Eliminating Vivarium Pests (copied from one of martys posts)

beckdg · #1 10-21-2010, 11:52 AM

Necessity, mother of invention. Below is a description of a method I came up with after my vivarium got heavily infested with millipedes. This will most likely apply to any pests. Read on, you might find it useful.

This was my 90gal diamond shaped prior to the Operation Jungle Fever . Millipedes got so bad that I could count hundreds of them crawling all over the tank...it was disgusting!!! I did not want to rip my tank apart because I sunk a lot of work and money into making the background and water features, foggers, lights, etc. I embedded tubes and wires in the background, plus things were healthy and well rooted and growing beautifully. I wanted to kill only millipedes and a few slugs, but nothing else. Pesticides and chemicals were out of the questions, since I kept dart frogs in the tank. Eventually they would go back into the tank. I started experimenting with carbon dioxide - CO2. It is heavier then air, thus easy to put into a tank. Any bug will eventually need air, so I figured it will die without any oxygen... Plants love CO2. After the procedure the tank would just need to be vented for a little bit to replace the air. Seemed there would be no downside! I looked into getting a CO2 tank, but it turned out too expensive and not worth the hassle.... I used dry ice, which is compressed, solid form of carbon dioxide. Here's what I did....I'm extremely excited, because my idea worked flawlessly for me and I'd recommend it to anyone with similar problem. You can do the same thing with a single orchid, by either putting it into an empty Tupperware container. No reason, why it wouldn't work. Post back if you try it. I was a bit concerned with using dry ice, because I was afraid it will lower the temp and kill my plants in the process, so I took a few precautions.

I put 3 x 32oz containers partially filled with dry ice. I didn't want to leave them in my tank and let the dry ice naturally sublime into CO2 for the fear that I will lower the temp and kill my plants. After all they're all tropical and dry ice is -78.5'C = -109.3'F. I decided to make the CO2 really fast.

I poured hot water over it. ... It was quite a show. I wanted maximum CO2 production without slow temp reduction. It looked great and there was a lot of CO2 produced. I made sure that the top of the vivarium was slightly open, so the CO2 could displace any air that was there.

I then took the containers out and placed them right above the tank and let the CO2 slowly by gravity fall into the tank to further displace any remaining air.

Once I was satisfied that all air was displaced, I closed the vivarium. In 30 min, all the millipedes were dead or dying... All slugs were dead...Plants are so far a OK! I will reply in a few weeks to let everyone know how the plants are doing. I left the tank filled with CO2 overnight to make sure everything was killed.

Next day, I removed most of the dead millipedes, the ones I didn't see, became fertilizer. I repeated the process few weeks later to make sure that any new millipedes, slugs would also be killed. This sounds to me like a safe way to get rid of any nuisance you have living in your viv or on your plants. If you have some bug on your plant, why not put it into a tank filled with CO2 for a day? Ahhh, victory at last!!! I waited a long time to see this next Picture...DEAD MILLIPEDES!!!! YIPPEE !! After living with this problem for months and seeing their populations explode, it was a real nice feeling.

Few weeks after the procedure, I noticed a real growth spur in all my plants. Prior to the procedure, sporadically, I'd see a mushroom pop out once in a while, but after the CO2 bath, a whole cluster sprouted. It was completely cool !

Few things to remember: Make sure that you are in a ventilated room... You don't want to do yourself in, although you'd probably start gasping for air first. Carbon dioxide doesn't work like carbon monoxide (running car in a garage). Nonetheless, you want to take precautions. Contain the CO2 to the vivarium only!!! Obviously, be sure not to do this with animals (frogs, lizards, etc) in the tank. The procedure was done in August 2005. It is now March 2006 and I have to say that I have not seen a single millipede since then. No slugs either. I'm now noticing tiny snails though. They must have arrived on new plants.... sigh... never ends! I'll repeat the process in a few weeks. As a precaution from now on, I'll treat any new plants with an overnight CO2 bath.

geckolord1 · #2 10-23-2010, 02:35 PM

wow whered you get the mushrooms?

beckdg · #3 10-23-2010, 07:09 PM

as it states in the title this is copied from one of marty's articles over on geckofrumsunlimited.com. it's also lurking around here, but the article section got cut out somehow and we lost it for a bit.

here is a link to the discussion thread on this site... Eliminating Vivarium Pests, Comments

as well, here's a link to the thread over on geckosunlimited... Eliminating Vivarium Pests - Geckos Unlimited

cuervo25_1 · #4 06-22-2011, 09:19 AM

I haven't been on long so alot of what I post on are old threads. I have been doing alot of research on methods of building a good set up and occasionally hitting up you tube for home made things that may benifit when I came across this, I apologise for the add if it plays.

YouTube - ‪Mighty Mini Fog Maker‬&rlm;

I have pleanty of old computer parts ,and ideas to make this work even better without a battery.

beckdg · #5 06-22-2011, 11:50 AM

cuervo... am i to understand you want to put a fogger in a viv? as in with plants and animals in it? if so, you should consider making your fog out of just water. an overabundance of co2 (caused by making fog with dry ice) can and will kill most animal life in a viv. although it's great for the plants...

cuervo25_1 · #6 06-22-2011, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckdg

cuervo... am i to understand you want to put a fogger in a viv? as in with plants and animals in it? if so, you should consider making your fog out of just water. an overabundance of co2 (caused by making fog with dry ice) can and will kill most animal life in a viv. although it's great for the plants...

not this fogger, just another way to fog for pests that seems a bit easier than the cup method. I guess it cold be hooked up with a t fitting and ball valve to pump in through the same places the regular fogger comes in then shut off the ball valve and run the regular fogger for a bit to push any CO2 out that is left. Thats why I had this particular fogger in the "eliminating vivarium pests" thread. but you did give me another idea

beckdg · #7 06-22-2011, 12:52 PM

that makes more sense. still seems like a lot of effort for something that will rarely ever get used. i wouldn't want to maintain such a contraption on a regular basis just to rarely ever have to (if ever) use it. plus... the fan will be introducing fresh air into your co2. it can be tough enough to get the little buggers that create their own niche' in tiny crevices/the soil/etc. where it's hard to get gases even to penetrate without diluting the co2 with fresh air. the idea is to have the co2 disperse the fresh air/oxygen/etc. and completely remove it from the viv so that no other gases are present for respiration. co2 is a heavy gas, so the viv will fill up from the bottom up lending it's way to this possibility easily.

cuervo25_1 · #8 06-22-2011, 01:02 PM

As often as I grab plants from the outdoors I think something like that would benifit. I also think with a fan speed control and enough dry ice you can make it where it works perfectly. Of course I will test it if the need arises ,I just thought it would be a very interesting "weapon" to our arsonal of pest removal equipment.
when I get home from work I will sit and figure it out where it could be more of a benifit, the set up ect.

beckdg · #9 06-22-2011, 01:12 PM

for grabbing plants from the outdoors, it's not the critters you have to worry about. it's the eggs. usually the critters can be done off with vinegar/bleach/potassium permangenate/flourish excel/etc. dips. removing the soil and cleaning the plant and it's roots should go a long way with most plants. for mosses/liverworts/etc. a co2 treatment (or 3 maybe) should work... but i don't think the fan is going to help... and you still should quarantine for a bit if you're worried about critters then treat again in case of any frseh hatchlings.

either way... the fan... fresh air... are detrimental. takes away the reason why it works. (removing any fresh air they can breathe altogether)

what you might try... same idea... 2 cans... one for dry ice and one for your plants (or anything you want to euthanize)... then hook the hose in between them. completely seal off your co2 production can and put only a couple small holes in your other can for air to escape and co2 to fill it up.

cuervo25_1 · #10 06-22-2011, 11:36 PM

ok those are the three ideas I came up with the last one uses its own pressure as well. one of these should work really well. the last one would be more fitting for a strictly no animal setting for co2 treatment for the plants, but could be used in very large set ups as well.

I am glad I am doing all this research now instead of while I am building my first DIY project. I do plan to try these three plus the original at a smaller scale to see which works best before going with the full size version.