Buglike pests in my cage!!!

[Acorn]

[font=Century Gothic]Hello, this is Snickers (owned by Sydney, aka Acorn), the guinea pig. First of all, I would like to ask for advice from you guys. Sydney told me it was a great site to go on. So... I was there, nibbling on a piece of timothy hay when something with mothlike wings and tanished colored and about the size of a small fly, attacked me. I was screaming!!!! But Sydney happened to be out doing her Chinese Homework, so she didn't hear me from the backyard... and I was inside the house!! Then... more thingys attacked me. Okay, okay, I'm overreacting, but it's freaky. So, what are these pesky things? They're surely not fleas- I'm sure for a guinea pig. I've watched Sydney's neighbors dog carry fleas from outside the window I peer at upstairs. I'm squeaking about this... I hadn't had any fruits in my bowls, and they attacked me. Sydney cleans my cage, and finds them out. She tells her little mommy, and her mommy takes a little peek. Her mommy doesn't know what it is, and decides she should get me a new cage. [/font]
[font=Century Gothic] Hip hip hooray! [/font]
[font=Century Gothic] (when new cage is here).... Gulp. There's thingys here also!!!! Eeek!!!! So... whatever they are, will you tell me? And help me? Before they eat me and my food up??? I've tried to swap them away by eating them ( ), but Sydney says it's a bad idea, so I try to stop, but I can't help it. They're so annoying!!!![/font]

[aqh88]

We had moths come once. The caterpillars were living in some cheap pellets and when the food was put in the bowl they turned into moths. They ate guinea pig food and then made coccoons and turned into moths that flew everywhere. Even when the cheap food was gone the moths moved into the better food. All the pellets had to be kept frozen, the hay kept in air tight containers for awhile which is bad for hay, the cages cleaned very frequently and the pellets had to be fed out in very small amounts throughout the day and uneaten pellets dumped in the trash or refrozen. Eventually with no food the moths mostly died and the ones that were left flew into the fish tank and were eaten. The great moth infestation lasted 6months and made quite a mess in the house. You need to find where the moths came from by looking at where the babies are. They will look like tiny caterpillars. When you find where they are living and what they are eating you can get rid of them by throwing out what they are eating or living in or freezing it in the freezer.

[Teria]

They are disgusting, and they are everywhere. Check your walls and the ceiling - they move upwards when they can, until they find a corner to stay and make their cocoons. I had them years ago, and it was hell. I found them in my stuffed animals, in my files, in my books - yech! And I agree, mostly they come with cheap food. Not necessarily GP food though, they can be in cereals or wheat, too. You can easily recognize an infested food package cause it looks like there are tiny spiderweb threads in or on them.

[C&K]

[quote]

Originally Posted by aqh88

We had moths come once. The caterpillars were living in some cheap pellets and when the food was put in the bowl they turned into moths. They ate guinea pig food and then made coccoons and turned into moths that flew everywhere.

Good suggestion. They sound like a type of moth that we had infest our pantry once. They came in a bag of brown rice, same thing happened, larva grew up into moths. They where so HARD to get rid of. Infact, dispite many doses with raid and scrubbing and repainting, and throwing out all the loose food and cereal and keeping new stuff in containers, they still persisted until we moved nearly a year later! YUCK! They lived in the tinest cracks and seems resistant to everything we tried. then we brought a few over to the new house. Luckally with smoother cupboards, we where able to get rid of them once and for all.

Since you are not in the kitchen Snickers, I am thinking it will be easier for you to get rid of them, but I am very suspicious of your food, since we know it is no good. Tell Acron to divide all of it up into some ziplock freazer bags and look for little creepy crawlies. If she does not see any, wait a few days, they may need to hatch. While waiting, show mom this post, and see if she is willing to get a small bag of new pellet so you don't starve while quarentening the pellets. Remember to clean everything out well, DO NOT use pesticides, they can make you sick, and dump the food in the dish outside if possible. (clean dish too.)

[C&K]

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2089.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...on/DJ1000.html

Google

Indianmeal moths
Indianmeal moth

Indian meal moth

And you should get actual photos. I am on dail up and the kids need breakfast.

[DaCourt]

Originally Posted by Cavies-and-Kids

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2089.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...on/DJ1000.html

Google

Indianmeal moths
Indianmeal moth

Indian meal moth

And you should get actual photos. I am on dail up and the kids need breakfast.

THANK YOU ! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We have had a problem with tiny gnats and moths all summer. But last night was the worst. I opened the cabinet (which is brown) and when I did, all the little bugs flew off...if was gross. Then, my mom had left a cup of coffee on the counter and I looked at it and there was something floating in it....now I know...it was the larva of one of these moths. But let me tell you, I thought it was a maggot until I read the site you posted.

It was gross. I was up on a step ladder with a box of tissue, getting rid of them. There were about 30 of them. I gagged so many times. I wish I knew they weren't maggots. I know they are still bugs, but just the thought of maggots in my home makes my skin crawl. Now I have a better understanding of what they are, so I know how to get rid of them.

[C&K]

[quote]

Originally Posted by DaCourt

THANK YOU ! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We have had a problem with tiny gnats and moths all summer. But last night was the worst.

Don't be doing any thanking yet... You still have to get rid of them, prepare for them to give you a real fight. Every type of dry product needs to be contained in an air tight container, every shelf and surface wiped down, and I would suggest a spray for the cracks you cannot get into.

I know when we where suffering from them, some industrial kitchens use a type of sticky paper like flypaper to try and trap them too, so they get stuck before laying eggs.

They have a maggot like larva stage, you may or may not see them crawling in the infested food. All a maggot is is a fly in the larva stage. They creep me out too, but so did the Indian moth larva. So don't think you are safe yet.

And to think in my program, that we had to do stream assessments, where we would go into small creeks and channels and actually look for larva... After a while, it becomes fun!

[DaCourt]

Trust me...I know how much work it is going to be. Most of our dry products are stored in air tight containers. Besides soap and water, what products do you recommend?

[Teria]

There's one good thing about those moths... they fly VERY slowly, so you can slam them in mid-flight! I got pretty good at it in time...

[C&K]

Originally Posted by Teria

There's one good thing about those moths... they fly VERY slowly, so you can slam them in mid-flight! I got pretty good at it in time...

LOL Teria, I hear you!

Dacourt: I think that a good scrubbing is in order first, if they really persist afterwards then perhaps try a run of the mill bug spray of your choice. Since it is a food pantry, probably want to avoid this if at all possible.

Don't be surprised if you have to battle mini outbreaks over then next month or so.

[aqh88]

We got them out of the house by sealing up any type of food and freezing what could be frozen but they now live in the stable. The area we keep the hay in had 100s of them flying around. You couldn't even walk in there. These things can be a nightmare. Another big reason not to buy lower quality animal foods and even bedding. They were setting up a home in the bags of aspen in my sister's room. Her dwarf hamsters had the same problems as the guinea pigs. My walls were covered in pictures and I had to take them all down to clean the cocoons out from behind them. It was a 2-3hr job.
The fish tanks helped alot. I removed the covers and the fish feasted well for those 6months. I even got baby tetras and otocinclus(tiny algae eating catfish) because of all the live food making the fish so healthy.

[RubyPiggie2]

I've never had them, and I REALLY don't EVER want them!

How does everyone get them? How can I completely avoid them? Right now I use kiln dried pine.

[C&K]

Originally Posted by RubyPiggie2

I've never had them, and I REALLY don't EVER want them!

How does everyone get them? How can I completely avoid them? Right now I use kiln dried pine.

You can't completely avoid them. You can reduce your odds by using high quality foods for yourself and your pigs, and use only higher quality bedding and hay, but they are very persistant. My infestation started with an infested bag of brown rice.

Just suggest that you keep any kind of dry goods in a sealed container, so If you do ever run into them, you don't allow them to get into everything, making clean up harder, and making it easier for them to spread.

[aqh88]

Mostly they come from low quality or contaminated pellets especially mixes. They don't last long in bedding without something else to eat. They will crawl into bedding bags to make cocoons and eat any contaminates in the bedding but I didn't see the actual larvae crawling around in there too much. Now that I use only oxbow pellets I don't worry about it. If you are worried you could just freeze new pellets. It's good to keep extra food frozen anyway because it preserves the added vitamins.

[Acorn]

So, they usually come from cheap food? I have the brand Fiesta that Sydney feeds me- and *squeal*!!! It's awful!!! But Sydeny took a tour, and only found these buglike demons in my cage. Thank you all though!

[C&K]

Originally Posted by Acorn

So, they usually come from cheap food? I have the brand Fiesta that Sydney feeds me- and *squeal*!!! It's awful!!! But Sydeny took a tour, and only found these buglike demons in my cage. Thank you all though!

It took us a couple of weeks to find out where the source was when our pantry was infested. We looked at the rice a few times, and it seemed fine.

EDIT: Added: Are they gone? Or still flying around? If they are still flying around I would suggest cleaning out the cage, putting down a temporary bedding like newspaper or towels, and moving the cage to a different part of the house. If the bugs are still in the cage, then you KNOW it has to be the pellets. Hopefully your mom will decide to get rid of them irregardless, but try this if she needs more convincing. Have you tried freezing them?

Mostly they come from low quality or contaminated pellets especially mixes.

Indian moths are not just a pet food problem. They infest human foods all the time too. I would be very surprised to find out that most infestations started with poor quality pellets as opposed to grains that we eat everyday. However, that being said, it is definately one more reason to stick with a higher quality pellet.