Black flies

[Mike Shaw]

My viv's seem to be plagued by tiny black flies.I've tried different methods for getting rid of them but to no avail.Are they harmful?A friend of mine suggested that they may be fruit flies.I would appreciatte any advice on this problem.Thanx

[Kirdec]

I did'nt had much of these fly before, but one day I decided to increse the humidity of all my rain forest species because they were to low, also this day I added a new substrate in my terrariums : Moss

and till this day im infested of those little fruit flies that does'nt SEEMS to bother my bigger specimen, but my smaller seem's to be bothered ...

they're soo much getting on my nerv's

[mary walters]

Cedric I know the feeling well, specially as our spiders are in the lounge (not for much longer), we eat and drink the things if we are not careful!! We had them come in with our crix, they dissapear for a few days and then come back, try drying the tanks off a bit, that helps to a degree.
Mary

[Mike Shaw]

It would seem they are quite common then.I only have one mate who keeps them(new to the scene).It's good to have more camparison.Are they harmless though?

[Mike Lainchbury (snork61)]

I had tiny black flies in my A.Versicolor tank. I introduced a tiny spider from the garden, he soon produced an impressive web, and grew fat on all the flies. I recently changed tanks, and rescued the little blighter before cleaning the tank. He decimated the fly population quite quickly, and I released him on a conservatory plant. I got the idea after trying the woodlice trick which I read about on this forum.

Cheers, Mike.

[Graeme Wright]

or you could do what alot of us do and hang stciky fly papers in our spider rooms. I've found they greatly redule the flies as they seam to like the paper.

fuit flie can also bee good feeder insects for small spiderlings. You can buy colonys of them for this purpose. I beleve live foods sells them or you can try and do your own.

[mary walters]

Yes but Graeme our living room has 2 of the things hanging from the cieling, don't half catch them though, we find the best are from Homebase for catching greenfly in greenhouses, we have tried a few and these attract them best.
Mary

[Kirdec]

Yeah I just realised that G, I was coming back in this post to ask the question if they were good feeder's, I saw 2-3 in my avic container, I opened and tryed to take 'em out of the container, then one walked near the avic and got attacked lol, i'll use them for my very small specimen (1/4 inch) now