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RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

matt94rocks — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:09:14 GMT

Diamond reptile breeds different species of reptiles but they breed mostly venomous.

RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

Bill Love — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:02:37 GMT

I reread it and it said you and Kathy were the owners of Glades Herp. The book is called Florida's Fabulous Reptiles & Amphibians.

Yes, I (but not Kathy) co-owned Glades Herp in Ft. Myers, Florida from its start in Sept. 1989 until the spring of 1996. I still don't know what 'Diamond Reptile' is, though.

RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

Crested Man — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:17:48 GMT

I reread it and it said you and Kathy were the owners of Glades Herp. The book is called Florida's Fabulous Reptiles & Amphibians.

RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

Bill Love — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:28:58 GMT

The yellow pest strips (originally marketed as Shell No-Pest Strips) will kill the flies, but there's a small chance of it causing nerve damage to snakes, especially young ones. We injured baby corns years ago by treating them with pieces of fresh pest strip that we placed inside small jars with holes in the lids, leaving them in the plastic shoeboxes with the snakes overnight; this was to kill mites at the time, not flies. We realize now this was overdosing the snakes with the toxic fumes so close all night, and the effect would be much diluted and likely less destructive to snakes in a whole room. But the experience made us a bit gunshy of pest strips anyway, so we've chosen to go with the fly bait instead because it only kills the flies that find and eat it. It doesn't 'wander' to the snakes like fumes across the room.

I don't know if the Diamond Herp post was for me, but I haven't heard of Diamond Herp before.

RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

Crested Man — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:07:09 GMT

This is a off topic but, I was reading a book about reptiles and amphibians of Florida and I read that you owned Diamond Herp.

RE: Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

SNAKE CHARMER — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:09:21 GMT

i know this is a pretty obviouse answer but,why not put up some fly strips & this is sorta weird but,if you rub some suave men shampoo on your walls it'll kill about any insect the only insect problems i've had with my herps are crickets escaping but,my mom breeds sugar gliders & they eat fruit+veggies every night so,she uses fly strips & so far they work great

Annoying little flies in home herp collection........

Bill Love — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:21:35 GMT

A type of pesty little fly, also called carrion fly (possibly Megaselia scalaris), has been a nuisance to our snake-farming enterprise for the past decade or more. I don't remember them being a factor in Florida herpetoculture in the 1970s and 1980s, but these flies are definite pests for my wife's corn snake colony now. Specifically, they swarm over anything dead - like thawed mice left in cages as food, and they also are attracted to fresh snake feces. But the worst problem is when they invade hatching snake eggs. They lay their eggs inside the first slits of hatching eggs. The maggots get into the umbilical areas of hatchlings very quickly and kill the slow hatchers by eating holes in their bellies.

I've been on a fact-finding mission about phorid flies lately. Apparently the fact that they actively attack hatching reptile eggs is not widely known, but should be in lieu of a possible factor in declining wild species if the flies are not native. I've wondered if anyone here has any experience or insights on these pests and how to deal with them? We now attach fine screen over ventilation holes in incubation tubs to keep them out, but even one fly slipping in when the lid is opened is enough to let them get started. The adult flies succumb to eating 'Fly Bait' left out in trays, so that helps keep their levels down. Have any of you found other effective ways to control them?