08-22-2005, 11:29 PM
Hey, Just wanted to update everyone on my recent successes !!! You guys might already know that I was fighting with infestation of slugs and millipedes in one of my tanks. This was in my 90gal diamond shaped. Millipedes got so bad that I had probably hundreds of them crawling all over the tank...it was disgusting !!! I did not want to rip my tank because I put a lot of work into making the background and water features, foggers, lights, etc.
Like I said before, I wanted to kill only millipedes and slugs, but nothing else. Pesticides were out of the questions, since my frogs had to eventually go back into the tank, I would not consider any chemicals either.. I started experimenting with CO2. It's heavier then air, thus easy to put into a tank. Any bug will eventually need air...I looked into getting a CO2 tank, but it turned out too expensive and not worth the hassle.... I used dry ice instead.
Here's what I did....I'm extremely excited, because my idea worked flawlessly for me.
I was a bit concerned with using dry ice, because I was afraid it will lower the temp and kill my plants. I put 4 x 32oz containers half filled with dry ice, then I poured hot water over them... it was quite a show. I wanted maximum CO2 production without slow temp reduction. It looked great and there was a lot of CO2. While I was doing it I made sure I had the top of the viv 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. Once I was satisfied that all air was displaced, I closed the viv. In 30 min, all the millipedes were dead... All slugs were dead...Plants are so far a OK! I'm leaving the tank filled with CO2 overnight to make sure everything is killed in there. Tomorrow I will shop vac all the dead millipedes and any slugs I can find. I'll exchange the air, etc
I will repeat the process in a few weeks to make sure that anything that hatches from eggs is also 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?
Make sure that you are in a ventilated room... You don't want to do yourself in. Contain the CO2 to the viv only.
Marty
Like I said before, I wanted to kill only millipedes and slugs, but nothing else. Pesticides were out of the questions, since my frogs had to eventually go back into the tank, I would not consider any chemicals either.. I started experimenting with CO2. It's heavier then air, thus easy to put into a tank. Any bug will eventually need air...I looked into getting a CO2 tank, but it turned out too expensive and not worth the hassle.... I used dry ice instead.
Here's what I did....I'm extremely excited, because my idea worked flawlessly for me.
I was a bit concerned with using dry ice, because I was afraid it will lower the temp and kill my plants. I put 4 x 32oz containers half filled with dry ice, then I poured hot water over them... it was quite a show. I wanted maximum CO2 production without slow temp reduction. It looked great and there was a lot of CO2. While I was doing it I made sure I had the top of the viv 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. Once I was satisfied that all air was displaced, I closed the viv. In 30 min, all the millipedes were dead... All slugs were dead...Plants are so far a OK! I'm leaving the tank filled with CO2 overnight to make sure everything is killed in there. Tomorrow I will shop vac all the dead millipedes and any slugs I can find. I'll exchange the air, etc
I will repeat the process in a few weeks to make sure that anything that hatches from eggs is also 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?
Make sure that you are in a ventilated room... You don't want to do yourself in. Contain the CO2 to the viv only.
Marty
