Red spots under Puff's scales? **Help! Mites!!**

[liquidthc]

Okay.. I have no idea how to explain this so I'm just going to upload some pictures. I put them on my own server because they're very large and I didn't want to eat up the forum's bandwidth (3072 × 2304 px and 1.5mb each).

I noticed this yesterday. It doesn't look nearly as bad in person as it does in these pictures, they're really not huge and protruding as these pictures suggest.. but they're there, and they have my wife and I kind of freaked out. I've looked around but I haven't been able to find anything like it. Does anyone have any idea what these might be? They're just in random places, mostly around the head and kind of behind/under his right front leg. They're not moving or anything so I don't think they're mites, but I may be wrong. He's as active as he's ever been and eats/poops regularly, seems to be very healthy.. The only thing he does pertaining to these things is scratch near the area with is rear leg, sort of like a dog. But even that happens very rarely, I've seen it twice since I noticed these things. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Here are the pictures
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff1.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff2.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff3.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff4.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff5.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff6.JPG
http://www.riggallery.com/pics/puff/Puff7.JPG

Sorry again that the pictures are so large, I tried resizing them but you couldn't see what I'm talking about very well. Just click on the pictures to zoom to full size once they load.



5~ month old Dragon
Repti-Sun 10.0
Basking 102-105 degrees
Cool side 78-80 (temps checked with temp gun)
Around 70 at night
Bathe him for 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week
40 gallon breeder tank
Paper Towel Substrate
Eating Superworms and crickets dusted with Calcium w/D3 5 times a week, multivitamin twice a week
Collard greens, mustard greens for his salad

 

[abbysa]

They look like some kind of mites??

 

[liquidthc]

No one else has any ideas?

 

[MelissaGray]

This may be a stupid question but, was his last shed ok? I could understand the scratching if he had a few leftover scales to get rid of. Other than that, try a magnify glass to see if they are mites. That's the only suggestion I have. Sorry, it's kinda lame

 

[liquidthc]

He's long over his last shed, so I don't think it would have anything to do with that. I haven't seen him scratch again since the once, I'm completely stumped. He doesn't seemed to be bothered by whatever it is at all. Maybe I'll just wait it out until his next shed and hope they go away.

 

[mwrinkle]

They are a type of mite go to http://www.suncharmers.com and look under the title of Mite madness on her website. One picture will show you a picture with a cluster of red mites embedded under the scales. Unfortunately killing mites and freeing your house of them is a difficult task.

 

[vickson420]

I must agree they do look like mites to me also.

 

[liquidthc]

Sorry I haven't been around in a while, but our internet has been down for a while. I've come to the conclusion that they are indeed mites, because Mandy says she saw one moving on him the other day. At any rate... what's the best way to get rid of the things? I've read a few ways, including the Mite Madness spray on the suncharmer site. The simplest way that I've found (or so it seems) is on this site: http://anapsid.org/mites.html I've never had a mite problem on anything before, so I have no idea how to start..

I'm confident that I can rid them from the tank and it's furnishings, but I'm more worried about getting them off Puff. I'd like to make it as safe for him as possible. I want to go ahead and get rid of the things before they become a big problem. I really appreciate any help I can get. I know all the steps of cleaning his cage/furniture etc. with a bleach solution and baking...so I'm just focused on the dragon right now.

 

[mwrinkle]

The biggest problem is the room their in because they can move outside of the cage to lay their eggs. In short that room needs to be essentially cleaned and fumigated and you have to go through several cleanings of anima,l cage, and room in order to get eggs, larvae and adults through their life cycle. Mites are dreaded by herp keepers even more than intestinal parasites because they are difficult to extinguish do you homework carefully. An old remedy with snakes for the room and the cage if you keep the animal in a temporary housing when you use it is the No Pest strips.