Starting a outside enclosure!

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

So i have them in the house and get them sun all the time and its a big indoor enclosure but being summer time still, and i moved.

So i want to build an outside enclosure. I have started with a big wood garden box i have some organic flowers and clovers growing in it and im going to add repti bark to 1/4 of it.

My thing is. I woke up to have 2 things of spider webs on it. So what do you guys do for bugs outside?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Bugs are going to be a fact of life out doors. Maybe your desert tortoise would prefer a more arid landscape that insects would not like. Where are you located and what type tortoise? Your main concern would be things like biting ants...insects that will actually hurt your pet and not just insects that look bad. I have to rake and turn up my soil and mulch substrate to keep the critters from even getting a foothold on my enclosures and even then, it doesn't always work. I spray and sprinkle pesticides around my yard and around the OUTSIDE of my pens. This helps a lot since it keeps anything from reaching the pen. Also, NEVER leave food laying around! If it is a desert tortoise, the bark might not be the best fit for it. Also, by garden box, I'm not sure what you mean. Make sure that he's not so small that a neighbors cat or a raccoon will cart him off and that it's not a bottomless box that he can dig under and escape. I have cement pads buried about 6" below the top soil to prevent escape and motion detector lights and alerts set up around the perimeter and inside the dog house to scare the cats. (They aren't set off by my slow moving tortoise.) And it's all very inexpensively done. Although I'm sure most hobbyist don't go to such lengths.... It seems to work. Good luck!!

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Spiders eat bugs. Unless you have poisonous spiders in your area, you can ignore them.

 

[ascott]

Oh good..OUTSIDE, the perfect place for a posse of Desert Torts.......the space you are referring to...it is a raised planter box right;

https://timbersil.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/wood-raised-planter-box.jpg

or this:

http://planterplan.com/uploads/3/1/3/1/3131148/10140.jpg?1343854325

Either is good....just curious about the bottom side....if the raised bed is one that is off the ground then you won't have to worry about any dig outs....

If the raised bed is on the ground then you can try to line the inside with little half size flat paver sunk down into the dirt to help discourage digging around the edges...I have noticed that if the edges are already well established and do not have places where light comes through under the edges then the torts don't really care much...but it would be good that for the first week you put them out you observe them closely to see where the enclosure weaknesses are and can address them to assure a more secure set up....also, lots of hiding places are good...I really like this idea for a frame to use perhaps over the space for any aerial attacks as well as no easy walk offs...

http://smallutions.com/wp-content/gallery/raised-planter-box-1/s3productsraised_planter_box0010.jpg

Just have a good time and have fun...

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Okay well that gives me some settle mind with the spiders they are just normal annoying spiders. And its more like the bottom garden box in size. But it has a wood bottom so no digging out and they are only 10 months and desert tortoises 3 of them. Im going to make a mesh door with wood trim to make sure it locks so nothing could open it but me

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Ill post pictures when all my organic flowers grow and things start to come together

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Thanks guys this helped alot!

 

[Abdulla6169]

Good luck

 

[johnsonnboswell]

I once had an infestation of white flies on my house plants. At about the point when I was ready to despair, the spiders arrived and cleaned out the infestation. I am still grateful.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Spiders love my outdors pens for some reason... I don;t bother, them, my torts don't bother them, and they don
t bother the torts It's mutual agreement!

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Haha and here i am freaking out that i found spider webs lol

 

[ascott]

In the house here I encourage a few of the darker corners to be occupied by daddy long legs, they are awesome at quietly tending to the occasional critter that gains access to the house when the outside light is on during the night and one of the dogs has to go out.....it is almost like a quick door open, tuck and roll dog out and door slam....terrible I know...but they are use to it.....

However, out in/near the burrows for the CDTs there are black widows....my all time loathed spider.....something primal I believe happens when I feel their web or hear it tear....ewwww....

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Oh i cant stand black widows. I have encountered so many that i believe they are California's national spider. I just hate them so much. But daddy long legs i can deal with i feel better that my torts will be okay outside if you guys have any other ideas i should do let me know. My flowers r still growing so my torts wont be in there for a little while longer