More bugs? In winter?

[MimzMum]

Okay, some of you will remember that just as it was getting cold here, we had a sudden influx of gnats in the house. (They were everywhere outside too…ugh!) That has long since passed and we’ve got a good foot or two of snow outside.

Soo all the stupid bugs should be quite dead, right?

Wrong.

Now we’ve got little flying bugs in the house that are a distinct red-orange color. Gnat sized, but not gnats. I am afraid they are coming from the hay or the pellets. But I clean those up, get new ones and bammo! Still little red flying bugs. Very hard to catch and kill too, I have yet to see the hubby bring home flypaper like I asked him months ago.

Does anyone else here have trouble with little red flying bugs? Do they come from the rabbit food? Will they hurt the bunnies?

*sigh* Could use that frog prince right about now….

[jerseygirl]

Oh I think I know those, do they look like they just have a single wing even though there must be two?

[KatnipCrzy]

I am not sure what kind of bugs they might be, but if you suspect they came from the pellets- put them in the freezer.  Freezing the pellets will kill any live and unhatched bugs.  You are in Alaska right?  So if it is really cold there you could put them in an unheated garage or whatever for the same affect.  You could even do the hay too.

If you were SURE it was the pellets or hay then you might want to get fresh stuff.  But if you are not sure- then freezing the creepy little buggers will work too.  This is commonly recommended for parrot food- and all food that I buy for my parrots goes into the freezer for at least 24 hours so I can make sure it will be bug free.  I opened a container that I had put a fruit/nut mix in- and found bugs in different life stages…..yuck.  I HATE finding bugs where I am not expecting them- it totally grosses me out.  And parrots do eat meat also- so any frozen/dead stage of bug life is protein.  While bunnies do not eat meat- in the wild I would imagine they accidentally eat a bug or 2 occasionally.  (Just to clarify- I freeze stuff that looks bug free to make sure it stays bug free due to the high amount of dried fruits in parrot food.  If I find bugs in pet food, I make hubby throw it out- I can’t stand to be near it).

Julie

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Awww I hate bugs inside! Isn’t that one of the pros we’re supposed to get for living in ridiculously cold climates-no bugs? Yuck…They aren’t fruit flies are they Mimz?

I have an electric zapper, looks like a tennis requet. It’s for wasps but I use it for any bug as you just have to swat at them and they’re dead. That may take care of the ones that are already in the house.

[MimzMum]

K&K, we used to have those little electrified ‘tennis racquets’ here. I only saw them for a couple of summers though…GREAT for those pesky mosquitoes (a.k.a. the Alaska State Bird!) Problem was, my son (at that time very small) wanted one just to pester my daughter with, so we decided not to get any.

I caught a few bugs today (well smashed would be the proper word) and I have to say it almost looks like a tiny beetle, but it’s so small I’d never get a good shot of it with the camera. Annoying things to say the least.

Katnip, I didn’t realize you could freeze hay?? 0_o The pellets I’d heard about, but I was afraid the hay would collect some moisture content from being in the freezer (or the arctic entry, which is colder) and then it would condense in here and then, wet hay for bunnies…yuck! >.< They can't get bloat like horses can they? I thought someone posted about that a few months ago.

I’ll have to ask the hubby if there’s somewhere we can put the hay/pellets out in the entryway that would be bug/dog/cat proof and I’ll freeze the stupid suckers to death! MWAHAHAHA!

I just don’t want my precious babies to get sick from eating bugs. Just the thought makes me ill. I have hay stored from a few months back but the pellets I just bought in the last few weeks. I may have to toss the whole lot since I can’t tell exactly where the little buggers are coming from.

[Beka27]

ew. bugs.

we get those little black gnats sometimes (they gather around my houseplants) and what i do is leave out a half-drunk cup of coffee, they are very attracted to the cream and sugar and they drown in the coffee. at the end of the day i’ll take the cup down and there’s like 20 of them floating in there. gross, but efficient. not sure what to do for your little beetle bugs… yuck! i wonder if they are coming from the hay?

[KatnipCrzy]

If you put the hay in a freezing cold entryway I don’t think you will have an issue with moisture- hay is stored in unheated barns all the time.  I bought a bale and am keeping it in our garage (no where else to keep it).  I just made sure to keep it above the floor away from any melting snow and covered it with a cotton blanket.

[MimzMum]

Thanks again everyone! ^_^ Ewww…buggy coffee blend…I hate when that happens! *giggle* ^_^

You know, this is going to serve two purposes, I realized last night…keep the bugs out of the hay and put more of a damper on my allergies! (Sometimes a plague is a good thing…lolz!)

[Erbear]

If the little bugs are still a problem after freezing you can send some that you capture to me… send me an email and I’ll give you the address. Hard shell container so they don’t get all busted up. I love identifying new bugs!

[MimzMum]

Well I got some new hay and pellets today and left them outside. We’ll see how it works! ^_^

Erbear! lolz…That would be an interesting thing to explain to my postie… “Um, can we send bugs through the mail? I won’t have Homeland Security on me for this, right?” xD

[Erbear]

No explainations needed we get stuff in the office from puerto rico, canada, mexico and hong kong all the time. I think it’s only really a problem if they’re alive. It is a bit silly though… the poor intern who delivers mail to the lab is very wary about opening stuff up after the brown recluse incident. (He opened a box up that didn’t have a name on it and a dead one fell out but he almost had a heart attack)

[MimzMum]

*gulp* One of the things I love about Alaska is no brown recluse…they were just being publicized in California when we left. (Some postal worker had reached into a mailbox and gotten bitten, he didn’t make it. )

How should I send the little creepies? Do I need to put them in a vial or a ziploc bag or what?

[bunnytowne]

You have mosquitos in Alaska???  gosh just can’t escape those darn things. Ever been in the swamp and a swarm comes by.  You literally see a black cloud of them.  EEEw.       There is a saying that they are so big you could hit them with a bow and arrow.

OH those gnat like things eeee.  The coffee routine sounds like a good idea though.    The gnats here I call sidewalk bugs.  At dusk they all fly around over sidewalks so we took the grass way and no bugs. Weird.  ever get one of them in your nose when you inhale.  Gross they stink.

 

 

[skunklionshow]

We had a grain moth problem & had to keep all dry goods in the freezer. We now do that regularly and the problem has ended.  I had to do a google search for all the moth info (i.e. identifying & what to do).  Did you google them?

I think Erbear’s skills would be incrediably beneficial, so I would take that offer.  Erbear:  I was bit by a brown recluse on my face!  It was terrible at the time, but now it’s just a scar.  My head expanded like a balloon!!!!

I thought mosquitos couldn’t live in the cold.  I’m so ignorant about Alaska….our squitos usually die after the first frost, so what’s the deal w/ yours??????

[MimzMum]

Oh we don’t have them in winter. No, no, no, that would definitely be the most horrible….*shudders* No, we have two seasons up here, Mosquitoes and No Mosquitoes. ^_^ And yeah, they are abundant in the summertime but most bugs die off during the first snows and so it was annoying to find these little nasties floating around in my room. (Sadly all the spiders come in from the cold too, so we have to deal with that as well.)

I’ve run into those gnat clouds. Ugh. *cough-hack* We also have a bad time with wasps up here in summer. But one year we put up a pool in the yard and we had TONS of dragonflies. Hardly any mosquitoes that year because the dragonflies would eat them. It was cool to watch the dragonflies hovering around at dusk in huge clouds. ^_^ The sound their wings make reminds me of how Mimzy used to hum when he circled me after first arriving here.

I have to conclude that some of the hay I’ve had in the house has gone south. It’s the only place these things could’ve come from because I’ve never seen them before. And we have a wide range of insects up here during the warmer months.

I’ll see if I can’t get my son to grab a few of them and put them in a ziploc or something. He’s pretty nimble for that kind of thing.

[MooBunnay]

The only thing we have a ton of here in Dallas is the crickets – they are EVERYWHERE! A couple days ago Brian found a couple dead grasshopper parts in some Kaytee hay *grosssss*

I keep my hay in the garage, and it stays moisture free and pest free since we keep it in one of those large rubbermaid containers. It has only gotten below freezing in the garage a couple times so far this year, but I haven’t noticed any moisture building up in the hay bin. I am also allergic to hay, and I think you will definitely notice an improvement in your allergies if you start keeping the hay outside or in the garage.

[MimzMum]

Too true, Moo. (lolz…that wasn’t intentional) I can’t imagine why I didn’t think of it before. Probably because we used to keep straw outside for the dogs and, since it was left open tot he elements, it would be full of undesirables. But if the bun hay is in a Rubbermaid locktight it should most likely be just fine out there.
And it’ll be right on the porch, so no worries about anything getting to it.

Of course, the general clean up that I have to do just to get it all out there is going to make me miserable for a day or so. Good thing I got some of those painter’s masks…(I even thought of putting little bunny mouth, nose and whiskers on it so it doesn’t look as scary to the bunnies…lolz.) And I also find that if I can get the buns to eat hay with mostly long strands and stalks and few to no seedheads or pollen pods, I do much better with that.

I get the Kaytee hay here too…good grief I hope I don’t start finding grasshoppers in it! 0_o

And I have to hope I don’t forget to give the bunnies their portions each night before bed…I sure as heck don’t want to have to be up at 3 AM and out on the porch in my robe and slippers in -40 temps to get them a handful of noms! >.<

I wonder too…do you all store your different hays in one box or bin? I have three kinds here; wheat, timothy and orchard grass. Would it be okay to remove them from their bags, separate the really dusty parts of it and sift it into the bin, then put it outside? The different hays don’t mess with each other chemically if they’re stored together? (Stupid question, I know, but I don’t want one hay turning the other bad or anything.)

[Erbear]

Put your tiny friends into a little vial so they don’t get crunched and put it in a bubble mailer so the postal rollers don’t squeeze it out. I’m good but i can’t identify dust… although a ton of people send it to us.   I’ll message you the address.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Mimz, do you have any double-sided adhesive tape? It does the same trick as flypaper. Or, you can use rubber cement on some cardboard or paper and hang it up so the little creepies get stuck.

[MimzMum]

Thanks everyone! Erbear, I only had a little tub that used to hold sprinkles for cakes, well washed, and I captured about 5 or 6 of the little blighters yesterday. Some are already dead (obviously gorged themselves on my wheat and oat hay) and a few were crawling around. If I tape that shut really well and put it in the bubble mailer, will that be okay?

My guess is, since the concentration of bugs was in those two hays (and I found one live on in my timothy pellets, but I think he migrated) they must be related to the same kind of bugs you find in your breakfast cereals from time to time. *ugh* Still disgusting but, oh well, that would make more sense. The hay was from the summer, so either the bugs found it from our cereal cabinet, or they’d laid eggs in it back then.

Still don’t recognize them though. Just a little reddish orange beetle. No larvae to speak of.

Only problem with messaging is, I haven’t bee able to receive notes from the BB.com site for months now. So I’ll try emailing you my email address instead, and we’ll communicate from there, okies?

[Erbear]

I got the package today! They’re…… drumroll please…. Cigarette Beetles! My favorite Stored Product Pest! They’re so cute! I took some pictures on the microscope and I’ll post them later. I left early because of a HUGE snowstorm… and by huge I mean I wanted to leave early

“Both cigarette and drugstore beetles infest a wide variety of foods, especially dried plant and animal products. In addition to being common stored-product pests, these beetles also become a homeowner nuisance by flying on windows and doors in heavy populations. They do not bite or sting humans or pets, spread disease, or feed on or damage the house.

The simplest and most effective control measure is to locate the source of infestation and quickly get rid of it. Use a flashlight or other light source to examine all food storage areas and food products carefully. Dispose of heavily infested foods in wrapped, heavy plastic bags or in sealed containers for garbage disposal service, or bury deep in the soil if practical and regulations allow. If the infestation is detected early, you may solve the problem.

Lightly infested or suspect foods with questionable infestations can be placed in a deep freeze at 0 degrees F for 4 hours.
Careful sanitation is the best method to avoid stored-product pests. After removing all food, food packages, utensils, dishes, etc. from the cupboard, shelves, or storage area, use a strong suction vacuum cleaner with proper attachments to clean all spilled foods (cornmeal, toaster crumbs, bits of pet food, raisins, etc.) from the cracks and crevices behind and under appliances and furniture. Pull out heavy appliances from the wall and scrub with soap and hot water. The ability of these insects to find a small amount of food is amazing. After shelves are thoroughly dry, cover with clean, fresh paper or foil before replacing with food or cooking utensils.

The use of insecticides is discouraged around food materials. Insecticides are supplementary to sanitation and proper storage. Household insecticides have no effect on insects within food packages.”

[jerseygirl]

he he Erbear! Your excitement for receiving bugs in the mail is palpable!
The use of insecticides is discouraged around bunnies too!

[MimzMum]

lmao! Thanks Erbear! ^_^ Wow, that’s a relief that they’re not dangerous, just obnoxious. xD

Pull out my refrigerator? Are you serious?? 0_o I’ll be lucky to get my cabinets cleaned that well and that’ll take some major bribe material for my kids! lolz….

We did wind up taking the questionable hay/pellets and putting them outside in the -40 temps. I haven’t seen a bug since, so that must’ve been the problem. *nod*

Thanks so much once again for taking my ‘pests’ and having such fun with them!

*pictures??? eeeeeewwwww!!!!*

[Cassi&Charlie]

I still want to see pictures! I think it’s cool that I can log onto a forum from Australia and see pictures of bugs that were in Alaska and were posted to Minnesota to be photographed and identified. We truly do live in a Global Village.

[Scarlet_Rose]

That’s awesome you did that Erbear! Creepy crawlies…ick, I need a shower now. I don’t care if they are harmless…

[Author]

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