Bug "bombs" safe for aquarium?

I was just wondering if anyone had any advice/experience with bug bombs and fishtanks. I've got a few tiny spiders, and my landlord insists on using the bug bombs to get rid of them. they say that I can return after 3 hours, but I'm worried about my fishtanks. i've got a 55 gallon, a 20 gallon, and a 10 gallon. Does anyone know if these bug bombs are safe for the tanks, or will the poison get into the tank and kill the fish? Will it help if I cover the tanks (over the lights, with a towel or something?) If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated! THANKS!

 

I think that to be safe, I would cover the top of the tank with plastic wrap, or something that won't let water or gas threw

 

On the bug bomb it says to turn every thing in your aquarium off and cover it and they should be fine. Now what to cover it with I wouldn't know but something that will keep it sealed air tight. Because if it does get in the tank your fish will be gonners and that would be sad.
Good luck

 

will the fish be ok with everything off for 3 hours? as for the covering, what about the glad press n seal? then I can make sure it's sealed without letting anything in?

 

Yes I think they will be fine for 3 hours and I wouldn't turn them back on until after it is all aired out too. But I think the wrap that you said would work well.

 

Hi,
I recently had my house sprayed by a company and I put a large sheet of plastic over the top of the glass lids and taped the overhanging plastic to the glass then put the hoods back on and I didn't take this of for about 3hrs after spraying.I left everything running and had no problems.
Good Luck.

 

thanks for your help!

 

Hi,
I recently had my house sprayed by a company and I put a large sheet of plastic over the top of the glass lids and taped the overhanging plastic to the glass then put the hoods back on and I didn't take this of for about 3hrs after spraying.I left everything running and had no problems.
Good Luck.

Good advice. If your filters are running they are only moving water so there is no problem , but if you are running an air pump it will pull outside air into the tank. I would turn the air pump off.
Carol

 

how about buying little gas masks at the LFS? really, i'd go with the advice given here, it sounds good, or if you wanted a lot of work, take the tank out while the spraying is going on and all.

 

well tanking the tanks out isn't really an option, unless you want to come help me move them (a 55 and a 20 gallon, I think I could get the 10 gallon by myself) ;D

 

Don't worry about turning off your air for 3 hours, they will be fine trust me on this. I once lost power for 28 hours and my fish were fine and that was with a 10 gal. tank. Hope your fish are ok after the bug bomb, good luck.

 

I wouldn't leave anything running (even the filter). It's very unlikely, but possible, that the motor in the filter could create enough of a spark to ignite the gas from the bug bombs.
Anybody who religiously watches Mythbusters knows that bug bombs are flammable. Geez that was a good episode.

 

sure, I'll pick up both tanks and take them out. yea.. a bit too heavy, unless you went through all the work of breaking it down and taking it all out sans water and it sounds like you have other options than that.

 

GOOD NEWS! I convinced my landlord to just use a spray instead of the bug bombs (after all i've only seen maybe 5 tiny spiders...gross yes but not the end of the world!) so now I don't have to worry bout the fish! And tomorrow I get to FINALLY go buy some african cichlids for my 55 gallon tank! ;D I'm Happy!

 

and the fish rejoiced!

 

and the fish rejoiced!

yep they sure do

 

That was cute, you guys crack me up.....lol. It was an informative post too! Some good advice.

 

thanks.. i'd also advise not setting off bug bombs in tanks.. see how smart I am! :

 

That was cute, you guys crack me up.....lol. It was an informative post too! Some good advice.

Yes it was a very informative post , thanks for all the ideas contributed.
Sugar Bear- We try to have fun, if we don't we'll take ourselves way too seriously
Carol

 

That was cute, you guys crack me up.....lol. It was an informative post too! Some good advice.

Yes it was a very informative post , thanks for all the ideas contributed.
Sugar Bear- We try to have fun, if we don't we'll take ourselves way too seriously
Carol

hey, i'm a serious fellow.. ask anyone.

 

Serious about your fun ?
Carol

 

Serious about your fun ?
Carol

bug bombs aren't fun, they're serious so if I talk about them I must be serious too.. I was learned that in school! :;jk

 

Hey!
So our house is being bug bombed tomorrow. I know the Bombs are toxic to my fish, the tank is 140L and I can’t move it out of the house. I’m just wanting to see if I have taken the right steps & have some questions.

We are using a huge heavy duty garbage bag and wrapping it around the tank with industrial tape. Then I’m putting a layer of cling wrap around it too. Then I’m going to lay a comforter/doona cover over the top & putting books around the base to keep it closed. I’ll be turning off all filters, air pumps, heaters etc. we have to keep it all off for 2 hours and then air the house out for 30mins (I’ll try air out longer). Then wipe everything down before turning anything back on. Especially the pumps.

Firstly, will the fish be ok for up to 3 hours without the heater/filter/pumps going?

Secondly, have I done as much as I can to keep the fish safe?

Thirdly, any more ideas?


Ps- the tank has guppy, gourami, rummynose, bn pleco and Cory’s.

 

Hello, I think you are doing the right thing. I would not keep the plastic on for like a day, or leave the heater off and everything else like that for a day. But you stated that it was just a half day or even 16 hours? I think the fish will be fine. I think you have a great idea that you are using a blanket on top of plastic. Just wait as long as you can. Like until the room is safe. Then slowly unwrap the blanket. Then when you go to unwrap the plastic make sure you pull the plastic away from the tank. You can even cut the lower plastic with a scissors so you only have a few feet of plastic left. Then let it settle again so you can kind of pull the plastic away from the tank. The bug bomb is going to settle on the ground not In the air. So just do it slowly and you should be fine.

 

Thank you for your advice! I’m trying my hardest to make sure the fish stay safe and I don’t do any damage!

 

I think you're taking plenty of precautions, so all should be fine
Oh, and lower the water level a bit first to leave plenty of air in there before you cover it all up (I'd also do a partial water change first too, seeing as they're going to be without the filter for a while) -that way you can leave it for a whole 24hours or even longer if needed (provided your fish are fine without a heater and filter for that long, I don't know what type of fish you have but most would be fine without for 24 -48 hours, just like when it comes to shipping fish etc.
Good luck

 

Sounds like you have it well in hand.

 

I’m venturing into deep waters re my knowledge of the subject, but being organic compounds, I’d imagine purigen/carbon would go a long way towards breaking down any tiny amounts of nasties that make it past your defences described above.

 

I'd also recommend sealing up the air pump and any airline tubing. Clean the area around the air pump after it's done to make sure you don't suck in a bunch of pesticide when you start it back up. Same with anything that's going to come in contact with the water, like nets, food, etc. The fog is designed to penetrate into drawers, etc.

I hope you're having it professionally done. I've heard many nightmares about do-it-yourself fogging projects.

 

Thanks everyone! Today is the day so I’m starting to get everything organised. I’m going to keep the place airing out as long as I can to make sure everything is settled before I go opening the tank.
I plan on taking a bag full of stuff with me in the car (food, nets, etc etc) so they aren’t even in the house when it’s done. I wish I could also take the tank.

It is getting professionally done, luckily for me my brother is a pest exterminator and he comes & does it all. He gave me the advice on what to do with the tank (I suggested the comforter) but told me to seek other advice too.

 

I’ve been thinking about this. Why turn off heater and filter? If they are part of the closed system that will be inside your bag/blanket setup, whether or not they're running shouldn’t affect exposure. O2 levels would drop in a closed system, and lowering temp will help to mitigate that (reduced metabolism, and greater capacity for water to hold O2), but I wonder if the benefits of keeping the filtration running don’t outweigh the costs. But again, this is more of a question that a statement or opinion.

 

What are you treating? Gassing the whole house is usually ineffective and only used on termites. For just about every other pest there's a more effective alternative that's safer for fish.

 

I've only ever flea bombed. Turned off air pumps. Placed everything on the hood. Covered with a few garbage bags and threw a heavy blanket on it to hold bags down. Set them off before work and after work aired everything out, uncovered and all was good. I did throw a new charcoal pack in the filter the day before just because. So your plan should be good.

 

What are you treating? Gassing the whole house is usually ineffective and only used on termites. For just about every other pest there's a more effective alternative that's safer for fish.

She said her brother is a professional exterminator so I imagine he has it under control

 

I’ve been thinking about this. Why turn off heater and filter? If they are part of the closed system that will be inside your bag/blanket setup, whether or not they're running shouldn’t affect exposure. O2 levels would drop in a closed system, and lowering temp will help to mitigate that (reduced metabolism, and greater capacity for water to hold O2), but I wonder if the benefits of keeping the filtration running don’t outweigh the costs. But again, this is more of a question that a statement or opinion.

I thought the same initially, but then realized you can't get as good of a seal with the cords hanging out

 

I just now noticed that the OP is in Australia; I immediately conjured up a vision of a house suffering from an infestation of some kind of highly-venomous hamster-sized spiders.

Many years ago I lived in an apartment building that was undergoing an insect spray treatment. I lowered the water level in all my tanks by about 1/3, to increase the volume of air within the closed sealed system. Each tank was carefully and thoroughly wrapped up in several layers of painter's drop sheets (clear plastic) secured and sealed with heavy-duty packing tape. Heaters and filters were left operating inside, very easy to seal carefully around the cord; I had everything plugged into a single power bar inside the wrap, then only the one round cord from that needed to be sealed up. I turned off all lights because I was worried about heat building up. We had to remain outside for 12 hours; I stayed away for 24. Upon my return I carefully unwrapped everything, disposed of the plastic, and topped up the tanks with pre-treated water that had also been under wraps, effectively completing a 30% water change. No losses of any kind occurred.

I would be extra careful to ensure that none of the target pest species manage to make their way into the sealed system to escape the spray. This whole procedure is a slight PITA but that's about all, not really a big deal. Good luck!

 

Thanks everyone!! So the whole thing went well & the fish are all just fine! I had the tank wrapped in like 20 layers of cling wrap and garbage bags, I didn’t remove them for as long as I could.

To answer a couple of questions, the reason why the filter etc were turned off is because my brother told me the actual power points needed to be switched off around the house. If the power points didn’t need to be turned off I would have kept it going the whole time and just wrapped around it. But after he had done his business around the house; my brother pulled the cord out (it was all on a power board and I left the plug hanging out of my wrapped creation) and plugged it back in, so really it only ended up without a filter/heater for half an hour.

Yes, I am from Australia & thank god I have never seen a massive huntsman spider in this house! Apparently according to my brother, they live in the garage, so I don’t go down there lol. But it’s coming into summer here, we live near water so the amount of spiders, mosquitoes, flies, and bugs that hang around is ridiculous lol. That’s why he comes now to treat it and surface spray the place. If I see one of those massive spiders, I would probably burn down the house and run away!

 

Good luck!

I would also suggest putting activated carbon in your filters for a while after the treatment. And make sure to use enough of it!

The precautions you’re taking should keep any poison from getting in the tank, but running activated carbon will be a good safety net to remove any poison that gets in the tank after you remove all the covers.

 

Thanks everyone!! So the whole thing went well & the fish are all just fine! I had the tank wrapped in like 20 layers of cling wrap and garbage bags, I didn’t remove them for as long as I could.

To answer a couple of questions, the reason why the filter etc were turned off is because my brother told me the actual power points needed to be switched off around the house. If the power points didn’t need to be turned off I would have kept it going the whole time and just wrapped around it. But after he had done his business around the house; my brother pulled the cord out (it was all on a power board and I left the plug hanging out of my wrapped creation) and plugged it back in, so really it only ended up without a filter/heater for half an hour.

Yes, I am from Australia & thank god I have never seen a massive huntsman spider in this house! Apparently according to my brother, they live in the garage, so I don’t go down there lol. But it’s coming into summer here, we live near water so the amount of spiders, mosquitoes, flies, and bugs that hang around is ridiculous lol. That’s why he comes now to treat it and surface spray the place. If I see one of those massive spiders, I would probably burn down the house and run away!

Glad all went well Haha you just reminded me of when I was a kid about 7, I saw a huge huntsman on the ceiling and didn't want to walk under it because I was scared it would fall on me. Finally got the courage to walk under it to get to something in the other room (my parents saying it's not gonna fall on you!), and just my luck the **** thing instantly fell on my head! Obviously a lot of screaming and flailing ensued lol. Not really too bothered by creepy crawlies unless they end up on me. Or big black spiders.. I'll instantly grab the bug spray

 

Thanks everyone!! So the whole thing went well & the fish are all just fine! I had the tank wrapped in like 20 layers of cling wrap and garbage bags, I didn’t remove them for as long as I could.

To answer a couple of questions, the reason why the filter etc were turned off is because my brother told me the actual power points needed to be switched off around the house. If the power points didn’t need to be turned off I would have kept it going the whole time and just wrapped around it. But after he had done his business around the house; my brother pulled the cord out (it was all on a power board and I left the plug hanging out of my wrapped creation) and plugged it back in, so really it only ended up without a filter/heater for half an hour.

Yes, I am from Australia & thank god I have never seen a massive huntsman spider in this house! Apparently according to my brother, they live in the garage, so I don’t go down there lol. But it’s coming into summer here, we live near water so the amount of spiders, mosquitoes, flies, and bugs that hang around is ridiculous lol. That’s why he comes now to treat it and surface spray the place. If I see one of those massive spiders, I would probably burn down the house and run away!

I didn't see your comment when I responded.

I'm glad everything went well! Good job taking all those steps to keep your fish safe!!