Need some advice. I 'm getting the house fumigated.....

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illuminum

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
307
Location
Southern California
I'm getting the house fumigated, thw room with the two fish tanks included. I know how horrible pesticides will be for my fish. I'm sure it would kill them. I don't really know what to do b/c my 30gal is heavy as hell, even with most of the water removed. Either way I have no idea what to do with it since the whole house is getting fumigated. I know my fish tank will die if I have it sealed too long, but I was thinking that maybe I could seal off the tops of my tanks with a bunch of saran wrap and tape, or something like that. Would that be a possible solution, have no affect, or will it be even worse. I'm really stuck as what to do. Does anyone have any good ideas?

Please Advise. :(
 
is your house being tented where you will have to move out for awhile?

Or is just some pest guy coming to squirt his antibug juice around the house?
 
guy's coming to squirt bug juice everywhere. supposedly we can't go in the house for a few hours... He's gonna be here from 2-4 PM, then I have to be out of the house from 4-7PM. So lets say I'll need protection from 2-7 (at least).
 
Hrm, never heard of that..

Orkin?

cause when the Orkin man comes to my house, I tell him to stay atleast 10 feet away from the tanks and to spray below the level of the tank. I stay in the house the whole while during, and afterwards and its never bothered me or my fish..
 
Well worse case you can tub all the fish and take em ... :p

That stuff is deceptive..
We lived in a loft room of a 5000 sq foot monstrosity and a guy sprayed the main room downstairs; our entry top our stair was locked. All the paired finches we had captured for a week science study were dead when we returned . We felt soo bad. Some were very rare.

You live somewhere warm..take a heat pack from auto zone baggie it and tub the fish with a battery air pump somewhere. Maybe you can use giant 3mil lawn bags and cover them up and duct tape them? What is the company's policyand suggestions for fish?
 
I really really really don't feel like moving them... Can I just seal the tank for a few hours or will there not be enough oxygen?

I'm also thinking maybe I could seal my tanks and use my air pump and a very long tube to get air from the outside (like through my room window) into the tanks, and make some sort of cycle that way. Does that sound like a viable option?
 
I have to ask, is this your decision to get the place fumigated, and if so, why? Do you have a pest problem? Personally I don't believe in exterminators... A lot of household pests can be dealt with, without pesticides... some obviously can't... Like if I had termites, spray away... Where I live, at least this neighborhood, everyone seems to have terminex come out several times a year to check and spray... I think it's a complete waste of time... Of course the way people do things around here is like asking for termites... houses low to the ground with not much for a foundation... Then a lot of houses that have crawl space have a board blocking the hole that goes under the house... hello... wood touching the ground and touching your house... I don't get it... All I know is the apartment i'm in I have no choice when they spray the outside.. maybe it's for termites but I see no change in the amount of insects in the apartment before or after the spraying... occasionally I will see more after the spraying, but never less... One time they came in and HAD to put a trap under the bed in the bedroom... They wanted it in one place so they could see where bugs were coming in... What a joke. I went to the hardware store, got my own traps, and caught more bugs than their trap did. Not only that but how could a trap help them locate where bugs come in? I could tell them right away... like hey, look at the door, do you see the light coming in when the door is closed... I've had scorpions in here, bugs of all sizes, spiders, once found a toad, and once a tree frog... where did they come from? Well, personally I HATE chemicals and avoid them when I can. If you have a choice, unless you have bugs already or are extremely at risk, I say avoid it all together. If anyone ever has a problem with fleas, regular ants, cocroaches, spiders, fruit flies, silverfish, firebrats, moths, and probably a few other bugs, I can dig up some helpful hints that should allow you to avoid pesticides... If you have termites, carpenter ants, or a severe infestation of something, then there are less options... Man I hate chemicals... You know they don't just evaporate into thin air... but we just keep dumping them and dumping them all over the place........ Okay... I need to breathe..... sorry for ranting so much...
 
I dont think there is an option of leaving them in there. If you sealed it air tight, and pushed air in, something would blow... theoretically you could seal it airtight and hope there's enough O2 in there to last that long, but I wouldn't try it.
 
Well, there's been this sudden outburst of these very small bugs in my house and I have no idea what they are. I've never seen them before anywhere and I've done research on the net and have found nothing. They haven't really concentrated in any areas in particular and I don't know what they're coming from. Calling an exterminator is the best choice for me. I've found these insects multiple times in the room where I keep my fish too.

So all that said, I personally believe I need to call pest control.
 
I'd sure hate to see anything bad happen to those rainbowfish.

I'm assuming the exterminator is going to use a deep penetrating fogger - they usually don't tell you to scram for five hours if they are just spraying bug-killer in the cabinets and around the baseboard.

First, make sure that anything fish-related like pythons, buckets, food, etc is covered up.
Seal up the tank really good with saran wrap - especially in the back. Keep the lite off because it will overheat. As an added precaution, I would put fresh carbon in the filter and replace it promptly the next day. Lower the water level slightly for increased aeration. This alone will probably get them through 5 hours.

But, if your anal-retentive and good-with-tools like me, you could make an airline filter. Cover your airpump in a thin sock to keep it clean and place it in a coffee can or plastic shoebox. Fill the coffeecan or shoebox with charcoal. Make a notch in the lid for the power cord and airline hose and punch lots of holes in the lid for air to get in. Place this in a sheltered spot where it won't be directly exposed to the insecticide. Run the air line tubing to an airstone in the tank and your fish will receive carbon-filtered air.

Don't forget to cover food, utensils, and toys. Good luck!
 
Could you describe the bugs or give a pic? I might, just might, be able to identify. I know most of the common pests out there. A picture would be the best way to identify, but any info would be helpful...
 
This is just a thought - never had to have exterminator in my house ...

Instead of saran wrap, I might use heavy poly instead to seal up the tank. I would get a big sheet (they sell em in 8 foot wide rolls), and cover the top & sides of the tank. Then I'd duct tape all around the bottom rim of the tank. This would make an air tight seal.

That was what I did when we renovated the house & wanted to isolated the drywall dust. We duct taped & poly an entire room to make it airtight to keep dust from getting into the house.

Now, to get air into the airtight room (or tank). I think one of those dryer vent hose might do the trick. If you run the hose from outside into your sealed tank (& duct tape the joint really well), that would provide a source of clean fresh air. With a long hose, you'll prob need some sort of fan (? air pump) to circulate the air a bit.

I like QT's idea of filtered air idea too. However, pumping air into a totally sealed tank for 5 hr might blow the seal (or bust the saran) ... so I would prob fashion some sort of air vent to outside to releive the air pressure too.

PS - another sugestion, try whatever setup you decided to use before the big day ... so you can watch the fish & make sure they can last the 5 hrs in the setup. If things go bad, you can always tear off the seal & think of something else.
 
bugs

Just what I though... http://www.entomology.ucr.edu/ebeling/plates/plate6-3.jpg This is the varied carpet beetle... I might not be able to find a ton of into tonight, but I'll post more tomorrow... check out that picture and tell me if that's what you have. If it is, it's the larvae that do the most damage. Do you have any wool fabrics, furry pets like cats or dogs??? carpet beetle were given that name because years ago most carpets were made of wool... If you have any wool garments I'd invest in a cedar chest or something to help protect them from insects... if you have cats or dogs I suggest frequent vaccuming... I'd just run around and vaccum as many of those suckers up as I could... when you're done, throw away the bag just to be sure... I'll look up any home remedies I might have handy... we get those things in our house sometimes... they usually bother this one chair a lot. As long as I keep the chair clean and check in once in a while we somehow avoid infestation... but the adults are found outside and they often eat pollen... that link has a pic of what the larvae look like, they are the ones that do the most household damage... anyway... I think that's what you have... I'll get you some more info soon though... I'd try something else before an exterminator... you'll end up with them again anyways... trust me... it's not worth the money and possible harm to your fish or anything... you know, a lot of pest "experts" misdiagnose and sometimes don't have a clue... let me get you some more info, try a few things, then if it doesn't work you can consider spray...
 
Illuminum, they look to me like one of the pests in the family, dermestidae.

http://www.bugpeople.org/taxa/Coleoptera/Dermestidae/FamilyDermestidaePage.htm

Depending upon the species, these beetles make a living by scavenging dead animal matter like skins (leather) and furs, wool (carpet beetles), pollen, and stored grains (flour beetles). You would have to bring a specimen (live or dead) to an entomologist to determine precisely what species you have. Do you live near Davis, CA? UC-Davis has a world-renowned entomology program - someone there could ID it for you.

Quote from UC Davis Dept of Entomology website:
"Carpet Beetle - Carpet beetles (family Dermestidae) cause serious damage to fabrics, carpets, furs, stored foods, and preserved specimens. All carpet beetle damage is caused by the larval (immature) stage of the insect. Carpet beetles are among the most difficult indoor pests to control because of their ability to find food in obscure places and to disperse widely throughout a building."

Good news is that they don't bite or spread disease. They ARE annoying.
 
:D I've been watching and waiting so I was ready to answer... sorry QTOFFER...
this is a quote from a site I was just at... I'm pretty sure I can find some info on managing them, though depending on where you live, especially California, you might always see them, you should be able to keep them under control... I have to go feed my daughter but I may try to find something tonight, otherwise I'll post some more info in the morning... don't worry about it though, QTOFFER is right, they don't bite or anything...
"The source of a carpet beetle infestation is sometimes difficult to find. For example, one pest control operator treated an office building 3 times, each time failing to find the source of the beetles seen by the occupants. On the fourth attempt, he traced the beetles to a telephone cable in the wall, where the insects were discovered to be feeding on the insulation."
 
I thought they were ladybird beetles at first....heh!
I am getting my annual swarm of 10 spots...some idiot must have dumped a load in the house out of one of those Rose garden kits. So the poor dumb things hatch in our upper floor area and fly all over. We try to save at least 5 a day and throw them in the gardens. Theyre really annoying, but the vinegar flys and mosquitoe sized stuff disappear like magic :D
 
yeah, most people think ladybugs at first... I've never had ladybugs in my house but if I ever get the greenhouse that I want, i'll probably buy some ladybugs for it... They eat so many aphids...
 
to start, I suggest reading these sites, they give descriptions as well as info at controlling them. The best way to keep them under control is constant vaccuming. Keeping the whole house free of hair, food, and other natural fibers is best at preventing quite a few pests. In areas that seem heavily infested I would vaccum more often, and more diligently... move furniture etc... those larvae could be anywhere... one of the sites mentions baiting some american cheese or something... One link is to a site that is selling a book that isn't published yet, but has natural remedies for an extremely large number of pests... I can't wait til the book comes out. A lot of things that will be in there, I"ve never heard of. It looks neat... I'll keep updating if I find more info but I'd start with this...
http://www.fagerlund.addr.com/miscellaneous_bug_questions.htm
http://www.west-ext.com/carpet_beetle.html
http://www1.ivenue.com/wizardoffood/item197737.ctlg
 
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