i had a ponytail palm in my vivarium trying to get it to grow again cause all of its leavs went brown and fell off then a couple days ago i see the stump of the plant covered with aphids and i quickly pulled the stump out but their are still some aphids left in the tank so i need to get rid of them, do you think chucking in some crickets would kill them or some ladybugs?
aphids!!
- Thread starter Tdizzle10
- Start date
Most aphids are host specific so they'll die in no time without some food source. If you have other plants in there, they might migrate, but most of the time they don't adjust to a new food source once they've gotten used to it. They're easy to get rid of, and if you have any small geckos or lizards, they'll use them as food (dart frogs will eat them too).
The easiest way is to knock them off the plant. They won't be able to climb back up to the juicy tender parts, so they'll die. Either a paint brush or knock them off will do. If they were in a garden, you could use a strong jet of water to send them flying, but in an enclosure it won't work well and misting isn't usually forceful enough.
Another method is to lightly 'paint' them with rubbing alcohol to dry out the protective coating and they'll shrivel up in a matter of hours.
The easiest way is to knock them off the plant. They won't be able to climb back up to the juicy tender parts, so they'll die. Either a paint brush or knock them off will do. If they were in a garden, you could use a strong jet of water to send them flying, but in an enclosure it won't work well and misting isn't usually forceful enough.
Another method is to lightly 'paint' them with rubbing alcohol to dry out the protective coating and they'll shrivel up in a matter of hours.
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If they can jump any distance, it sounds like you might have springtails http://www.springhalen.dk/folsomia.JPG
They'd eat the rotting vegetation and are good for recycling organic matter. They're harmless, great food for small frogs and even tiny gecko hatchlings like Lygodactylus. They're no good as feeders for your geckos, and once the food supply is gone, they'll disappear too.
Aphids look like: File:Aphids feeding on fennel.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
They'd eat the rotting vegetation and are good for recycling organic matter. They're harmless, great food for small frogs and even tiny gecko hatchlings like Lygodactylus. They're no good as feeders for your geckos, and once the food supply is gone, they'll disappear too.
Aphids look like: File:Aphids feeding on fennel.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Are the somewhat along those lines? Springtails come in various species around the world, but aside from size and colour, the shape is pretty much the same. These pictures are of some typical Canadian springers that I've got here in some of my enclosures. They're sitting on a water bottle cap, if that helps with the size:
They look like this when dead (drowned in food, what a way to go
)
Google springtail pictures and see if any are like that. I'm sure if yours can jump a fair distance, that's what they'd be.
They look like this when dead (drowned in food, what a way to go
)
Google springtail pictures and see if any are like that. I'm sure if yours can jump a fair distance, that's what they'd be.