Little white bugs

ShellyTheTortoise71

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Hello. In my tort cage, I'm seeing little bugs. Ew. They kinda look like mites but I'm not sure. They are really really tiny. The substrate is coco coir mixed with cypress mulch. Are these dangerous? Is there any way to get rid of them? Please help.
 

Eric Phillips

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Tidgy's Dad

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Pill Bugs do not kill springtails or mites. Don't know who started this but it is a fact. They only consume decaying matter, vegetables, stuff like that.
Quite correct, but I understood, and I may be wrong, that in the consumption of the decaying vegetable matter, that woodlice ingested large numbers of eggs of the smaller creatures, laid in the same decaying matter, and thus helped control their numbers.
 

G-stars

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Quite correct, but I understood, and I may be wrong, that in the consumption of the decaying vegetable matter, that woodlice ingested large numbers of eggs of the smaller creatures, laid in the same decaying matter, and thus helped control their numbers.

Interesting I wonder if this is true. My understanding of it was that they competed for the same resources and this is why the population decreased. I don't mind either one in my enclosure though, and more importantly my tortoises don't seem to care.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Interesting I wonder if this is true. My understanding of it was that they competed for the same resources and this is why the population decreased. I don't mind either one in my enclosure though, and more importantly my tortoises don't seem to care.
That is also a possibility, an interesting one.
I have a small number of woodlice in my substrate but never had any sign of tiny bugs, no idea if that's chance or not.
Not a worry, indeed.
 
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