Ghasp,,, The fruit flys,

[gcollin]

I just realized today, that My Tiger Salamanders tank has a BUNCH of fruit flys, i am worried that they might hurt My Salamander, or the plants in the tank.
What should I do to KILL them all?, I was thinking that maybe I should just go buy more substrate and different plants, and throw all the stuff in the tank away.
I Will list all the things I have in the tank right now,
river bed rocks, (skipping stone size)
half of a dead aspin stump, (cut out to allow my salamander to lay in it)
non-nutrient top soil-soil,
basic reptile water dish,
and now for the plants-
pink bean spuds,
pothos,
some kind of "lily"
irish moss,
what I believe to be scottish moss,
and another one i believe to be terrestrial java moss (but I am unsure)
and some hydrated lichen,

the soil in the tank is 5 inches deep,
then I have sort of a rock bed made of the rocks I mentioned earlier,
I can post pictures if needed.


Thanks for your time,
-Collin.

 

[Jennewt]

They are probably fungus gnats, not fruit flies. These gnats are a common problem. The bad news is that they are impossible to get rid of. The good news is that they are harmless to your sal.

Changing the substrate will get rid of them temporarily, but they will come back.

 

[merk199]

Relax...Free tiger slamander food....Pull all fruit or vegetables you may have added to the enclosure for whatever reason. Life cycle is approx 7 days so unless they have food they will all die.

Are you sure they are fruit flies and not mites? My guess from reading about tyour setup they are mites. Again free tiger food...I wouldn't worry too much...

 

[dane_zu]

I dont think a tiger sal is going to bother to try and eat the gnats....

totally harmless, I get them on occasion

 

[pete]

One possibility that might help is if you reduce the moisture level in your tiger setup. No promises, but fruit flies and gnats tend eat fungi, and high moisture/humidity favors fungi. Of course there is always a balance to strike with amphibians, but tigers can handle conditions a little drier than many people keep their set ups.

Often the only way to control this type of pest is to remove their food source, so you'll likely have a problem completely eradicating them in your set up.

Oh, and these guys can sometimes be attracted to/feed on plant roots, so you may want to consider swapping out some plants and seeing if that helps, too.

 

[SludgeMunkey]

They are probably fungus gnats, not fruit flies. These gnats are a common problem. The bad news is that they are impossible to get rid of. The good news is that they are harmless to your sal.

Changing the substrate will get rid of them temporarily, but they will come back.

I deal with my in home "culture" of fungus gnats with a blacklight in the bottom of an open box. The sides of the box have a coating of petroleum jelly. Once the lights go out, the gnats gravitate to the box and get stuck in the jelly. This works well for fruit flies also.

 

[mechanic380]

I have never tried this and I don't know if it will kill other beneficial things in the tank. Obviously to use this you must remove the salamander until conditions return to normal. This should not harm plants. From a vivarium site: Place a chunk of dry ice in the enclosure and allow the CO2, white fog, to accumulate and fill the enclosure. Use caution with dry ice as it will burn your skin on contact, wear gloves. It can be purchased in grocery stores and has other fun uses if you search on the internet. Finally make sure you air out the enclosure well before returning your salamander. You can do this as many times as you like. The original poster recommended twice and uses it with infestations and after setting up a new enclosure to make sure there were no insect hitchhikers.

 

[gcollin]

Wow 6 replies. So I quarantined the tank, and of course I took my salamander out of the tank first, right now he is his back up 20 gallon tank, I keep extra substrate on hand at almost all times, and I took nothing out of his main tank to put in this tank, I don't want to risk eggs moving from tank to tank.
I cut a trash bag in half and put it over the top of his main tank, then taped it around the tank, so it will be kinda a seal for the tank, then I plan to leave the tank like that for 10 days, so all the fruit flies or whatever these pests are will die.



-Collin

 

[gcollin]

So I sealed the tank off (air tight) in the hope they would die off, but I forgot to remove the plants, so now most of the plants have been taking over by fungus and mold, so i am going to buy more soil, and take everything out of the tank, and redo the whole thing, and start with new plants and everything, the only problem is, soil is not easy to find during winter.
My Tiger Salamander seems dis pleased with his current tank, but can You blame him?.


-Collin