Quick questions

1. I don't really have any money, I just switched tanks.. And it could use a bit more substrate.. Can I reuse the old stuff?

2. I keep getting little flies in my tank, I clean away dead cricket parts when ever I see them, so I don't know if they are waiting for new ones or if it's just the moisture is good for them to breed their?

I used to be on the forum under the name of Kadama, my old email got hacked so I couldn't use my old account on the forum, sucks.

i always re-use old substrate so i would say yes to that, we had a problem with flies when we first started keeping scorps but that problem stopped as soon as it started so cant really help you with that...sorry, welcome back to the forum lol

You can reuse the substrate, but if you get flies and other little bugs, I'd invest in some new substrate (probably carrying larvae of those pests).

i notice two flies a in my tank a week ago but i have no idea where they came from

I have never reused substrate, I switched tanks because of the fly problem. The old tank is wrapped over with plastic, I was trying to kill off anything that was in it to reuse, it's a really good set up that took me days to do. The new tank was fine, three weeks later I got the little flies again. Kinda like fruit flies almost, that small. Also, I had my scorpions in the old tank for over a year before I got the fly problem in it. :S

Hi Rowanson,

Do you have some pics of your tank's setup?
I used to have fruit flies visiting my H.spinifer's enclosure as well. Things got worst when fruit flies larvae started appearing in the substrate. I changed the substrate and they stop showing up when i have increased the ventilation at the lid. If you are considering reusing the old substrate, one of the ways is to bake the substrate under the hot sun(if applicable) or to use an oven. Apart from removing dead preys daily, i'm guessing ample ventilation might be one of the solutions for your problem.

Hope it helps,
GS