Canola Oil and Gnats

[mctlong]

Hey everyone,

Has anyone ever mixed canola oil with their substrate to control gnat infestations?

I was at the hardware store yesterday looking at organic pesticides for my houseplants and I found a product that lists its active ingredient as "canola oil." So, instead of spending $9 on pesticide, I swung by the grocery store and picked up a bottle of canola for 99 cents. I'll be using this on all my houseplants. I researched the oil a bit online and found that its non toxic. Rather than killing bugs via a chemical, it kills them by coating their exoskeleton. (Since these bugs don't have lungs they breath through small pores in their exoskeleton. Covering those pores results in suffocation).

If its safe, I'd also like to use it in my tort's enclosure. Has anyone used or researched using canola oil in their tortoise enclosure? Using this product in the substrate would result in small quantities being deposited on the tort's skin and shell when he burrows. While its non-toxic, I'd still like to confirm that these small quantities on his skin and shell would not cause health problems.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

--Shelly

 

[-JM]

It sounds really clever! If you try it please let me know how it works! Gnats are terrible around my house and this seems like a good way to control them without endangering all my pets...

 

[PeanutbuttER]

A couple threads have mentioned people who intentionally put olive oil on their shell. It seems like some of those that do it believe it actually helps the shell grow smoother. Those that don't seem to think it attracts dirt is all. Here are some of the threads for you

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-16382.html?highlight=olive+oil
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-1845.html?highlight=olive+oil
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-11188.html?highlight=olive+oil

I'm not sure if canola oil would have a similar effect, but it seems like worst case scenario your torts will get greasy but have no long term damage. Best case scenario is you kill all the gnats. How are you planning on mixing it with your substrate? I bet a spray bottle would work well for only putting down a light layer at a time.

 

[TortieGal]

I hate those darn tiny nats, I have a bunch of them and my substrate is pretty new. I like the canola oil idea. I think I'll mix some just under the slate where I feed ,thats where the nats are the worst. That way it won't be all over the place and wont get on the tortoise much.