I have guinea pigs and I gave them some pineapple about 2 wks. ago. I started getting gnats and was using a flying pest spray on them. I would spray the entire room after removing my piggies and let it sit closed for an hour or so. Well, no more pineapple since my piggies don't eat it but my gnat problem has increased about 10 times more than before.
Hi Leila,
I was having a problem with fruit flies and my friend's grandmother told me of an old trick they use to do. My husband has Asthma and I couldn't use spray.
You take a piece of ripe banana peel and put it in the very back of an empty bread sack. Make sure there is no food out and lay it out flat on the counter or table with the end open for the flies to get in there. Shut the room up and even put a towel up to the door. Wait a few hours and check. When the bag is full of the little buggers, just knot up the sack and toss in the outside trash.
You might want to take the piggies and their food and bedding out of the room so the gnats wont have a choice in where they feed and have to go to the sack for some grub.
Hope this helps, at least you wont be out any money and your piggies will be safe.
Tam
Now that the Gnats are already established in that area you will have to fully clean the cages the piggies occupy. The juice an fluids from the pineapple have permeated the bedding materials at the bottom of the cage. Clean it soon and you may have to limit the food to an amount that the guinea pigs will eat almost completely.
Use sticky fly strips... we used them in our barn for our horses and they worked perfectly! I also have guinea pigs and I found that I had the same problem as you do. So I just placed about three fly strips on the top outside area of each guinea pigs cage and some on the side as long your guinea pig can't reach them and it worked like a charm! Within a few days the gnat problem was gone. And it didn't harm my guinea pigs either in fact I still do it to this day but we rarely have gnats any more.
Found this on e bug......
Fruit flies---They breed not only in fruit, but in wet mops, spoiled onions and potatoes, dish washer leaks and any other wet area with organic debris. Eliminate the source and then treat the area with a Pyrethrum Aerosol.
Phorid flies--Usually a sign of a sewage leak, inside or outside, but may be any plumbing leak. Fix the plumbing and then spray with a pyrethrin aerosol.
Fungus gnats, knats--Usually these come from house plants that are over watered. Reduce the watering, treat the soil with insecticide, and then spray the air with a Pyrethrum Aerosol.
Knats, gnats, no-seeums, midges, buffalo gnats, etc.--There are lots of pesky little flies that breed outside but find their way inside. Good screens on the windows, keeping the door shut, spraying the air inside with a pyrethrum aerosol will all help. Hanging Prozap Insect Guards on the porch, garage or work shop will also provide relief. But in the long run eliminating the breeding sites for these pesky gnats will be your best solution.
Outside Knats:
Spraying with Permethrin SFR or fogging with an Electric Fogger will provide short term relief. Eliminating the gnats breeding sites will provide long term relief. Standing water of any kind or poorly operating septic tank fields are common breeding sites.
Mosquito & Gnat Scat--A dry granule that is safe to apply wherever gnats and mosquitoes are a problem. No poisons, safe around pets, children and plants. One 5 pound container treats up to 4000 sq. ft. and lasts 2-3 weeks. Contains Lemon Grass Oil, Mint Oil, Garlic Oil.
If you have mosquitoes, see our mosquito article.
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Pyrethrin Aerosol, large enough to spray a house several times, $16.50 per can
Prozap Insect Guard, one covers over 1100 cubic feet, will last 2-4 months, $8.50
The bugs are probably coming from the bedding chips, a friend of mine had to use the flypaper rolls hung over the cage for several days..she got fresh bedding for the guineas so you may want to check the bag of chips your using. bowl of apple cider vinegar works well ..just place bowl near cage..empty in the morning.
None of that stuff works for me!
I keep her cage clean, I don't feed her much fruit within the cage, yet every time I clean it, they come back. They're laying eggs in her poop. ):
Peppermint, vanilla, bay, clove, sassafras, and cedar have all been used as bug repellents also a bunch of fresh parsley is meant to keep flies away, or you could get a really big spider...!!
thanks so much for the hints about the gnats i want out and bought vanilla room freshners and apple cider vincer i think it is working they like the apple cider we will see if this helps it is not like i dont keep there cage clean because i do. also put these items in by my ferret cage.
I have never had a problem until the past month or so and no matter what I do I can not get rid of the pests. I cleaned the entire cages, have 3 the area around them, use the sticky strips that was a waste of time and still there are there.
I am ready to scream, make them go away, please!
I'm so glad to read this - my piggies have us infested with some sort of small fly. We've cleaned the cage multiple times and quit giving fresh fruits/vegs temporarily, but they little buggers won't die off! Now I have some new tricks to try in my arsenal...!
Can they harm my piggies?
I got rid of gnats by taking a small dish and putting 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar in it. Add a squirt of dish detergent and stir well. Place the dish near the gnats and wait. The gnats are attracted to the smell of the vinegar. They will attempt to land on the surface of the vinegar soup. When the soap touches their wings, they will not be able to fly and they will drown.
Well, I have tried the vinegar & soap method. Only a few every couple of days had gotten "stuck" in the solution. They will fall into a cup of coffee, dishpan with a little water in it, everything, but they still keep multiplying. We also have the fly strips up (in my kitchen, and over the guinea pigs cage), still not enough. Now, I am going to try the banana peel in the bag method and hope it works.
Editor's Note Cedar has been determined to be toxic to guinea pigs and should not be used. Talk with your veterinarian about the appropriate type of bedding to use before trying any tips you read about on the internet.
Use red cedar wood chips as bedding. Some pet stores will say that it is not good or safe for your little piggies, but it helps repel ants, some gnats an other pests that you and I don't want near our piggies. Also you can put your piggies in a room that has a air conditioner in it so the pests will think the weather is to cold and leave your house. I hope this helped you out! If you have any more questions about your little piggies then go to facebook and look up Aviauna Beckett.
I am a expert when it come to talking about piggies. I have 3 of my own guinea pigs and they are very happy especially my 1st piggie Cynna Bunn, he loves me so much and he never stops climbing on me and jumping on and off of tall objects.
I found the best for those gnats is the handy bug zapper, they are about $6 and require 2 AA batteries. Then you just walk around and start zapping. The grandkids help me do it and have fun... lol
Tried the strips and the vinegar water nothing worked. We just took our hand vack and started sucking them in the vacuum. Worked great bc we caught 90% of them. Also when cleaning the cage make sure to scrub down the side of the cage itself where most of the gnats like to hang around. I thought I was cleaning my cage good until I saw lots of little specs on the sides of the cage. Good luck
I have this problem too and started using the electric fly swatter to kill those little pest. Someone suggested that I get rid of my guinea pigs thus putting an end to the fly problem but I said no because I've been raising my boys after their mom died and my dog enjoys keeping them out of trouble.
Cedar oil causes liver failure in piggies (per our friendly local vet) as will tea tree oil. Great for repelling bugs but we lost a piggy to this.
Nothing works for me to get rid of my piggys gnats. Tried cider vinegar, keeping cage cleaner, sticky fly paper, etc. Where do you find the bug zapper?
OK well I have 5 guinea pig two girls and three boys and from experience we have been attacked by these little flies only twice in the 3/4 years, so the first we got them k used the vinegar n soap dish method in a mystic bottle n put up fly strips n it worked like a charm we also thoroughly cleaned their cages twice a week until they was all gone n that's what we are doing this time n just as a FYI that method doesn't work overnight you have to be patient from my experience it took about two weeks of being vigilant n keeping their cage clean n putting clean solution out every two or three days n changing out the fly strips when they are full to see complete results, so again you have to be patient n vigilant and they will go away, but sometimes they do come back as long as we have piggies and feed them fresh fruit/veggies, but if you catch it early n do these steps they'll be gone gone in no time!
What about earwigs I haven't yet found out how to get rid of them
Hello Leila, I have the same problem with gnats and what seems to work is spraying the room, leaving for an hour and then vacuuming remaining ones off the ceiling. There will always be gnats hiding so keep the guinea pigs out of the room for like 3 days and continue to go in the room and vacuum. Eventually the gnats will be gone.
