Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i live in my aunts basement and it gets pretty hot down there. and the gnats and flys are out of control. they sworm my poor babys cages. i sit in front of the inclosures and swat as many as i can but it does not seem to help they come right back. i dont know what to do i cant get rid of them. is there any thing i can use to kill them without hurting all my reptiles and furries? please someone give me some ideas. these bugs are driving my animals and me crazy.
-----
brandy

Get some tubes of Fly Paper. The kind I get is just strips with glue, no chemicals or pesticides. Comes in what I call Tubes, you pull the end off then slowly turn and unroll it into a long strip. Buy alot of them, they are cheap. Obviously don't put them in the cage or anywhere that your pets can reach them. They really do work! I use them all the time in my basement. Not only for flys, which aren't too bad, but mostly for those annoying moths that once you get it's hard to get rid of. I'd be driven out of my house if it weren't for the fly strips catching so many! Good Luck!
-----
Lyns Lair
Frogwatch USA
WNY Herpetological Society

0.1 Cat (Mia)
4.2 Ferrets (Wolf, Shadow, Verdell, Sullivan, Boo, Peach)
1.0 Carpet Python (Bear)
1.0 Malagasy Blonde Hognose Snake (Wilbur)
1.0 Yellow / Everglades Rat Snake (Pumpkin)
1.0 Russian Sand Boa (Fang)
0.1 Normal Corn Snake (Mysty)
1.0 Anery Corn Snake (Suezo)
0.0.3 Eastern Milk Snakes (no names yet)
0.1 Golden Greek Tortoise (Sunshine)
0.2 Mississippi Mud Turtles (Squirt & Shyanne)
1.0 Green Iguana (Norbert)
1.0 Whites Tree Frog (Trevor)
2.0 Solomon Island Eyelash Frogs (Chompy & Gimli)
1.0 AFT Gecko (Cocoa)
5.5 Leopard Geckos (Trouble, Scooter, Simba, Firenze, Teddy, Mystique, Freckles, Dotty, Zipper, Twister)

thanks i have one already i guess i should get some more. it gets worse by the day.
-----
brandy

Sounds like you have some standing water or something died? Your aunt might help you with it if it's an issue that affects the house itself...

Good luck.

As an alternative, here they put glue on a straw and drip some sweet substance on the straw (sugar water?). When the flies get close, they r stuck on the glue. This isnt very efficient though, cause it really depends on the number of pests.

BTW, cant u feed the nuisance moths to your pets if the moths arent exposed to insecticides? Once, a big house cockroach crawled into my turts water bucket, and the turt ate the roach. I didnt see this, but the next day i see the remains of the roach (wings & feet). Thank goodness the roach was safe to be eaten (no ill effects)

also check under dark damp places.....including things like area rugs. We had an awful fly problem in Kentucky ;asy summer, and it turned out the flies were laying eggs under the welcome mat on the back porch and under the small rug in the kitchen (another note....don't vacuum maggots into a shopvac because they just develop into flies and come zooming out when you go to empty the thing). We had to just take up all the rugs that were a problem and hang fly strips

well i cleaned from top to bottom, put fly strips up, and have been keeping a dehumidifier on and they seem to have gone away. still some here and there but overall i think the problem has been solved. thanks everyone for your help.
-----
brandy