket farm were you using? I purchase a lot of crickets and want to make sure I don't purchase from the one you got yours from.
Thanks!
Ralph

Ralph, I don't know if it would be proper for me to say which cricket farm it was on the forum..........mods? any input here?
I have been getting my crickets from a local pet store that is five minutes from my house, they put them in plastic bags and it is very easy for me to examine the inside contents BEFORE I open the bag to make sure there are no uninvited guests. It costs considerably more to buy them from the pet store but it is worth it to not get any unwanted "extras". since I no longer buy 500 or 1,000 crickets at a time I don't power feed my inverts and I have noticed that they do not grow as fast or get as bulky, which may not be a bad thing either dependant upon your viewpoint on the subject.
Ed

 

[MizM]

When I had an infestation of baby crix in my h. lividium enclosure, I put it in the freezer and it killed all of them pretty fast. Would it also work with the flies/larvae? (I took the T out FIRST!)

 

[MrDeranged]

Re: Re: What cricket farm did you use?

Originally posted by atavuss
Ralph, I don't know if it would be proper for me to say which cricket farm it was on the forum..........mods? Ed

Hey Ed,

Feel free to post a review of the Cricket farm in the dealer review forum...

Scott

 

[Haploman]

Hey

In my old house I had them bad I had those sticky fly tapes hanging on th ceiling. by the end of the week it was covered in them so I changed it. one day my brother gave me an idea. get a delicup and put dead crickets in it no matter how many crickets you have in there. seal the lid make sure there are holes preferably one hole but 2 would suffice. set it in the room where you have the problem flies. and check it in a day or 2 you see flies in there grab the delicup and put it in the freezer for around 4 hours or until the flies are dead. and then repeat process. Now since im in my new home I never had no problems as of yet with those f*#ckin flies lol Im knocking on wood really hard right now

[]D eace

 

[atavuss]

Originally posted by MizM
When I had an infestation of baby crix in my h. lividium enclosure, I put it in the freezer and it killed all of them pretty fast. Would it also work with the flies/larvae? (I took the T out FIRST!)

it may work, but not very practical when you have 100+ inverts and some of them are in 10 gallon enclosures.......never could find where the flies are hanging out at or where they are headed to either, very strange.
Ed

 

[Haploman]

yes it works

I had over 100 T's also and it worked. they are attracted to dead corpses (dead crickets) if you maintain cleanup in your enclosures of discarding the remains of the eaten crickets then there wont be no place for those flies to be in the cages then. Hence they would be attracted to the dead bodies in the delicups making sure you work the flytape(which covers the high areas and the delicup thing covering the ground area your battle would be won in due time you would see a difference IT DOES WORK!

 

[pitdragon]

What cricket farm did you use?

Ed,
Which cricket farm were you using? I purchase a lot of crickets and want to make sure I don't purchase from the one you got yours from.
Thanks!
Ralph

Mulberry and great lake farms are two of the largest. We get our cricket from feed store. No issues so far

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Mulberry and great lake farms are two of the largest. We get our cricket from feed store. No issues so far

20 years ago hehe .
What’s a feed store??