Fungus Gnats!

[HerpDerp]

Everything I've read about having fungus gnats in a terrarium talks about what a pest they are. Harmless but annoying! Well I just discovered one reason to enjoy having them. As their name implies, they eat mold! I had a small patch in my terrarium and just as I was about to remove it I saw it crawling with fungus gnats so I left it over night. The next morning it was totally gone! And whenever clean out a poop it's usually crawling with fungus gnats. They may not be as obvious of a cleaner insect as spring tails or isopods, but they definitely seem to do a good job! I definitely and willing to deal with gnats buzzing around my plants and terrarium if that means they'll be cleaning it! Anyone else experience their helpful nature?

[arielgasca420]

I welcome insects as long as they are not spider mites and earwigs. those gnats do not bother me much and if it gets overwhelming you can always take a handheld vaccum and suck them up. I think of them as free labor

[deranged chipmunk]

i agree with ariel. no mite or earwigs, otherwise, i am totally cool with any bugs that happen into my vivs. not that any of my plants are ready to flower at the moment, but even little gnats have the opportunity to help with pollination. just another added benefit. i'm building a 15g paludarium that will house aquatic creatures and i plan on seeding it with lady bugs in the spring

[HerpDerp]

I swear, writing this thread cursed me. I saw something crawling on Glurmo this morning. I immediately panicked and thought they were mites, but upon closer inspection I figured out they're actually fungus gnats!? Why are they crawling on him and will they hurt him?? This seems strange to me. Anyone else experience this?

[deranged chipmunk]

i doubt they will hurt him. did he have any coco fiber on him? that may be why they were on him. some days, my guys look like they were rolling in coco fiber and we won't mention what the front glass of my tank looks like every morning....lol

[HerpDerp]

He was sitting in his water dish when I saw them. There was only a couple on him and he didn't seem to be bothered by it. I just don't know why they would be on him? All I can think of is they're feeding on his slime coating. And they are definitely gnats.

Glurmo isn't that ambitious. He usually moves between 2 or 3 spots. Such a lazy frog :P

[deranged chipmunk]

the slime coating is a possibility. and as much as i love your frog's name, i giggle every time i read it. Glurmo ....hee hee. wish i had thought of it

[HerpDerp]

Hehe I know, I love the name too. It's from Futurama. Lrrr is from Futurama too. They are such fitting names for white's tree frogs.

And I've been keeping an eye on Glurmo and they really don't seem to be bothering him at all. There aren't any marks on his skin or anything. The fungus gnats don't seem to have made it into Lrrr's tank at all for some reason.