Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I've been noticing latetly small flying bugs (maybe knat size or smaller) in my Crested's home. I can't tell if they're from the pothos or the substrate (coconut fiber). Seeing one or 2 didn't bother me, then I started seeing more. I cleaned out the tank & topper, tossed the fiber, rinsed the pothos & soaked it in a sink full of water to give it a good watering. The bugs disappeared for a couple days and now am seeing them again, just a couple now.

Anyone have any ideas what I can do to stop them? Besides doing the above weekly?

What you describe could be one of two things: fruit flies or fungus gnats. Fruit flies would be attracted to any sort of food items or CGD, the way to prevent them is to not let anything sit too long in the enclosure.

More likely it is fungus gnats which are smaller and live in the soil and usually appear when the plant is over watered. They are almost impossible to get rid of once you have them, even if you used chemicals. The way to minimize them it to make sure any real plants in the enclosure have lots of drainage and never sit in standing water. It would be even better if you watered the plants outside the enclosure drain and them well before putting them back. It could also be from the substrate if you have standing water under it, though planting soil is more likely the culprit. Letting the plants and substrate dry a bit between misting /watering will also help.

Good luck, a little bit of practice and you will find the right amount of humidity to balance what the geckos need and what doesn't encourage bug growth.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

Fungus Gnats can be controlled. One method that might work in a terrarium are slices of raw potato. The larvae are attracted to the food source and can be removed. This method is used to monitor fungus gnat populations in greenhouses. There are two effective predators available. One is Hypoaspis miles a soil dwelling predatory mite. Steinernema feltiae is a predatory nematode they are available in syringes for treating few plants. Both of these will only attack soil dwelling insects. I can attest both of these work well in a greenhouse setting.

But what if these are ingested by the gecko?

My vivarium has the same thing. I have a blue anole that happily eats them and is very healthy.

iv had the same problem in my 3 planted tanks. at first it worried me, but usually it goes away on its own after a few weeks, if you can stand it for a few weeks. i thought i read somewere that it can be a symptom of new, uncycled soil. since there is not yet any bacteria in the soil to combat fungus, it develops and attracts the gnats. after a while, once the soil develops bioactivity (through stirring to increase aeration and just good old fashion patience, just like the cycling process with a fishtank) the bacteria kills the fungus, thus no more gnats.
my first planted tank has been up for about a year now with no major soil change, there were gnats for the first few weeks then after weekly spot cleaning and soil stirring they just kind of went away. after 6 or 7 months i did a minor soil change, maybe 15% or so i noticed a little fungus and the gnats returned, then again disapeared after a few weeks. just my experience and hypothesis.
kxi

Do they hurt any other animals?

>>Do they hurt any other animals?

Just like you don't want to feed "outside" bugs due to traces of pesticides and fertilizers, the same it true for fungus gnats. The potting soil is very rich in chemicals and I would never think of letting my girls eat anything living from it. But maybe I just don't have enough of a lassie-fare attitude.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

how small are your geckos?
i doubt if they would bother to eat them as long as they arent starving. if were talking about the same little pests here i wouldnt worry about it at all, gnats are, well teeny tiny gnat sized. i dont think even a hatchling cresty would give them the light of day. a hatchling probly shouldnt be on potting soil anyway though.

We've had much problems in the past several years with a gnat-sized Tachinid fly that often arrives in the feeder insects, and if infested feeders are fed to lizards the lizards will have maggots eat through them killing them. They seem to live in any moist situation, and are very difficult to get rid of---virtually impossible if you're trying to raise your own feeder insects. I've bought infested Hissing roaches from shows, crickets from wholesalers (they'll never admit they were shipped that way), and even from bait shops...even got them in hermit crabs (killed them) once. They aren't captured by fruit-fly traps, aren't attracted to "flesh fly traps" like used in stables, etc. We even released thousands of fly parasite wasps in our home that work on house fly & blow fly larvae and still didn't get rid of them---We ended up getting rid of insect colonies, and insect feeding animals to get rid of them (after losing dozens of lizards, frogs, and even a lizard-eating dwarf boa, and losing many dwarf monitor eggs ...they'll eat through those too!).We'd like to know a good way to get rid of them if anyone knows.