Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do you guys deal with those little "flies" that live your tank? Or am I the only one that has this problem? They are smaller than fruit flies, maybe like gnats or something? I have heard that isopods or springtails can deal with them?

Thanks,

Matt

theres 4 ways i know of to deal with it.

1) let the substrate dry out for a while.
2) immediately remove all feces from the enclosure
3) remove all dead crickets from the enclosure
4) live with it.

chances are still good that they'll eventually come back. they always come back for me whenever i get more crickets.
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-Mike Martin
North Carolina

Yep, me too, but more so in the hotter months (summer) then I get a break . But hte things Mike mentioned are right on!

They are annoying lil buggers I breed crickets and they will get in and eat your cricket eggs also, THE STINKERS
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

i would agree with mike. even if you remove dead crickets and fecal matter every 2-3 days it will dramatically help. i think they prefer laying eggs in the dead soggy crickets over the fecal matter, so try to only feed your animals the amount of crickets you think they will eat each night to avoid excess dead ones throughout the cage.

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the advice. I can definitely say that I need to stay more on top of the fecal removal... usually I just spray it off of the plants and into the soil. Though I have never really seen dead crickets in there, I think they do a good job of nailing all of them. I just added some leaf litter cover to the tank floor, and I noticed an increase in flies with this, so maybe I will take a bit out.

Anyway, they aren't the worst thing ever... just though there might be something else to try!

Thanks again,

Matt