Cage pests:

[jbrd]

Anyone ever have a fruit fly problem in the roach enclosures? We just seem to have so many of them there virtually impossible to get rid of :angry: we have been trying for months now to no avail! :blink:

We only put enough wet food in there to last one day in each enclosure, we are very careful and keep the tanks clean as possible.

We have B.dubia (approximately 300 t0 400) in dry tank with egg crates and a roach motel.

G. Portentosa (approximately 500) in dry tank with egg crates and a roach motel.

E. Prosticus (20) on dry 7 to 8 inch deep substrate.

Any suggestions on trying to get rid of these guys?

Where are they culturing from?

We even did not water for two weeks, this helped but did not cure the problem?

We do not leave any other fruit or vegetables out in any other part of the house because of our unintended fruit fly colony lol

Why could we not have gotten the flightless kind? :lol:

 

[Matt K]

Are you SURE they are fruitflies? Those are uncommon infestations in cultures....you should be able to put in enough food to be completely eaten within 3 days to a week at a time without issues. The most common infestation of fliers are Fungus Gnats. For these you either wait until they burn themselves out or you can order Hypoaspis mites to sprinkle in there and have them eat the gnats. Or hang up some strips of flypaper...

In either case, if you have roach colonies you will have forever some additional friends, be them mites, flies, gnats, springtails, or others....

 

[Chris Driggers]

I get those little fruitfly-like critters in my roach colonies once every now and again, I usually take out all food and water, and remove any dead roaches, and leave the lid off the enclosure for a couple hours, then put everything back and put the lid back on and that usually does the trick.

 

[Allpet Roaches]

If your problem is fruit flies stop feeding your roaches fruit. The species you keep do fine on dog food alone. Even species that do better with fruit included in the diet only need to be fed fruit once or twice a month.

Are you familiar with phorid flies? They are common pests in roach and cricket cultures that feed on dead insects. They look similar to fruit flies but often run across surfaces (also called scuttle flies). If all dead bodies are immediately flushed they'll go away but with many large cultures control would require excessive vigilance.

 

[Gsc]

I get some gnats (I need to take Orin's advice and only offer fruit/veggies twice a month) as well as some mites in my hissers (My falt again from probably overfeeding/leaving too much food in the cage)... They don't seem to bother anything.

I'm gone for two weeks at a time so I tend to overfeed when I'm home... the colonies do dry out a bit while I'm gone so that helps to control them a bit also...

 

[Bricktop]

Anyone ever have a fruit fly problem in the roach enclosures? We just seem to have so many of them there virtually impossible to get rid of :angry: we have been trying for months now to no avail! :blink: We only put enough wet food in there to last one day in each enclosure, we are very careful and keep the tanks clean as possible.

We have B.dubia (approximately 300 t0 400) in dry tank with egg crates and a roach motel.

G. Portentosa (approximately 500) in dry tank with egg crates and a roach motel.

E. Prosticus (20) on dry 7 to 8 inch deep substrate.

Any suggestions on trying to get rid of these guys?

Where are they culturing from?

We even did not water for two weeks, this helped but did not cure the problem?

We do not leave any other fruit or vegetables out in any other part of the house because of our unintended fruit fly colony lol

Why could we not have gotten the flightless kind? :lol:

During the summer months i experience fly problems in my tanks- although they can't ever be totally removed i usually tackle it with extra cleaning (removing dead roaches and food) and in really bad cases putting the tank outside in the backyard and letting it air out. In any case, aside from looking ugly or "gross", maggots and flies haven't been a real threat to my roaches. They're just being opportunistic, and with such a huge supply of food and no predators, where better to lay eggs and live than in a roach terrarium?

During the winter these types die off as the ones inside die and the cold means there's no one to replace them. They are annoying though, that's one thing, but that's life i suppose.

 

[Michael Johnson]

i get phorid flies with my crickets, which is just one reason I switched to roaches..

with the high mortality rate of crix they were always around feeding on the carcuses..

Leaving the lid off for a bit usually helped.

fly paper and a natural repellent wax for flying insects that you can get at the big chain hardware stores took care of the problem..

good luck.. they are annoying :angry:

 

[Matt K]

I have found that between using Hypoaspis miles species of mite, a couple strands of that fly paper tape stuff, and a couple of those sticky pads on the floor, every little pest has been stuck or eaten. Add to that my wife saying the bug room is the cleanest in the house (to me she is making a point not a compliment!) and my flying pests seem to be gone.

 

[shotcaller88]

I apologize for bumping such an old thread. However, I'm experiencing this same exact problem. I thought they were fruit flies and refer to them as such, but they are probably phorid flies or something similar as mentioned above. I found a dead dubia in one of my emperor scorpion enclosures white maggots in it. Pretty gross. I removed it right away.

I completely cleaned out my dubia enclosure and they have seemed to reappeared now (a few weeks later) stronger than ever. Every time I remove the lid, a few seem to escape and annoy me throughout the day. I feed the dubia fruit once or twice a week and it seems to disappear rather quickly. I believe I have found the source of the problem...water crystals.

I use a gallon bottle to keep the water crystals in and when I pour them into the dubia's water bowl, quite often some crystals miss the bowl or it overflows a little. This led to moist roach excrement. I guess this has been the breeding ground for these flies as there were a lot of egg casings stuck to the bottom of the water bowl.

I am trying to clean up my act and keep the enclosure as dry as possible. I am now giving collards as the exclusive source of moisture until these flies are completely gone. I'll also try and remove any dead roaches asap.

 

[Matt K]

I apologize for bumping such an old thread. However, I'm experiencing this same exact problem. I thought they were fruit flies and refer to them as such, but they are probably phorid flies or something similar as mentioned above. I found a dead dubia in one of my emperor scorpion enclosures white maggots in it. Pretty gross. I removed it right away.I completely cleaned out my dubia enclosure and they have seemed to reappeared now (a few weeks later) stronger than ever. Every time I remove the lid, a few seem to escape and annoy me throughout the day. I feed the dubia fruit once or twice a week and it seems to disappear rather quickly. I believe I have found the source of the problem...water crystals.

I use a gallon bottle to keep the water crystals in and when I pour them into the dubia's water bowl, quite often some crystals miss the bowl or it overflows a little. This led to moist roach excrement. I guess this has been the breeding ground for these flies as there were a lot of egg casings stuck to the bottom of the water bowl.

I am trying to clean up my act and keep the enclosure as dry as possible. I am now giving collards as the exclusive source of moisture until these flies are completely gone. I'll also try and remove any dead roaches asap.

The best defense is a strong offense. When I have had them show up I clean all the elcosures in the same day/weekend. You may also find glueboards (I use TomCat brand) with a tiny amount of food in the middle of the board very helpful. They are attracted to the food and then when they "hop" around the food they get stuck. A small dead roach or med. nymph makes the best bait. I use either fish food or a lobster roach.

 

[Android raptor]

I had a problem with fruit flies a while back. They were all in my hissers food, so annoying! But then we looked under my bed and found they were all in some soda cans my sister's ferret had dragged under there! So once those were trashed they slowly started dissappearing. Think the cold weather might have something to do with it, though.

 

[Mad About Cichlids]

I apologize for bumping such an old thread. However, I'm experiencing this same exact problem. I thought they were fruit flies and refer to them as such, but they are probably phorid flies or something similar as mentioned above. I found a dead dubia in one of my emperor scorpion enclosures white maggots in it. Pretty gross. I removed it right away.I completely cleaned out my dubia enclosure and they have seemed to reappeared now (a few weeks later) stronger than ever. Every time I remove the lid, a few seem to escape and annoy me throughout the day. I feed the dubia fruit once or twice a week and it seems to disappear rather quickly. I believe I have found the source of the problem...water crystals.

I use a gallon bottle to keep the water crystals in and when I pour them into the dubia's water bowl, quite often some crystals miss the bowl or it overflows a little. This led to moist roach excrement. I guess this has been the breeding ground for these flies as there were a lot of egg casings stuck to the bottom of the water bowl.

I am trying to clean up my act and keep the enclosure as dry as possible. I am now giving collards as the exclusive source of moisture until these flies are completely gone. I'll also try and remove any dead roaches asap.

Sorry for bumping old thread but I believe my fly problem is also do to excessive moisture due to water crystals. As the enclosures without water crystals and are pretty dry barely has any flies in there when I open up the lids. This fly problem is really starting to bug my girlfriend so now I'm trying the screen top(hope that they can't get in and out to repopulate) and keeping the enclosures dry as possible.

 

[jbrd]

Sorry for bumping old thread but I believe my fly problem is also do to excessive moisture due to water crystals. As the enclosures without water crystals and are pretty dry barely has any flies in there when I open up the lids. This fly problem is really starting to bug my girlfriend so now I'm trying the screen top(hope that they can't get in and out to repopulate) and keeping the enclosures dry as possible.

Just a quick update: What seems to have helped the most is making sure there are no dead roaches and I had to be anal about it. Plus I started alternating between dry food and wet food. Kept the wet food (fruits, vegies, etc) to a small amount to ensure it was eaten within 24hrs.

I also came up with a better watering system because the open water dish was part of the problem I think. Basically all I did was flip a glass jar upside down and poked holes in the lid to allow the water to come out slowly but yet there is always water for the roaches to drink from.

 

[Zephyr]

Hmm... All I get are these tiny flies, about once every month, and sometimes in with my lobsters, these odd orange-spotted beetles.

 

[Huntsman]

Just a quick update: What seems to have helped the most is making sure there are no dead roaches and I had to be anal about it. Plus I started alternating between dry food and wet food. Kept the wet food (fruits, vegies, etc) to a small amount to ensure it was eaten within 24hrs.

I also came up with a better watering system because the open water dish was part of the problem I think. Basically all I did was flip a glass jar upside down and poked holes in the lid to allow the water to come out slowly but yet there is always water for the roaches to drink from.

Nice idea! The water doesn't come pouring out, though?

 

[Matt K]

Nice idea! The water doesn't come pouring out, though?

Messy, but no it does not. Atmospheric pressures and all doing what they do. Pain in the butt if you ask me. All my species get what they need from food items, occasional misting, and occasional water gel.

 

[Ralph]

Just a little suggestion, does anyone think rove beetles (Staphylinidae) would be any good in controlling pests? They can be too small to hurt roaches and eat fly maggots and other cage pests (maybe even grain mites!). I've been able to find lots under logs and bricks in my backyard.

 

[Marlon]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but as a test I put some phorid fly larvae and uneaten pear in with a rove beetle and it gobbled up the larvae and some of the pear.  So I put it in my dubia bin, but not sure where it went.  The rove beetles seem to be on the move a lot.  When I checked a month later, it was gone and still had a lot of phorid larvae, and surprisingly some other kind of beetle was in there instead.  Now I just try to keep it clean, with very little frass and it is nicer to look at too.  I serve food on cut up paper plates so I can throw it away if it is more than 3 days old.  Also, if you youtube rove beetles you see they can be ferocious; I think they could easily kill a small nymph and have their fill and not bother with the grubs.  I think I'll not try it again. They are cool beetles though.

 

[NeverLift]

I had a phroid outbreak in my blaberus bin. I changed out the substrate, let it dry out, flypaper, vinagar traps, and extra springtails.  Nothing was working, they were starting to spread into my other bins and gecko tanks.  As a last resort I added buffalo beetles(lesser mealworm) they helped but did not solve it. I noticed my oriantalis bin has a Vaseline barrier, there were  flys stuck to it. I slathered vaseline all over the top and sides of the blaberus bin and within a few days they were all gone. 

IMO a vaseline barrier is the best offense for a fly problem