Help….. fruit flies

[Karen(pebbles)]

Can somebody tell me how to control the fruit flies in a vivarium? I’ve got fly paper in there but the stupid things are driving me mad! I’ve got coco fibre and orchid bark as substrate and this seems to be attracting them, I’m struggling to keep the humidity up cause I’m constantly opening the door to get rid of them! Please anybody have any ideas?

 

[Tom]

Can somebody tell me how to control the fruit flies in a vivarium? I’ve got fly paper in there but the stupid things are driving me mad! I’ve got coco fibre and orchid bark as substrate and this seems to be attracting them, I’m struggling to keep the humidity up cause I’m constantly opening the door to get rid of them! Please anybody have any ideas?

They aren't fruit flies. They are phorid flies and they come from the surrounding environment. They are harmless detrivores. Our warm damp enclosures make a perfect environment for them to live and breed. I just ignore them and over time, they reach more of a balance and you see less and less of them. They are also helping to keep the bacterial and fungal load in your enclosure down. Many people intentionally add these and other critters to make a more balanced "bio-active" substrate. Your sticky tapes are probably the safest and most effective control method.

 

[Karen(pebbles)]

Thanks for replying Tom, they’re driving me mad, and I feel bad that my little guy is living in this.

 

[Blackdog1714]

You can try to rake up the substrate and this can disrupt the egg cycle. The tort packs the substrate flat and they get under it so by raking it exposes the eggs to more light & air and less moisture

 

[jsheffield]

I use this product from Amazon... it works incredibly well!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KRRJT5J/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

 

[TeamZissou]

I use this product from Amazon... it works incredibly well!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KRRJT5J/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

View attachment 328638

Seconded. You need to put lots of those up inside the vivarium, so that the gnats have almost nowhere to land except on the sticky traps. You can also buy a device called a "Katchy" and run that at night inside the enclosure. It emits a blue UV light, but if your tortoise is tucked away it won't affect his sleep.

I also used Gnatrol larvicide but I feel like the sticky traps would work well on their own, given enough time. Once you rid the enclosure of them, be wary of gnats from other house plants. They can get in and re-seed the enclosure.

See this thread:

Fungus Gnat Infestation and Possible Solution

Hi all, Issue: For the past two months, I've been dealing with fungus gnats, and in the last couple weeks, they've gone from annoying to out-of-control. Current Solution (which doesn't work): I've been putting out sugar water traps, which catch about 100 gnats in 3-4 days, but the gnats...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[harrythetortoise]

I had some of these flies in my enclosure as well once summer started, so I started removing all left-over food each evening after my tortoise has gone to bed, and I don't see them any more.