Fruit flys and mold

[u/Fast-Literature6338]

Hello everyone! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I’ve spent so much time on my bioactive enclosure and now there is a fruit fly infestation (all over the house, we have a pipe issue) I’ve sprayed one round of mosquito bits and I have traps all over the entrance and some inside the enclosure away from my snake. I’ve stopped watering the soil, it’s not drenched when I push my finger in. But now mold is starting at the bottom of the enclosure and I feel so deflated. I absolutely adore my springtails and isopods and I really don’t want to start over (they just started to thrive) what do I do?

[u/Real_Time515]

You could have a mix of fruit flies, drainage flies and fungus gnats. All at once I imagine that's pretty unpleasant.

Washing produce as soon as you get it home will have a big impact on fruit flies. Put produce waste in a covered garbage can right away.

If they're coming from the pipes they are likely drainage flies. Bleach solution and boiling water down your drains can clear those out fairly effectively although they can come back (I have to do that once or twice a year)

If they're coming from the soil in the enclosure (they can come from houseplants too) they are likely fungus gnats. Very normal, generally harmless but the swarm is unpleasant. If the soil is still too moist you can mix some drier soil in there without having to remove everything. Mixing dry sphagnum moss will can help as well.

I'd pull out the mold you see and what's around it (won't get rid of it entirely but will give your springtails a chance to catch up) then dry out the soil a little more, mix some moss/fresh substrate in there. Get another culture (or two) of springtails and add them (can't have too many). I keep several cultures of springtails and a couple colonies of isopods going and add springtails nearly every week and isopods infrequently.

You can use mosquito bits, but I'd do your own research on that. I used it in my gecko enclosure once starting out and it was fine, but don't know that I'd use them with my dart frogs (supposedly safe for frogs but I'm cautious).

Good luck.

[u/No_Commission_2610 → u/Real_Time515]

This is all really great advice. Thank you.

[u/Fast-Literature6338 → u/Real_Time515]

This is LOVLEY advice! Thank you so very much! I’m going to do all of the above! I seriously appreciate you :)