Using a bug bomb

[forsaken541]

Hey everyone,
My tank is in the basement and we have noticed over the last few weeks a larger nuber of spiders down there. Has anyone ever bug bombed thier house and is so what did you do to keep your tank safe? my plans were to cover the tank with a blanket and then uncover it in 24 hours. what do you think?
Erik

 

[Witfull]

turn off all filters, cover completely with a plastic dropcloth, than a blanket. bomb and air out as per directions. ventilate room with fans for a few hours and turn tank back on. i have done this with fresh water tanks. i think 24 hrs is too lonk to go without pumps running.

 

[bpm2000]

you could get some battery powered pumps if you really wanted to keep it covered that long.

 

[Alice]

You might want to try this instead: Get some mothballs and some knee-hi nylon stockings. Place a couple of mothballs in each stocking and then hang around the basement in various locations.

Spiders don't like the smell of mothballs, can't blame them as I don't either but we did this in our basement and it made a huge difference in the amount of spiders. We barely saw any afterwards.

Alice

 

[wrightme43]

Do you know what a hedge apple tree is? If so its the time of year to find hedge apples. Spiders hate them. Here in Ky we throw them under the house every fall to keep spiders away. Are you sure you want to take a chance with a concentrated poison in the same room as your reef tank? I mean if it will get in to cracks and crevices and kill spiders and bugs, cant it get into any thing that is not totally sealed against the outside air. If you seal you tank wont it die from lack of O2? If you run a air pump won't it pump more of the poison into the tank? Its your tank. If I were in your shoes, I would exhuast every other option prior to a bug bomb. Like natural, if that fails or is to expensive, Seal off tank and use a sprayer with a residual poison, to spot treat the areas, I think a bug bomb, would be terrible bad for a reef tank, considering we wash out hands to make sure we dont get colonge or grease and oil into the tank. Just my humble opinion. Steve

 

[Dr B]

I agree... closing off your tank for to many hours will kill your gas exchange and the survival of your tank depends on that gas exchange.

I dont know what a bug bomb would do to the tank, but anything that it has in it will get mixed into the tank, unless its sealed off air tight with water movement and such. And if you do that, well see sentence one again.
If it were me, and my tank, and my livestock... Id try everything first. If it didnt work id live with the spiders or find the tank a new home in the house and move it there lol.

 

[Beckmola24]

Just buy some big shoes and start stomping