Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anyone who has outside cages use pharamone disks to attract insect? I may be in the dark ages but I recieved an e-mail from a friend earlier and I thought I would pass this along to you with outside cages, don't know that much about it.
-----
Phrynosoma.org

______

signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

They make cartridges containing a pheremone type chemical called Octenol to attract misquitoes and such for bug zappers. Don't know what else it will also attract, but the line of thinking on that might not exactly be what is considered safe for the bug...know what I mean? Therefore it may not be safe for the lizard to eat a bug if the bug has been exposed to it. I guess if it is covered in such a way that the bug can't actually come into contact then it wouldn't pose a harm.
CO2 ( dry ice ) can have the same effect on attracting biting bugs, as well as the UV bug lights. But too much dry ice in an outdoor enclosure can suffocate a lizard.
There might be another type of pheremone product out there, but I haven't seen it.

I'd probably stick with the bug lights or something else more natural, like some fruit. Mainly because there's not a questionable saftey issue, and if your going to use attractants like CO2 or Octenol, you're going to get in abundance the biting insects that they were meant to attract.

I saw a bug catcher in wally world tonight that works on a/c power using a UV light and a fan. The bugs get attracted to the light and get sucked into a holding tray by the fan below.
-----
"A man that should call everything by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy." The Complete Works of George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax 1912,246