Crisisalive
Member
Ok so I've had my bearded dragon for 2+ years and hese in an enclosure with substrate and a plant. I love his enclosure and him and I've always been a bit mite paranoid, so I always wash my hands or sanitize before touching him.
Now at one point I had a hypoaspis mite scare but found them to not be harmful, eventually they died off. But this did afford me the opportunity to research mites, find out what they look like and in general how they move.
When I got dubia roaches I was always in a constant fight with grain mites, and lost a huge colony, eventually I after my move, I got a new roach colony, I moved into an rv and it's nice, but not ultra roomy enough to have a bunch of bins everywhere to do a bunch of cleaning. At some point I noticed what I thought was mites in the roach bins, so I banished them forever outside. And then I sprayed provent a mite in the area I kept them
Fast forward a week and I noticed a bug on my buddy and. Squished it. I gave him a thorough look over and didn't see any others.
Fast forward 2 weeks and now I saw another one! And looked him over and saw 4 more running around his folds. So my first thought is mites, but I'm looking at mite pictures online and... they don't look the same. They don't look red or black, they look brown to tan and they aren't really bulbous from what I can tell.
From what I can tell i can see a few around the enclosure if I look really close, but only because I can see them moving partials of substrate. They are more elongated like springtails, and they don't seem to jump when blown on like springtails, however they are fast!
Now rewind a few years back I remember see a bug like this on my bussy and killed it but never say them again except occasionally on the substrate...
Now back to present day... my busy seems pretty normal, hese not thin, still head bobs jumps around his enclosure, but me? im so tired. I just moved and now I'm having to start 2 new businesses... im literally running on fumes and I don't think I have it in me to do a full decontamination. I'm considering predatory mites, but im wondering if they could be anything else. Could they be baby gnats? Baby fruit flies? Anywaything? I did notice someone on the boards mentions if they are tan or brown they could be scavengers.... any thoughts?
Just looking at him I'd never be able to tell he has mites. I only saw them at night when it gets cool, and I moved to a micro climate where it's hot during the day but really cold at night., when I had Buffalo beetles sometimes they would lodg themselves between his legs during the night. Could these be scavengers just trying to get out of the drop in temperature?
Also another thing, when moving I had to put the substrate Ina. Bag and to my knowledge all the springtails and Buffalo beetles died, so my preventative methods were disabled and haven't gotten around to getting springtails again.
Now at one point I had a hypoaspis mite scare but found them to not be harmful, eventually they died off. But this did afford me the opportunity to research mites, find out what they look like and in general how they move.
When I got dubia roaches I was always in a constant fight with grain mites, and lost a huge colony, eventually I after my move, I got a new roach colony, I moved into an rv and it's nice, but not ultra roomy enough to have a bunch of bins everywhere to do a bunch of cleaning. At some point I noticed what I thought was mites in the roach bins, so I banished them forever outside. And then I sprayed provent a mite in the area I kept them
Fast forward a week and I noticed a bug on my buddy and. Squished it. I gave him a thorough look over and didn't see any others.
Fast forward 2 weeks and now I saw another one! And looked him over and saw 4 more running around his folds. So my first thought is mites, but I'm looking at mite pictures online and... they don't look the same. They don't look red or black, they look brown to tan and they aren't really bulbous from what I can tell.
From what I can tell i can see a few around the enclosure if I look really close, but only because I can see them moving partials of substrate. They are more elongated like springtails, and they don't seem to jump when blown on like springtails, however they are fast!
Now rewind a few years back I remember see a bug like this on my bussy and killed it but never say them again except occasionally on the substrate...
Now back to present day... my busy seems pretty normal, hese not thin, still head bobs jumps around his enclosure, but me? im so tired. I just moved and now I'm having to start 2 new businesses... im literally running on fumes and I don't think I have it in me to do a full decontamination. I'm considering predatory mites, but im wondering if they could be anything else. Could they be baby gnats? Baby fruit flies? Anywaything? I did notice someone on the boards mentions if they are tan or brown they could be scavengers.... any thoughts?
Just looking at him I'd never be able to tell he has mites. I only saw them at night when it gets cool, and I moved to a micro climate where it's hot during the day but really cold at night., when I had Buffalo beetles sometimes they would lodg themselves between his legs during the night. Could these be scavengers just trying to get out of the drop in temperature?
Also another thing, when moving I had to put the substrate Ina. Bag and to my knowledge all the springtails and Buffalo beetles died, so my preventative methods were disabled and haven't gotten around to getting springtails again.
