Debugging Strategies

[jazzgeek]

Sorry, the computer geek in me had to choose that for a thread title. But obviously, this is cornsnake related. Although, this is as much of an "egg production/care" question as it is a general husbandry question.

I'll preface this post with this: I live in what was originally built as a brick Victorian farmhouse, built circa 1907. As such, it's not what you would now call a "tight" house - it's not energy efficient by any means. There's no central A/C, so I have two room-sized air conditioners in the office and bedroom for when it gets really hot. Otherwise, I have two box fans set up in two other rooms.

On the plus side, at this time of year, this makes for a great incubator with the clutches I have on the ground - the kitchen temps fluctuate between 78 and 86 degrees over the course of a normal day.

On the minus side, with open windows, I get the occasional bugs sneaking in -tiny livestock fluttering around the lights in the evening. The paranoid newbie breeder in me is getting concerned about infestation, even when the lay/incubation boxes are "sealed".

My question is - do any of you use any products or apply any techniques to minimize insect infestation in your "snake rooms"? Obviously, I don't expect noxious chemicals like foggers to be utilized, but I'd be curious if you even used something as innocuous as old-fashioned flypaper as a preventive measure.

Let me know your thoughts/strategies......

regards,
jazz

 

[CaptBogart]

I do use fly paper, the non poisonous kind that unroll. They are pretty cheap at Home Depot and come in three packs... In the two snake rooms I got to visit this year, I've seen pieces of screen placed between the lid and tub of the eggs shoe boxes with the air holes poked in the top, but you wouldn't be able to stack them without some kind of spacers to keep the holes from being blocked by the top tub... and these were being incubated on shelves, not in an incubator where the moisture would drip from the top drowning the eggs...

 

[Drizzt80]

I came across some cupboard pest strips at a local farm store a number of years back that I used in my classroom when I had a fruit fly problem. They specifically said on the packaging safe for using in human food cupboards. They worked great and got rid of the problem. Can't remember what they were called or what the ingredients were. :shrugs: I just know they didn't seem to have any ill effects on the nearby fauna in my classroom . . . plants, snakes, fish, T's.

D80

 

[PtDnsr]

Nontoxic fly strips hanging right over the trash can (we have a big one in the room). They get rid of those stupid phorid fly things (the little annoying bugers) pretty well. I put them over the trash can becaues otherwise I'd walk into them which would be really nasty.

~Katie

 

[Nanci]

Aren't No Pest Strips toxic to snakes, though? I've read of people killing snakes by using those to kill mites. So you guys are just talking about sticky strips with no chemicals, right? (Just checking...)

Nanci

 

[Roy Munson]

I thought I had escaped the phorid flies this year, but I just started seeing a couple of them here and there. My snakes are in my living space, and I really hate looking at fly-paper, but I can't stand those flies. Their larvae make me want to puke. If I see more of them, I might have to look into non-poisonous eradication/control options myself.

 

[CaptBogart]

Aren't No Pest Strips toxic to snakes, though? I've read of people killing snakes by using those to kill mites. So you guys are just talking about sticky strips with no chemicals, right? (Just checking...)

Nanci

There are a hundred different kinds, so you have to read the labels... The ones I use are non-toxic and use an attractant to lure them to the glue...

 

[Drizzt80]

Aren't No Pest Strips toxic to snakes, though?

If you're talking the brand name "No Pest Strips", from what I've read they are especially toxic to hatchlings in a confined area. I have used them on my snakes with no ill effects, BUT I cut them up into much smaller pieces and have only used them just outside the tubs of my adult snakes. I have used larger pieces in the room. Quite honestly, I haven't used anything since the introduction of my several different T's . . . :shrugs:

D80

 

[Jrgh17]

Hi Jazz,

Your dog is adorable, btw.

Obviously, I don't have a snake room, but I know the U of I specimen rooms (including our herp lab) use flypaper. They also have these little insect traps (kinda the same idea used for trapping snakes, with food, where they get in and can't get out), and they feed the collected bugs as treats.

 

[kathylove]

We have phorid flies (in the house and in the reptile rooms), so we use both the fly paper strips (sticky strips, not No - Pest Strips) and also fly bait such as Blue Diamond or Golden Malrin. When the infestation is bad, we put small amounts of the bait in little lids or empty cat food cans and set it in areas of lots of flies. If it is really bad, I add a little water to it - the flies can't resist. It kills them by the zillions. And it won't be toxic to anything unless ingested. I don't know what other insects are attracted to it, but house flies and phorid flies love it.

 

[tom e]

That blue stuff Kathy mentioned really does work like crazy. We used it in Iraq, put a bowl of it out, and in a couple minutes we'd have a litter of fly corpses (and live ones spinning on their backs) all around the bowl for several feet.
Kinda creepy though, if you look at the bodies, they have a little blue stripe on their abdomens that perfectly matches the poison.

I'm having a similar problem with fruit flies though.. If you get those at all, a little beer left in a glass with a drop of dish soap mixed in works wonders. They land on it, but because of the soap they just sink in unexpectedly. I don't know if that would work with phorid flies though.. (meat eaters right?)