Anti-pest tape?

PowerHobo

PowerHobo

Chalcosoma
I've seen a few people post videos of containers they've received from overseas that have a breathable tape on the ventilation holes on the top. Does anyone have any positive/negative experiences with this stuff? Does it stop fungus gnats? Followed of course by: does anyone have a US source for it? I keep searching pest tape/screen/etc and I'm coming up with nothing but mosquito mesh with holes too big to help with against gnats.

Gnats are definitely starting to become a problem in my beetle room, but I'm also wondering if this tape would allow me to move my pin holes to the sides of my containers so I could stack larvae containers (which would triple or quadruple my shelf space). I do fear that putting the pin holes in the sides would provide the larvae a space to attack/chew and escape (read: commit suicide).

 
I use weed cloth and it seems to work well at keeping the fungus gnats out. I used to have huge outbreaks of fungus gnats, it was horrible.

Yes, I put holes on the side of the containers so I can stack them and tape weed cloth over the holes.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Orin's Ult. Guide states that very thin pinholes can prevent adult gnats from entering and ovipositing in flower beetle cages. This suggests that tape is unnecessary, and I imagine that superfine mesh or cloth would probably work too as long as the grubs can't chew it up. I'm not too familiar with the needs of dynastine grubs, but maybe adding some empty space inside cages would prevent them from crawling high enough to chew such areas.

(ignore the strange empty quote, beetleforum is misbehaving today)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks, guys. The Amazon link will definitely help with what I've already got. I'll have to give the weed cloth a shot.

As for fine holes: at this point I'm using a heated sewing needle that's significantly thinner than a thumb tack, and it's definitely not stopping the gnats from getting in and proliferating. Even leaving zero air gap between sub and lid isn't stopping them from working their way in there.

 
On my bins, I enclose the entire bin with a clear plastic bag the size of a trash can. I then close off the end with twist ties. I cut a few small holes in the sides and tape up the holes with the weed cloth. On my air tight deli containers, I punch small pin holes like you do and I then cover the holes with weed cloth.

Be careful that the substrate does not have fungus gnat eggs in them when you start. I make sure to sterilize the substrate before I use it or I will end up having fungus gnats even if the container is sealed. Also you have to be careful when opening the containers even for a little while. I am sometimes checking a bin and a fungus gnat will come flying by and dive right in. It only takes one pregnant female to start a huge colony of gnats. The good thing about sealing everything this way is that even if you miss something and one of the containers has a fungus gnat outbreak, it's just that one container and they can't get out so they are not flying all over your house. My wife was ready to throw out all my larvae containers when I first started because there were fungus gnats all over the house. It's amazing how you will literally find them in every room of the house even though they are only in one room of the house. I have a friend that quit raising beetle larvae because he got sick of the fungus gnats.

You mention that even with tiny pin holes that fungus gnats are getting in? Is this with your air tight deli containers? If yes, I would try this experiment. Take a deli container that has a bunch of fungus gnats in them. Take some substrate and sterilize it really well and put it in an air tight deli containers with only small pin holes and put it right next to the one that is infested with gnats. I would be really surprised if that sealed container gets fungus gnats. If you get no gnats, then you know that somehow your substrate is getting contaminated at some point.

So sterilize all your substrate before you use it and seal everything so it's air tight except the ventilation with the weed cloth. If you do all that and you notice fungus gnats flying around in the room, check the bags because most likely you ripped a hole in one of them. Isn't this fun? haha

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top