I've read about food grade diatomaceous earth being used to fend off bugs that are attracted to tortoise enclosures.
My RF's indoor enclosure was recently overwhelmed with tiny little bugs. It's a pretty large enclosure and needs a lot of substrate, so it wasn't worth removing all the substrate and baking it to kill off the bugs. It all got thrown out. He's in a temp enclosure now while I switch off cypress and fully sterilize the enclosure itself.
I'm likely getting coco coir bricks and some cypress or orchid bark to mix in and give it a chunkier texture. I'm going to bake the coco coir to kill off any potential invaders (if someone could direct me to a guide on how to do that, that would be great!) but I'd really like to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I'm aware now that they won't hurt my RF, but I'd just really rather not have them in his enclosure at all. I deserve better, HE deserves better, and those bugs deserve nothing.
So about the diatomaceous earth: is it okay to use this to prevent bugs from ever setting up shop in there? Can I sprinkle it in his substrate and mix it around, or do I need to wait for an actual infestation to occur? Does it annihilate the bugs or does it just cut down their numbers? How much is needed to be effective per sq. ft. of substrate? The most important question is whether it would hurt my RF at all, but it seems like people feed DE to their torts straight in order to prevent parasites so I assume it's safe.
My RF's indoor enclosure was recently overwhelmed with tiny little bugs. It's a pretty large enclosure and needs a lot of substrate, so it wasn't worth removing all the substrate and baking it to kill off the bugs. It all got thrown out. He's in a temp enclosure now while I switch off cypress and fully sterilize the enclosure itself.
I'm likely getting coco coir bricks and some cypress or orchid bark to mix in and give it a chunkier texture. I'm going to bake the coco coir to kill off any potential invaders (if someone could direct me to a guide on how to do that, that would be great!) but I'd really like to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I'm aware now that they won't hurt my RF, but I'd just really rather not have them in his enclosure at all. I deserve better, HE deserves better, and those bugs deserve nothing.
So about the diatomaceous earth: is it okay to use this to prevent bugs from ever setting up shop in there? Can I sprinkle it in his substrate and mix it around, or do I need to wait for an actual infestation to occur? Does it annihilate the bugs or does it just cut down their numbers? How much is needed to be effective per sq. ft. of substrate? The most important question is whether it would hurt my RF at all, but it seems like people feed DE to their torts straight in order to prevent parasites so I assume it's safe.