Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone in Florida have a suggestion for fighting mosquito infestation in my tortoise pen? I have a 100 lbs Aldabran and mosquitos swarm around her face constantly. I have mosquito magnets outside each end of the pen (3000 sq ft), and I have citronella torches along the perimeter, but cannot burn them constantly. This is the worst mosquito problem in the past 11 years! Is there any repellant that is safe to use on her neck and legs?

There is a plant you can get at Home Depot that they claim wards off mosquitos.

I never tried it but its worth a shot.
Of course don't let the tortoise eat it.

lol

Good luck.

try looking around and eliminating any sources of standing water that you may have. Some of them may be obvious such as water bowls and rain barrels, others may not be so obvious such as the leaf axils of plants in the banana family (bird-of-paradise, traveler's palms, heliconias etc.) or worse yet and not so obvious bromeliad patches.
Bromeliads are bad because mosquitos and other animals in nature are designed to utilize these reservoirs to live in.
If it is something you cannot easily empty there are two approaches you can take, for larger water containers like ornamental ponds and such you can stock them with goldfish or mosquito fish you can buy both at the fish store (the latter are what they usually sell as feeder guppies here in Fl.) or for plants like bromeliads or if you don't want to use fish you can by BT (baits????not sure if it is technically a bait...BT stans for baccillus thurigensis ) It is usually sold in the form of solid donut shaped dealies (seriously I'm not sure of the exact term here.) or in a granulated form which works really well for your bromeliad patches.
Other than the prevention steps I do not know what to tell you, I always thought the mosquito magnets would be my ultimate solution for mosquitos. I heard they work quite well. I have never really thought of putting repellents on my tortoises (nor would I since I am leery of them.) I am not sure I would even try skin so soft on them and that is the only thing I will put on myself for mosquitos.

Dont stand to close to the grill with that skin-so-soft....POOF! I would also stay out of thouse red neck Fl Bars too. VM

I never ran into mosquitos in the bars only barflys.

My Mt.Tortoises go through the same thing. They get into the water with only their nostrols above the water line when they have had enough. They also dig a mud wallow and cover their face and legs with mud. You can set up a fan (high powered)in a place it likes to sit or it might figgure it out. I'd go for the mud, but move it around as they become unhealthy. A big pile of "dry leaves works too. Pour the leaves over it at bedding down time for starters. Alot of this depends on the tortoise, I dont know if this affliction occures in their native range. A lot of animales just deal with it or in a tortoises case if its to bad they will just close up inside their shell. Look into Batt houses. Vic