What would you do????

[ChromaChameleons]

I have a friend who has a ton of chameleons and snakes in his basement. He was renovating his kitchen and pulled down all the cupboards and the drywall against the outer wall of the house, exposing the stud framework and also a BIG SURPRISE. When he removed the drywall , insulation and vapour barrier, he found carpenter ants; thousands of carpenter ants. They had been there for a long time judging by the damage and he was able to find 2 seperate nests with a queen in each.

He immediately called an exterminator , who told him he and his dogs and reptiles would have to vacate the house for 2 days , while they bomb the place.

Even though he was told 2 days, he is reluctant to return his reptiles for up to 3 weeks. He is concerned that what ever they are spraying may be harmful to his chams.

Has anyone had a similar experience??

What would you do??

 

[ChromaChameleons]

i would appreciate any and all opinions...

 

[VerteX]

Not that I know much about the duration of pesticides lingering around, but I'd say why take the risk of moving them in right after 2 days?

Cherron is going through a similar situation too.

 

[Fate X]

if you live in the city with windows uopen someone next door or wherever might have set off a bug bomb and then return to ventilate the room/house depends i have heard stories of people using up to and beyond a dozen at a time for a house.i keep my chameleons on the second floor with 1 window open all summer most of the fall and spring and none of them had uri from chemicals ,breathing it in. ever.

 

[FaunaBgirl]

If they are in a place where they can stay for a bit... I would leave them there. But I also know the stress of moving them. So I might try to water spray the whole place down and then sop it up and try to clean it up like we do the pesticides off the plants we give them. I take it the basement is cement? We had some windows in our basement way at the top for light in boxes my Dad dug out. I would open those the whole time too and try to get them back into the basement after 3 days. If there are babies... I would keep them in my bedroom for a bit though. But that's just me. Only because I know I would have no alternative. Otherwise I would get a kind of shed, shade the top from sun with a huge tarp and try to keep them in there as an alternative. But those things are like ovens this time of year. " And on the outside, say I was rich, and had land around my place. I'd have another hole dug and another enclosure built special for them where half the place is underground for the cool aspect and half is above for the sunlight. I'd have sliding walls so that a summer place could be created and closed up for the winter. Solar heated of course. California dreamin' lol

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

Take yourself and your animals and get the hell out of there!
I would not trust what some neurotoxin addled bozo for some pest control company
would tell me over the phone.
Do you really think that they actually know what it is that they're spraying?
You would need a college education to really understand that
and I seriously doubt that anyone working the phones over at "Rid~O~Ant inc."

There's been a few examples of where common household poisons
have found their way into the chams environment and killed the animals.
Plants sprayed with a systemic poison at the nursery months ago
have killed baby cams that licked water droplets off their leaves.
Don't trust what they tell you... those things are poisons
and they do affect you and your pets with some very long half lives.

IF I were you I would look into alternatives that wouldn't be so damaging
to anything else but the ants. (orange oil?)
If you can't find any other options I would get the name and information
for the actual poison they plant to use and contact the 1-800 info line for the manufacturer.
Get some real info there and plan on keeping your animals elsewhere for
at least a week or two while the ant colony is removed and the damage is repaired.

Most poison manufacturers don't include "reptiles" in the definition of "pets"
mammals have different sets of enzymes that are required to break down
many of the commercial poisons used what may be "officially OK" for post spraying
habitation for us, may be (very likely are) highly toxic for them and their offspring.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Thank you all for your replies.

I personally, suggested that my friend remove his reptiles from the house for 3 weeks, then return only one chameleon. If that cham can thrive in the environment for 2 weeks, then I would return the remainder of his collection.

I called him , to see how his dilemma is progressing and have had no answer for about a week. This tells me that he and all his animals are out of the house and probably won't be back for a while.