IrishEyes
New member
Yesterday, my husband and I were checking out a reptile store in the Willamette Valley, looking for certain supplies for my 3 female P. laticauda, when a 1.1 pair of Madagascar Giant Day Geckos caught my eye, and long story short, we brought the pair home. The store runs a reptile rescue, and these 2 were part of it (the female is just plain FAT, and the mail had issues with MBD when it joined the rescue, and it was successfully treated, although he still has a kinky tail because of it). The critters were bright, healthy, and active enough to go to new home(s), and the price was very reasonable.
We purchased another ExoTerra viv for them (they have always lived together, are 2-3 years old, and there is no info on whether or not they're related. Female is tame enough to hand feed and pet, male is a total spookazoid), as well as supplies, including a bunch of live plants suitable for their viv. The plants came from Home Depot. It was not 'til we got home with them that we noticed separate tags on all of them except for some live mosses. The tags say: "Treated with Neonicitinoids", which my husband tells me is a derivative of Nicotine, used as a pesticide. My question is, can this "natural" pesticide be removed simply by flushing the plants with water? Do I need to remove the soil, flush the roots as well as the foliage and replant in new, organic soil minus fertilizer, or are these plants so toxic that they are not safe to put in the viv at all, even after cleaning/flushing/replanting? Any helpful advice would be appreciated, as, atm, the geckos only have their substrate and wood perches until we know what to do with these plants. We've put fake plants around the outside so that they feel less exposed, but as for the inside, there isn't a lot going on for them right now.
Any insights are appreciated, and thanks in advance!
We purchased another ExoTerra viv for them (they have always lived together, are 2-3 years old, and there is no info on whether or not they're related. Female is tame enough to hand feed and pet, male is a total spookazoid), as well as supplies, including a bunch of live plants suitable for their viv. The plants came from Home Depot. It was not 'til we got home with them that we noticed separate tags on all of them except for some live mosses. The tags say: "Treated with Neonicitinoids", which my husband tells me is a derivative of Nicotine, used as a pesticide. My question is, can this "natural" pesticide be removed simply by flushing the plants with water? Do I need to remove the soil, flush the roots as well as the foliage and replant in new, organic soil minus fertilizer, or are these plants so toxic that they are not safe to put in the viv at all, even after cleaning/flushing/replanting? Any helpful advice would be appreciated, as, atm, the geckos only have their substrate and wood perches until we know what to do with these plants. We've put fake plants around the outside so that they feel less exposed, but as for the inside, there isn't a lot going on for them right now.
Any insights are appreciated, and thanks in advance!
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