Diamateous earth

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Tarajane77
Posts: 50
Joined: 26 Jun 2020, 20:26

Diamateous earth

Post by Tarajane77 » 26 May 2021, 15:48

Lovely ladies,

can diamateous earth be used safely on substrate within an outside tortoise enclosure??

I'm wondering as i saw "camp Kenan" use it against ticks on their video this week. I've also got chickens Ginger, Adelaide and Brenda and use it in their coop.

If you wouldn't recommend it could i use it around the base of my outdoor enclosure, on the outside??

Also can i use it around plant bases for feed I'm growing for my tortoise??

If i can't can you recommend a safe ant repellant for my outside enclosure. It's always had alot of ants where I've built it.

Thankyou
Jody from Wirksworth
Jody K

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Nina
Posts: 2003
Joined: 16 Mar 2017, 11:22

Re: Diamateous earth

Post by Nina » 26 May 2021, 19:13

Hi Jody,

Did you see my response to your question about diatomaceous earth on the 20th of May? Here's a link to that thread:
https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/sit ... arth#p7440
As you can see, I don't know a lot about it, but from the quote that I cut and pasted it looks like it might be a bit of a worry in case they inhaled it. If it's OK with your chickens it might also be OK for the Jemima, but her nose is a lot closer to the ground than the chickens' noses.
I wonder if it would be worth asking a vet about it?

Aha! I've just had another look, and found this -- which indicates that it might be safe for tortoises (although I have no knowledge of how reputable this company is): https://www.tortoisesupply.com/DiatomaceousEarth

And I've also spent a little while looking this up on other forum discussions and the views seem to indicate that it is fine to use around tortoises, but it's important that it is food grade diatomaceous earth. So this is good news, I think.

Ants can be a problem in my garden, but the ordinary black ants won't cause a tortoise any problems. The red ones are probably OK too -- I know that they do bite humans, but don't know if they bite tortoises, as their skin is so different.

I occasionally have nests of ants in spots in my garden and I find that pouring boiling water on the nest does kill them off for a short time, although they return. Of course that boiling water will also kill off any plants that it hits, so it might not be a great solution for you. I wonder if anyone else has any ideas.

The good news is that SUMMER IS ON ITS WAY!!! Yippee.

Nina

Tarajane77
Posts: 50
Joined: 26 Jun 2020, 20:26

Re: Diamateous earth

Post by Tarajane77 » 26 May 2021, 23:09

Thankyou Nina,

So sorry to of repeated a question I'd already asked!!! I will look at the links and possibly use it around the pens outer circumference.
Jody K

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