Before I tear down my bioactive enclosures...

MissSkittles

Chameleon Enthusiast
What the heck are these things? They look like spiders and ants mated. They are now in all three of my chams enclosures. When I first saw them they were climbing only the hibiscus in Stella’s enclosure. Then they were on the pothos. Today they are crawling on Grumpy and this is just not okay with me. They are super tiny and the only camera I have is on my iPhone. These are the best pics I can get.
I love bioactive and can deal with the stray escaped isopod and working on managing the soil gnats, but these tiny things crawling on my babies is too much. @jamest0o0 any idea or advice?
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Not sure what they are but as long as there isn’t a million of them I wouldn’t do anything drastic. I doubt they will hurt anything other than your feelings ?
 
Not sure what they are but as long as there isn’t a million of them I wouldn’t do anything drastic. I doubt they will hurt anything other than your feelings ?
Well, the deeper I look into just Grumpy’s enclosure, the more I see the little b*stards crawling all over.
 
What northern state did you live in with no bugs? Where I live in PA looks like more of a rainforest than florida does lol. But only for Summer obviously.
Massachusetts. Ran a perimeter of diazinon around the house once a year in the spring and had no bugs for the year.
Looking at Google, these things are either ghost ants or thrips. Should I break down my bioactive enclosures and do a deep cleaning?
 
Massachusetts. Ran a perimeter of diazinon around the house once a year in the spring and had no bugs for the year.
Looking at Google, these things are either ghost ants or thrips. Should I break down my bioactive enclosures and do a deep cleaning?

I would figure out which it is, thrips are just plant pests, there are natural ways to deal with them. If they're ants, I'd find an ant trap that they go for and set it out, they'd probably like the terra traps since they prefer sweets.

My wife would love that perimeter thing, but I refuse to allow any pesticides here lol. We don't have anything bad, just the occasional spiders, sugar ants, etc. Part of life IMO. Wife did see a giant house centipede(yinzer speak: thousan leggers) the other morning and proceeded to fly into the air onto the couch. She lost sight of it too, all terrified at 5am... hahaha. Then on our porch we have a family of raccoons that visit and refuse to move, so theyll sit on the steps of our porch while shes trying to get passed them :ROFLMAO:
 
Maybe ladybugs would eat them? I once had an aphid infested plant and we bought some ladybugs and released them all over the plant and boom all the aphids gone.

Although i have no idea if ladybugs would eat them
 
I'm not sure exactly, but there are lots of natural predators they sell for things like that(for example, I used aphid wasps in my enclosure). I'd have to look more into it TBH
 
Maybe ladybugs would eat them? I once had an aphid infested plant and we bought some ladybugs and released them all over the plant and boom all the aphids gone.

Although i have no idea if ladybugs would eat them

Most likely, I have used ladybugs as well and they work eating whatever they can. Problem is they're mildly toxic and you prob dont want your cham eating a ton of them. I separated the plants, put a screen cage over them and released the lady bugs
 
I'm not sure exactly, but there are lots of natural predators they sell for things like that(for example, I used aphid wasps in my enclosure). I'd have to look more into it TBH
Google says something about pirate bugs and green lacewings killing thrips. Wouldn’t I just be substituting one bug for another?
 
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