Tegu buries waste and gnat problems

[mayhewwet]

Hi all, as the title says, my tegu buries his waste in his enclosure (cypress mulch), and although sometimes I'm able to find and pick it out, my method just isn't working. That seems to be the reason why there's a lot of gnats/fruit flies in his enclosure.

Does anyone have any tips about what to do in this situation? I'm going to try some things to get rid of the gnats with flytraps, but ideally would like to figure out how to prevent them in the first place. The tegu used to be trained to go in the bathtub when he's getting soaked, but he started just going whenever he pleased when he was moved into his new enclosure.

Thanks!

 

[Zyn]

I’d say fruit flies are more drawn to uneaten food.

 

[LizardStudent]

I have found that gnats and fruit flies and the like often come from where you are sourcing your substrate. Some people dig up their own from outside to use, but this greatly increases the chance of having gnat eggs that will sometimes months later hatch and live inside your enclosure. Ditto goes for buying like hardware bags of topsoil and mulch, there is always a chance of hitchhikers in the substrate. Some people bake the substrate in the oven to kill off anything hiding in it, but with tegus you need a ton of the stuff, and baking it can take forever. You can buy some disinfecting products for substrate I think, but if you don't want to go through all that i would hang some traps where your tegu can't mess with them

 

[Lady2Lucky]

You probably have fungus gnats. These are common in any moist soil or substrate and fly paper will not end your problems since as LizardStudent says, they will be in the soil in egg and larval stages. You can bake your substrate. Baking should be at 200 degrees F for 24 hours, or until completely dry. You will need to spread your substrate as much as possible while in your oven. Alternately, you may replace your substrate. If you do either of the above, wipe down the interior of your cage with a 10% bleach solution or 70% isopropanol solution. Allow 10 minutes of contact time, then dry thoroughly, rinse with water, and dry again.

You might also consider purchasing beneficial nematodes (https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes is one source). They also live in the soil and eat the larval stages of fungus gnats. This would be my choice in your shoes. I've had good luck with them in the past, It is substrate dependent, and make sure to follow instructions that come with the nematodes.
You can also consider chemical treatments like gnatrol. They are not typically tested on lizards, so it is unclear what effects those would have.

 

[Debita]

So glad I don't have this problem - I use Repti-Bark after trying many other things. I'm not a soil fan and I don't have the probs you're talking about. Also - I've said this in other posts, if you have a good hide that your tegu can go in and out of , it def discourages all the burrowing which they do for security. I have an adult B/W Argie that rarely burrows - maybe still rearranges - but is so happy in his wooden square box inside his enclosure that it's his spot that he feels safest to go mindless for hours. I'm positive that in the wild, they would be happy to escape to a rotted out tree trunk, or an overhead rock structure, rather than dig. Just my opinion.

 

[ToadHallBetty]

Drying out your substrate and making sure you have enough ventilation in the enclosure helps. Once the flies are eradicated, be sure to let the top of the substrate dry before adding more moisture. Even high humidity lizards will have problems if their substrate is too wet.

 

[mayhewwet]

Thank you all for your help!