Multi-Species outdoor enclosure with heated house! PIC HEAVY

[nickpanzee]

One flaw in design that I have figured out has to do with an invasive species. FIRE ANTS! They are nasty little grrrrrs. Apparently my tortoises' house is a good place for them to make their home inside the walls. If I could do it all again, I think I'd put a nice layer of diatomaceous earth (DE) at the bottom and add layers inside the walls to help discourage them. Might even be better to build it on a slab. I haven't opened up the house much now that it's hot out and my tortoises come out when they know I'm around. I haven't seen much of my adult male and female Greeks, mostly the male and I went looking for him (he has a lot of plants in there to hide under) after I found that there were fire ants in that side of the wall (of course it's the side I almost never open) and in his enclosure under some of the plants. He has a lot of stings on him, I wonder if they attacked him and he just withdrew into his shell. I have him inside for now, he's got a good appetite.

I sprinkled DE all over where the ants are. I got some otrho-boric acid and put it into a container with bacon grease and set that in some of their nest area. I hope that they all die. No one else is hurt, so that's good.

I just wanted to say that there is a flaw that the ants will take advantage of, incase anyone else in the fire ant area wants to built something similar.

 

[skmackley2]

Where did you get all these tortoises from and how much?

 

[nickpanzee]

Where did you get all these tortoises from and how much?

I got the adult female Greek at a pet expo in San Antonio back in 2007. I don't remember how much I paid for her. I got all of my male Greeks from Danny, EgyptianDan from here (TFO).

I got the largest redfoot from a pet store in San Antonio as a hatchling back in 2007, can't remember how much. One redfoot I got from craigslist from a kid that wasn't taking proper care of it for $40. The rest of the redfoots I got at reptile expos for varying amounts.

The leopards, I think I paid about $100 each and got the female from Russ Walker at NARBC in Arlington in 09. THe other 2 were produced by Brian Bolton and I got them at SA expos.

I got all of them except for the 1.1 adult Greeks and the redfoot from craigslist as hatchlings, so they weren't as expensive. The female leopard was under a year old when I got her. For the size they are now, they'd be much more.

 

[TigsMom]

You've done an incredible job, my back aches just looking at all that work and I think I need a nap! Your tortoises are so incredibly lucky to have you tending to them. Thank you for sharing it all with us, so much food for great thought, along with the lessons you've learned. Be sure to keep us updated about your battle with the fire ants too. We battle them here in AZ as well.

 

[skmackley2]

Oh cool, I just got 1 horsefield, so is this structure you made outside?

 

[Teodora'sDAD]

WONDERFUL setup you made!

 

[skmackley2]

do you have some detailed annotated blue prints of the whole thing together, would just love to look at your ideas

 

[nickpanzee]

Heheh. It wasn't my back that hurt, it was my elbows. Those blocks are heavy when you move so many. The new, larger enclosures that I am making are out of wood. Those are much easier to manage. I don't know why I didn't think of using wood for the first part.

I don't have any blueprints. I have my drawings, but I'm not sure if they would make sense to anyone else. Also, I just made it how the blocks would fit. They didn't work like I drew them to The drawings were more guidelines. I kind of made some of it up as I went.

Thanks for the compliments!

I hope the DE gets those fire ants out of the enclosures. They are a pain. Especially for my male Greek, poor guy.

 

[skmackley2]

oh okay! i would make that but im in the UK and you get warmth and rain and cold so it cant be outside? ad inside i dont have room, plus i have no money to make this at the moment, well its just the expensive tortoises!

 

[TigsMom]

Fortunately, the fire ants haven't gotten into the turtle pens here and their colonies are not near the pens. Unfortunately for them, they get into my house. (that means WAR) I have a natural pest control guy come to the house once a month (more frequently if those darn Fire Ants show up). The only sure way to kill fire ants is to give them something that they take back to to the colony and kills the Queen. We battled them for months last year and finally got them under control. It seems we had several colonies on the property. This year they've sent out a few scouts, and I just pointed them out to my Pest Control guy. We're on it like blue bonnet. Next time he's out I'll get the exact name of the product and see if it's something that you can get and put down around the perimeter of your enclosure. In the meantime, try some cream of wheat (yes the cereal), dry. When they eat it, it explodes their digestive tract and kills them. My pest control guy owns a tortoise and assures me the stuff he uses doesn't harm my tortoise. We've used their service and products for years and have seen no affect on my tortoises, turtles or any of the wildlife that live here.

 

[AnnV]

Wow! Amazing enclosure! Congrats on a job well done!

I hate fire ants. We will be moving from CT to FL in the next year or two. We will have to deal with them then. :-(

Ann from CT