Vapona no Pest Strips question....

[Lisa Pawley]

Since we have soooo many animals in the house that eat veggies, we are having an extreme fruti fly problem. Mostly near tanks or just swarming our kitchen. The $10 Vapona no pest strrips sold at Canadian Tire that hand in the middle of a room...are these toxic the reptiles? The company says they are toxic to birds but do not know about reptiles...I wouldn't want to pay $10 to kill of thousands of dollars worth of lizards and snakes...because then I'd have to kill myself!!!! Fly tape won't work. Can anyone help with more info or a better solution? ASAP PLEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE!

Lisa Pawley
Pawley's Reptiles

[Quervo]

Short answer ... yes.
Long answer .. it depends on what you are going to do with them. They are toxic to us if we handle them and then put our hands in our mouths (although I doubt too many people are THAT silly). If you were to put the strip in the cage with the reptile .. yes, it would harm them. If they can contact it directly it would harm them, but if the strip is hanging in the same room (and not too close, or above the cage) I doubt it would be too bad. I would not let the reptile adventure beneath the strip either .. there could well be residue that falls, or even dead flies that don't stick .. that would be nasty if your critter tasted one of those.
I had a problem with fruit flies too .. so I got preying mantises .. put them in a screen cage on top of my gecko cage .. hehe .. bugfest. It didn't get rid of them totally, but it sure was fun watching the carnage.

[Big Mike]

I was told that they can be toxic if kept in close quarters with a snake/reptile. Also, I've heard that they can contaminate water that is left in a water dish if it's around a pest strip.

If your going to use a pest strip, I would start with small pieces and not have them too close to the reptiles. Try putting a small piece in a jar with holes in the lid. This way no one can come into contact with the pest strip and it still kills the bugs.

Maybe it will be enough to kill the flies without overdoing it and exposing too much of that stuff to the reptiles.

JMHO

[Bryan Self]

I know you are not battling mites. But read the artice at VPI
Good Luck

i don't know about the toxic thing but in my kitchen when we have fruit flies we put a glass with a about an inch of conyac (i have know idea how to spell it but its pro. con-yac its a type of booze) and we leave it sitting on the conter and just overnite all the fruit flies are drowned in it. there is something in the smell it attracts the fruit flies they land in it and can't get out. it works great. hope this helps.

[Lisa Pawley]

Well, I was just planning on hanging it in my kitchen, but I have herps everywhere in the house (all caged of course). I don't need any directly in the tank with the reptiles. Just the kitchen with MY food!!!! Preying mantis idea is good, and I was going to get some anyways, but I doubt they'd kill them all, this is some infestation...people here swallow the damn flies by accident!!!!

Thanks
Lisa

[Kathy]

Yep, a little bit of alcohol in a dish wil get 'em, beer, wine, whatever you like. The little buggers like the smell, so they take a drink, get drunk, and cant fly away and end up drowning, Its sort of a waste of good booze, but I guess you could drink it when you're done with it, added protien!

[Lisa]

Originally posted by Kathy
Yep, a little bit of alcohol in a dish wil get 'em, beer, wine, whatever you like. The little buggers like the smell, so they take a drink, get drunk, and cant fly away and end up drowning, Its sort of a waste of good booze, but I guess you could drink it when you're done with it, added protien!

YUCK!

I don't know if fruit flys are like wasps (wasps can't fly straight down) but you could try a wasp trap. They hold sugerwater and the bugs fly in by flying up but can't fly out cause they can't fly down... eventually they fall in the suger water. You could probably try it with the beer wine too

[Leona]

I don't know if I would trust someone's uneducated guess. The answer is out there. Why not ask a professional breeder? Surf the net. Good luck