# Pesticides



## Mark Carson (May 25, 2014)

Wondering how people with tortoises roaming freely in there back yards control bugs,ants,roaches,spiders,and all other unwanted pests without risk of harm to our tortoises.


----------



## ascott (May 26, 2014)

Ants, roaches, spider...all pretty normal critters to be outdoors....if you have an ant issue that causes the tort harm then you can perhaps try diatomaceous earth (food grade only, not the kind for pools) and sprinkle that around and on the ant hills....roaches and spiders seem to be more night dwellers and likely are not even noticed by the torts....


----------



## JoesMum (May 26, 2014)

I admit that I live in the UK, and our critters are possibly less aggressive than yours, but I do nothing about them. It's horribke puting your fingers on a slug that is sheltering on Joe's plastron when you pick it, but it does neither of us any harm. The ants nip me, but seem to have no effect on Joe. The birds deliberately lie on the ant nests to get the ants amongst their feathers!

The mammals are of more concern. We have foxes. Fortunately, they have never touched Joe, but a friend's female Ibera got chewed.


----------



## Maggie Cummings (May 26, 2014)

I collect the slugs to protect my veggies and feed them to my box turtles. I attract wild birds that eat a variety of bugs. And I smash every Brown Recluse spider I find, and we have a lot of them...


----------



## Yvonne G (May 26, 2014)

Diatomaceous earth is supposed to work pretty good, so last autumn when I was setting up my winter habitats outside on the car port, I first put down a thin layer of DE, then the plastic sheeting over it, then the substrate. I had just as many bugs in those habitats as I always did in previous years.

I add a layer of borax all around the inside walls of my house and that keeps them out pretty good. 

I use poison everyplace where the tortoises can't get to it. I make sure to cover the poison with plastic containers similar to cottage cheese containers with a small hole cut out of the lip of the container, then I place a brick on top of that...just to keep the cats from accidentally getting into the poison.


----------



## Tom (May 26, 2014)

I remove black widows by hand (well, with a shoe or object...) when I see them. I use Terro Ant Baits for the ants. These are just borax and sugar water, so non-toxic, and I put them in areas where no animals have access.

Everything else is good to have around. Spiders won't harm my tortoises and they keep the other bugs at bay, so I like having them around. Roaches are harmless. I don't worry too much about everything else. It all stays in a pretty good balance.


----------



## Cowboy_Ken (May 26, 2014)

maggie3fan said:


> And I smash every Brown Recluse spider I find, and we have a lot of them...


 Right? And people get all worried about black widows. Get bit and ooh, fever and food poisoning symptoms. Brown Recluse, your lucky if you identify what bit you for the ER.


----------



## Neal (May 30, 2014)

This area has been a struggle for me over the years, but lately I've been getting "better" at it. Our biggest problem is crickets and while they do not cause any harm to the tortoises themselves, they do attract black widows and scorpions which can cause major issues.

What has helped is a lot of little stuff, but little stuff goes a long way. I've put sand underneath bricks, pieces of flagstone, and anything that is stationary which has done a pretty good job of keeping the bugs from hiding underneath these items while still not being a danger to the tortoises since they are underneath heavy items. The bugs have a hard time burrowing in the sand because the sand collapses on them. All of the corners and tops of my housing structures are sealed to keep bugs from hiding in the cracks. This has to be done and redone somewhat frequently due to exposure to the elements outdoors. I make sure to not leave any boards or light objects (like plastic soaking tubs) out in the open or stacked up. I do my best to keep leaf litter from piling up, trim leaves and plants a few inches of the ground, and I try to rake up poop as soon as I see it. The tortoises are fed all plant matter directly inside their enclosures, but are fed mazuri or other types of "messy" food in plastic tubs away from the enclosures. It may not sound like a whole lot, but like I said, all these little things seem to do a good job of not attracting the bad guys. I've only seen one scorpion in the tortoise area in the year that I've been in my current house.

I do also use some pesticide, but it's extremely cautiously applied. I don't use granular pesticides because I would worry that the ants or bugs would carry it into the tortoise pens and all over the grass and plants (which the tortoises eat). I do my own spraying, but very very little in the backyard and it's never in an area where the tortoises have direct access. All of the pilasters in our fencing are blocked from the tortoises, and that's typically where a lot of bugs will hide and where I lightly spray. I will dilute the pesticide more than recommended for backyard applications. Any dead bugs from the spraying that I find, I will remove to decrease the risk of coming in contact with the tortoises.


----------



## Durhamstyle (Jun 20, 2014)

I am new on here and this is merely my -possibly unaccepted -opinion: 
I am a "live and let live" kind of person. We have Fiddle back spiders, Black Widows, Tarantulas and ants on the 1.5 acre property. I don't kill the spiders, because they eat the annoy insects. The larger spiders eliminate the abundance of other spiders and the ants clean up the mess lol the natural biological system at work.
Occasionally I use diatomaceous earth in my veggie gardens , but otherwise I let nature's assassins do their magic. 

The Fiddle Back spider aka Brown Recluse can leave a nasty wound with necrosis leaving awful scars , but I've had so many friends bitten by them ( requiring surgery), I guess the fear has been lost. Black widows are usually very, very shy. Sorry, I am an avid arachnid lover  
Now put me in a car that's when I get nervous. lol


----------



## sulcata2014 (Jul 28, 2014)

I agree that the diatomaceous earth on ant hills is safe. You can use borax powder on the hills but you will have to invert a tote with a heavy rock or cinder, block. This will be good for a few days, then you can dig the mound out and dump elsewhere then water it in good. As far as spiders go, just know the venomous ones in your area and selectively eliminate them only. Other bugs are just natural and won't harm a tortoise unless you have an infestation and that's a bigger problem!


----------



## Team Gomberg (Jul 28, 2014)

Yvonne G said:


> Diatomaceous earth is supposed to work pretty good, so last autumn when I was setting up my winter habitats outside on the car port, I first put down a thin layer of DE, then the plastic sheeting over it, then the substrate. I had just as many bugs in those habitats as I always did in previous years.


This just means that the bugs weren't getting into the habitat by going through the plastic sheeting 

DE has to be in the path or entryway of the bugs to keep them out. If you see an ant trail, pour the DE along the trail and in the entry/exit holes. If you are worried about bugs in general getting into certain areas, line the perimeter. It's worked perfectly well for me anytime I've done it that way...but for the most part, I don't worry about bugs. I will kill certain spiders but I leave the harmless ones behind because they help my cause


----------

