HELP! Tiny bugs!

Hey guys and gals...

I was observing one of my snakes shed tonight when I noticed it was infested with many very very tiny white bugs. I looked around some websites to read about termites but most descriptions had them as being about the size of ants and with wings. These extremely small bugs don't have wings like in most of the pictures I"ve seen and are much much smaller than ants.

differential diagnosis?

I know what mites are- black, about the size of a period at the end of a sentence, and these are definitely not it.

Thoughts?

If they are termites are there good traps or non-professional/expensive ways to eliminate them from my rack/tanks.

I'll cook the wooden logs (I've done this before) and empty out the tanks and bleech them, but I'll still need to make sure the wooden rack their on isn't still infected or it's all for nill...

Thanks

Are you using aspen for your sustrate? I used to get some small white almost flea looking critters from using aspen. I've found that freezing the aspen eliminates this problem. Please make sure the aspen is returned to room temperature before use. :shrugs:

sounds like wood mites to me. Depending on your substrate (especially reptibark), that's prolly what they are. as mentioned, clean everything and freeze your substrate.

I had the same problem when I first got my corn, posted here and got the same advice and it worked, well I guess it did cus the white mites are no longer to be seen. I use the Reptibark stuff and freeze it and then no probs.

I didn't know this :eek1: . Any chance of adding this to the Husbandry and Basic Care FAQ joe?

yep, I use reptibark and just changed out chips like a few weeks ago. I've been away from the tanks since I cleaned them (my fiance is taking care of my corns for me while I'm out on my medical school rotations) and I came in this weekend and noticed them...

I'll try the freezing thing... thanks everyone, let me know if you think of anything else or find pictures

keep us updated. Just out of curiosity, i know you said that the bugs were on the shed. But when you looked in the viv/cage, where were they? on the snake? waterbowl? just in the wood?

Mary-Beth is KoRny said:

I didn't know this :eek1: . Any chance of adding this to the Husbandry and Basic Care FAQ joe?

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I didn't know it either, lol.

I'll add it.

They're not crawling all over the snake, they're mainly found crawling over (on top of) the repti-bark, on the glass of the aquarium, floating dead in the water dish. I did not see them crawling all over my snakes thank god. They seem to have made their way onto my wooden rack but not in large numbers. They don't fly or jump, they're just tiny white little annoying buggers.

I'm heading back to my fiance's place this weekend, I'll freeze the bark (four, 20gal long's worth of reptibark, oven the wood fixtures and wipe down all the tanks. WHAT A PAIN!

They don't fly or jump, they're just tiny white little annoying buggers.

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Sounds like wood mites to me as well. They post virtually no potential harm to your snake at all, and are mainly interested in the wood.

The non-jumping aspect rules out springtails, which are attracted to decaying organic matter (wood mulch, plants, feces, etc). I've had springtails infest my orchids before when the bark mix needed to be replaced as it had mostly broken down. Springtails hop and if you can get a good look at them before they jump, they look like silver-fleas.

If the wood mites are on the wood rack, they might re-infest the bark after you've put in new in the tanks. I would get a spray bottle and mix some rubbing alcohol and water in a 50/50 solution and spray the rack if you can. The alcohol is good for killing mites on contact, and doesn't harm the wood as it evaporates rather quickly. In smaller instances, you can take a q-tip of pure isopropyl alcohol and swab the affected areas of plants without harming the plant. So if you just see a few, you could do that as well. =)

I use Reptibark with my BP as well, however (knock on wood) I haven't seen any wood mites. However I didn't know freezing would kill the mites either, I thought you would have to bake the substrate. Which always makes me nervous. Heating up small pieces of wood, rather than just a log. Learn something new everyday. =P

Best of luck for eradicating them!

They're not crawling all over the snake, they're mainly found crawling over (on top of) the repti-bark, on the glass of the aquarium, floating dead in the water dish.

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ok just checking. What you had described sounded like wood mites, but i just wanted to find out for sure. Good luck, and i'm glad it's not too serious.

I have them too

I just noticed I have them too. I don't see them any where but the water dish. The tiny white things are squirming on the surface of the water. I just changed substrates to jungle mix reptile bark last week. I'm gonna quarantine after I use Reptile Relief mite control on everything. They are so small I wouldn't have noticed them if they weren't in the water dish.

i dont think you have to really use the mite control. I just cleaned everything with a very diluted bleach solution, rinsed thoroughly, and then froze the substrate before using it. No more problems.

UPDATE:

ugh, took me 3.5 hours to clean four 20 gallon long tanks. I removed all the chips, they are in trash bags and will be frozen for a week. The tanks were completely emptied out and cleaned with a clorox kitchen solution with bleech in it. After the tanks were bleached inside AND out AND the lids in every nook and cranny I took an ant spray and whiped down the entire wooden enclosure and sprayed heavily around the base. I baked all wooden enclosures at 200 and submerged plastic plants in sink with soapy hot water.

tanks were put back together with newspaper only and only wooden enclosures that were baked.

We'll see what happens, I'll keep you all updated, if it doens't work I don't care, it was exhausting and these little F-ers seem to be mostly benign anyway...

Freezing sounds so much better than baking LOL. I've been baking my repi-bark and OMG the smell.. yech. Makes me dizzy. /freezes bark Thanks folks =)

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago. But it was strange since it was in my dogs room (where the cage had been kept ontop of the shelf) asnd tis tiled and the wall is concrete like. And b4 i noticed them in the cage, there was I SWEAR TO GOD 1 million of them ALL over the dog treat bin (which is ceramic) At first it looked like dust with a little off white tint to it so i paid it no mind then i looked closer and they were moving!!!!

Cleaned and disinfected the shelf and got rid of the whole jar, not until next week were they found on the glass of the snakes cage. Which i disinfected ewith bleach and all that.

Kinda weird that they are not on the snakes lol.

And i dont use reptibark i use Forest Bedding , is there any way to prevent them??