At war with midge flies - anyone dealt with this?

[akanarek]

About a month ago, there was an explosion of midge fly cocoons in my axie tank (the life cycle is egg --> bloodworm, which forms a cocoon --> pupa --> adult fly). I really didn't want this to happen again, so I took a few precautions such as increasing surface movement and tossing all my live plants, which were covered in cocoons and probably had eggs all over them, too.

Yesterday I discovered another outbreak, but on a much smaller scale. Looks like extra surface movement did not do the trick. Has anyone had experience tackling a midge fly infestation problem like this? I would love any tips and tricks you might have!

 

[SludgeMunkey]

Short of a complete tank tear down, chironimid flies can be tricky to get rid of. I dealt with them in the past using a blacklight and some sticky fly traps.

If you wipe out the adults, eventually you will be rid of them.

 

[akanarek]

I actually did a pretty thorough teardown the first time, cleaned out all my tubing and soaked in bleach, scrubbed my manzanita stump, replaced substrate, etc. It was an enormous operation. I like the idea of the sticky traps, but what does the blacklight do? Can that harm the axolotls?

 

[SludgeMunkey]

Many, if not most flying insects are attracted to the short wavelength UV light emitted by fluorescent blacklights. There is no risk to your pet as you merely need to set the blacklight up near the tank, hang fly paper or sticky traps around it, and leave it on at night.


Same principle a bug zapper works on. (I do not suggest using a bug zapper indoors. The scent of frying insects is annoying...)

Fun side note, by using the blacklight in front of a white sheet outdoors at night you can collect TONS of live insects to feed your pets AND see some truely beautiful moths. I used to attract Luna, Cecropia and numerous underwings this way.