Replacing Live Plants with Artificial: Questions

[thecrawlingchaos]

Hello to all.

I've been maintaining live plants in my Burmese star enclosure for about a year and a half. They are pothos plants.

My issue with them is that they always seem to fall victim to thrip infestations that spread throughout my enclosure, and to some extent throughout my reptile room. I've tried predatory mites and basic repotting and cleaning to stop the issue, but they always return, eventually. I replace the bark substrate, F-10 the enclosure, then it dies down for a month or to. It eventually comes back in full force every time.

I'm curious to know if I could safely use fake plants to get around this issue. I do not want to leave the enclosure totally barren, but I'm about at the end of my rope with plants. I know plants serve as broken shade/cover, and that this is beneficial. Perhaps I could add an additional hide? I'm at a loss here and any information is appreciated.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Fake plants are a toss up.
Will your tortoise try to eat them? We don't know until its too late.
Can you decorate your enclosure by placing these plastic plants in areas that your tortoise can't bite them?

 

[Tom]

Hello to all.

I've been maintaining live plants in my Burmese star enclosure for about a year and a half. They are pothos plants.

My issue with them is that they always seem to fall victim to thrip infestations that spread throughout my enclosure, and to some extent throughout my reptile room. I've tried predatory mites and basic repotting and cleaning to stop the issue, but they always return, eventually. I replace the bark substrate, F-10 the enclosure, then it dies down for a month or to. It eventually comes back in full force every time.

I'm curious to know if I could safely use fake plants to get around this issue. I do not want to leave the enclosure totally barren, but I'm about at the end of my rope with plants. I know plants serve as broken shade/cover, and that this is beneficial. Perhaps I could add an additional hide? I'm at a loss here and any information is appreciated.

Are you sure it is thrips and not spring tails?

I've never been able to use plastic plants. Every time I have tried the tortoises eat them.

 

[thecrawlingchaos]

I'm unsure. They fly, but are very weak flyers. They have very thin abdomen and thorax. I need a magnifying glass to get a decent look at them, but they are very gnat-like.

I'm not going to use any plastic pants if the risk is high. Right now I just have a couple of shelters.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I'm unsure. They fly, but are very weak flyers. They have very thin abdomen and thorax. I need a magnifying glass to get a decent look at them, but they are very gnat-like.

I'm not going to use any plastic pants if the risk is high. Right now I just have a couple of shelters.

You can use Lyriopi and Spider plants in little pots. They're decorative. Inexpensive. Do ok in low light and are generally tortoise nibble proof.

 

[Tom]

I'm unsure. They fly, but are very weak flyers. They have very thin abdomen and thorax. I need a magnifying glass to get a decent look at them, but they are very gnat-like.

I'm not going to use any plastic pants if the risk is high. Right now I just have a couple of shelters.

Spring tails are whitish/grayish in color and they don't fly. What you describe sounds like oho rid flies. These are to plant suckers. They are harmless detrivores. They come from the surrounding environment and colonize our warm humid substrate.

I can't seem to keep live plants alive very well either. My tortoises eat or trample anything they can reach, and most Pothos seem to slowly die off little by little. I've tried more water, less water, no water, fertilizers, adding soil, re-potting, adding light, etc... Don't know what I'm doing wrong.