Problem with fruit flies...

[Edie]

Hi All!

New here, but not new to Redfoots. I have my 2011 hatchlings (11 little cuties) in a great habitat. About six weeks ago I added some sphagnum moss to help increase the humidity (we live in MN) and keeping that damp has helped quite a bit. Then about three weeks ago I started seeing these little flies, which I am assuming are fruit flies.

We are confident they were in the sphagnum moss because we are having the same issue, just not as bad, in the pen with our 2010 hatchlings where we also added the moss. However, nothing in our adult pen, which did not have any sphagnum moss added.

How do I get rid of them??

If I take the moss out, will they disappear? If I take the hatchlings out for a day, is there a non-toxic pesticide I could use? Have been raising torts for years and have never had this issue!!

Thanks in advance for any help.

Kind regards,

Edie

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Edie:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

If you feed fruit to your redfoots, that's where fruit flies come from. If they're little black gnats, that's from moist substrate. They're not harmful. Fruit flies are more brown or transluscent.

I'd love to see pictures of your redfoots and their habitats.

 

[Mgridgaway]

I have the same problem and I've given up trying to kill them. They're not a big nuisance... just annoying. I believe mine are more of the gnat variety. I see them as little tiny white crawly things that grow into little black tiny things that fly around.

 

[Madkins007]

If they are tiny, fast, and about half-way between a mosquito and a fly, they are fungus gnats (and have a lot of other names.) They live in damp substrate, are harmless to animals and people and only mildly annoying to plants.

They can be treated several ways, but most are not good for the tortoise. In my experience, you do not get them as much with the combination of heat ropes and cypress- which also greatly improves humidity- or with the bioactive substrate when you have micro-organisms and isopods in the soil mix to prey on them.

 

[dmmj]

Double sided sticky tape

 

[SulcataSquirt]

If you really want to get rid of them without changing substrate, which is really the only way to get rid of them because they just reproduce to fast. here is your other choice, http://diatomaceousearth.net/