wot are they?

[CornDude]

when i look in my tank i sometimes see TINY little flys in there. i mean if i see them i squash them. only there seem to be quite a few. they dont seen to cause any harm, but i worry as they may be a parasite.
are they a problem? (as in can they cuase problems with my snake?)
how can i get rid of them if so?

[Rachel]

Do you have plants in your viv? I had these little flies too (they are like fruit flies but smaller) but they went as soon as I took the plants out (live plants w/ soil). They could also be there if you haven't cleaned out your tank properly.

[Ice9]

Ive sometimes seen these too. Im pretty sure they arrive in the bark chips I use as substrate , so what I do now is buy new substrate a while before I need it and stick it in the freezer for a couple of days which seems to get rid of em :)

[cj_corns789]

are they small and black? i use to have them in my firebelly toads cage i use to get them here and there but now i havent seen them in a while.

[Neumann]

Originally posted by Ice9
Ive sometimes seen these too. Im pretty sure they arrive in the bark chips I use as substrate

I tossed out a bag of repti-bark a few weeks ago because it had some little white insects in it. Now I'll inspect every bag carefully before I put it in a nice clean cage.

[CornDude]

came with the bark chips you say? i did recently get some pine bark chips....then they did seem to arrive. ill take out all the bark chips, replace it with paper for a couple of days. during which i will freeze the bark. ill let you know how it goes.

[Ice9]

works for me .. but you have to make sure its out of the freezer again a couple of days before you use it as the stuff in the centre stays really cold for ages :)

[Darin Chappell]

If they fly as soon as you get close to them, they are likely a form of gnat. If they tend to run before they fly, they are Phorid Flies. I first got them introduced into my collection from a shipment of snakes from the East coast. They are next to impossible to get rid of, but Black Knight does a pretty good job.

Keeping your cages extra clean is a good step, but you also have to watch the drain pipes of any sinks in the immediate vacinity. They can live in a damp environment without a direct food source, for a long, LONG time!

[CornDude]

they jus fly around straight away. are they any harm to my snake?? should i worry?

[Simon]

I too have these little flies flying around my appartment...it's quite annoying...

I see that they have these yellow stripes (kind of like a bee...yellow and black) on the abdoment of these flies...

I wonder how you can really get rid of them...and what's more in my mind?
well I wonder if Rich has these?

Rich,
do you have these little flies flying around your snake room (or snake house)? If you do, do you have any suggestions of gettind rid of them, other than cleaning the tubs more frequently?? It's quite annoying....

[Rachel]

The ones I had were TINY, I wouldn't even be able to tell if they had yellow n black stripes on them. I don't think they were gnats though. Aren't they a little more 'stocky'? They looked like tiny fruit flies.

[Ice9]

The ones I get are also very tiny.

Ive just opened a bag of orchid bark that I recently bought and thats definately where theyre coming from as I could see a few in there as soon as I opened the bag.

A couple of days in the freezer will see those off :)

cheers

[Wannabevet83]

Originally posted by Neumann
I tossed out a bag of repti-bark a few weeks ago because it had some little white insects in it. Now I'll inspect every bag carefully before I put it in a nice clean cage.

I have had so many problems with repti-bark...and I know that a lot of the snakes with external parasites that come into the vet hospital I work at seem to get it from the bark :(

Has anyone tried heating it in an oven at 350 degrees for a few min? I haven't..but I've heard others have... results?