Use of Indoor Insecticide Near Tortoise Enclosure?

Bryan

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Just wondering if anyone has had issues with inside bugs or spiders that required insecticide when they had torts indoors? If so which products did you use?
 

ZEROPILOT

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When I had inside tortoises, tortoises that never left their inside closed chamber except to go outside. I used and still use house hold Spectracide by Ortho in the one gallon pump/spray bottle.
I spray inside the house once a month. Especially in the summer time due to palmetto bugs. Heavily around exit doors and inside my garage.
We have many animals including two canaries. No issues. (But none of our animals are ever in contact with the poison.)
 

Pearly

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Speaking from limited experience of last 14 months. All i have in the house is 40 gal tank. It is a closed chamber with bioactive substrate. I have only seen 1 spider in there one time which I must have hitched a ride on one of the plants I was transplanting from my garden into the tank. Other than that I've had a healthy family of earthworms which I had put in there over a year ago, and bunch of tiny soil centipedes that just ... Started appearing and multiplying in numbers for a while, until last couple months when I had introduced pill bugs. Last year I didn't have pillbugs in my garden (for the first time ever!!!) so I had my children on a pill bug mission for a while. We had managed to find a few of different sizes and put them in the tank. They have since mulptiplied and are happily populating the tank now in pretty good numbers, with seemingly decreasing numbers of tiny centipedes. Earthworms are about this same. Every time i dig in substrate to plant something I see at least 4-5 or more of them. None of those have EVER been found outside the tank! And other than the substrate bugs, I don't have a huge bug problem, but it is Texas, gets really hot in summers and we do have bugs. And they do come inside. In 20 years of living in our house (since it's construction) we have never used any pest control other than occasional hand help spray can to go after whatever but that is really OCCASIONAL! Can of this spray is a size of hair spray and it lasts me for way longer than the expiration dayeAs far as periodic treating of baseboards and crevices, I use mix of essential oils. You can buy it at Home depot (organic, pet friendly, nontoxic or whatever else it may say on the bottle) or you can get the oils and make your own just adding water. They DO work! I don't like chemicals but I know some people use them with no ill effects to their households. Like @ZEROPILOT has said he's been doing, and I tend to trust his judgment. I think it's largely about personal peeferences. In the end we all do what works best for each of us in our situation
 

Yvonne G

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I make sure the tank is covered tightly so no overspray gets inside, then I use aerosol Raid ant and roach spray. I generally spray the area where the tank is going to go first, let it dry, then set up the tank. Later, after the residual seems to have faded, if it's required again (I have a bad ant problem here), I use the above method.
 

Pearly

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I make sure the tank is covered tightly so no overspray gets inside, then I use aerosol Raid ant and roach spray. I generally spray the area where the tank is going to go first, let it dry, then set up the tank. Later, after the residual seems to have faded, if it's required again (I have a bad ant problem here), I use the above method.
We do get ants every summer, those little teeny tiny black ones. They come to the kitchen sink through the cracks in the wall or electrical outlet. Then when I was feeding my sick old cat in few different areas where dry food and fresh water stations were created for her all over the downstairs to encourage her to eat and drink there would be a trail of those bigger ants coming in to that through the front entrance door. I'd then just wipe them off the floor, remove that food station and spray the herb oils at the entrance treshhold. They always come back after a while and yhis is just something I have to deal with here every summer. Winter is not cold but other than occasional silverfish or spider, there are no bugs outside the tortoise tank
 

ascott

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We do get ants every summer, those little teeny tiny black ones. They come to the kitchen sink through the cracks in the wall or electrical outlet. Then when I was feeding my sick old cat in few different areas where dry food and fresh water stations were created for her all over the downstairs to encourage her to eat and drink there would be a trail of those bigger ants coming in to that through the front entrance door. I'd then just wipe them off the floor, remove that food station and spray the herb oils at the entrance treshhold. They always come back after a while and yhis is just something I have to deal with here every summer. Winter is not cold but other than occasional silverfish or spider, there are no bugs outside the tortoise tank

Food grade diatomaceous earth around edges of house..windows..doorways, really does work.
 

Bryan

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When I had inside tortoises, tortoises that never left their inside closed chamber except to go outside. I used and still use house hold Spectracide by Ortho in the one gallon pump/spray bottle.
I spray inside the house once a month. Especially in the summer time due to palmetto bugs. Heavily around exit doors and inside my garage.
We have many animals including two canaries. No issues. (But none of our animals are ever in contact with the poison.)

How close do you spray it to their enclosure? Like your situation they would not come into direct contact with the poison as they are always in a tub or enclosure when they are inside.
 

dmmj

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dmmj

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every year my house will get invaded by ants in the summer thousands and thousands of ants. 2 years ago I started using dichotomous Earth, no more ants. :)
 

ZEROPILOT

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How close do you spray it to their enclosure? Like your situation they would not come into direct contact with the poison as they are always in a tub or enclosure when they are inside.
Not close. Usually the edges of the walls and floor around each room .
 

TammyJ

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I put them outside, cover their indoor enclosure, and spray inside with a regular cockroach/ant/mosquito spray, or I put them inside and spray around the house with outdoor pesticide if necessary on ants nests. I avoid ever putting them anywhere near any insecticide/pesticide or its residue.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Waterbugs...ants...silverfish..earwigs..insects with exoskeleton.
I think our gigantic palmetto bugs would use if for a nice after bath powder. Better to dump out the D/E powder and then bash them with the can.;)
Ages ago, when I was redoing all of the switches and wall outlets in my house, I dumped as much D/E as I had into the walls. I also dusted the attic. It still looks like a snowstorm up there. I can't say for sure how effective it's been. It's pretty likely that it does control ants, since I almost never see one in the house.
 
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TammyJ

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I think our gigantic palmetto bugs would use if for a nice after bath powder. Better to dump out the D/E powder and then bash them with the can.;)
Ages ago, when I was redoing all of the switches and wall outlets in my house, I dumped as much D/E as I had into the walls. I also dusted the attic. It still looks like a snowstorm up there. I can't say for sure how effective it's been.
No, man. Bash them with the full can and then dump it all.:mad:
 

dmmj

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I think our gigantic palmetto bugs would use if for a nice after bath powder. Better to dump out the D/E powder and then bash them with the can.;)
Ages ago, when I was redoing all of the switches and wall outlets in my house, I dumped as much D/E as I had into the walls. I also dusted the attic. It still looks like a snowstorm up there. I can't say for sure how effective it's been. It's pretty likely that it does control ants, since I almost never see one in the house.
mine came in a big bag so........
 

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