Jan 25, 2012 – One Tiger’s Trash Is Another Dog’s Treasure
QUESTION:
We volunteer at a tiger farm. They have a pit with the excess food from the tiger, which flies obviously love. The dogs go into the pit for treats so we would like ideas on how to treat the pit safely without hurting the dogs. Thank you so much.
ANSWER:
This definitely qualifies as a new one for me, so thank you. I am forming a picture in my mind of this situation that may or may not be an accurate one, but either way I think a non-pesticide approach to this problem will be the much better long term solution. If you focus on trying to kill the flies with pesticides it is going to be a very constant need to re-apply your products, and you don't want this. And, anything you apply to the meat in that pit that will kill the flies is going to have some level of toxicity to other animals that eat it too.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
We volunteer at a tiger farm. They have a pit with the excess food from the tiger, which flies obviously love. The dogs go into the pit for treats so we would like ideas on how to treat the pit safely without hurting the dogs. Thank you so much.
ANSWER:
This definitely qualifies as a new one for me, so thank you. I am forming a picture in my mind of this situation that may or may not be an accurate one, but either way I think a non-pesticide approach to this problem will be the much better long term solution. If you focus on trying to kill the flies with pesticides it is going to be a very constant need to re-apply your products, and you don't want this. And, anything you apply to the meat in that pit that will kill the flies is going to have some level of toxicity to other animals that eat it too.
So, my first question is whose dogs are these, and why do they have access to this pit on a tiger farm? It would seem to me that the best solution here would be to prevent any other animals from going into this pit for leftover meat, by fencing it off. Making spoiled meat that might be filled with maggots available to other animals is probably not a good idea. That would go for other wildlife as well, and keeping them out is a long term suggestion for keeping them from consuming things that may hurt them.
The second suggestion is that anything tossed into this pit probably should immediately be covered with something to prevent flies, and other animals, from getting to it. If this practice continues the management of this place is essentially putting out the Welcome sign for flies, and then making it your job to deal with the problem after the fact. In fly management we should always address the SOURCE, meaning where the flies are originating, rather than trying to manage adult flies after they emerge. If there is a source like this constantly available for flies to access it just compounds the problem, and whether or not you manage to kill a lot of the flies a lot of them are also going to make it through to the adult stage and become a major nuisance around this compound. Could a layer of dirt go over any meat tossed into this pit? Could a large tarp be placed to cover the pit between those moments when more garbage is tossed in? Somehow just leaving an open pit with garbage, including meat, in it seems unnecessary to me, and hopefully you and the customer can come to some agreement and they will be willing to change the way they do things to eliminate the flies non-chemically.
The use of fly baits around this area could be helpful, but with lots of wonderful garbage in the pit there is going to be a lot of competition for the bait products to try to attract the flies. UV light traps would be ineffective outdoors like this. Spraying residual pesticides over the garbage would not only last too short a time but also pose a hazard to other animals that eat the garbage. Fogging would kill flies but last only an hour or so. Hopefully you can work to find a way both to prevent the dogs from getting into this unsanitary situation as well as cover the garbage to discourage or prevent the flies from getting to it. I don't think insecticides are the answer here.
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