Found a bug in my enclosure

[Tortoisekatie]

I put a piece of slate in my indoor enclosure after putting coir as the substrate and he walked straight over and stared to bite it. I noticed a tiny little bug on the slate which I picked up from a pet store. Do I need to take all the substrate out now I have put that in (it is new). I'm devastated that all my hard work may have been undone as I have just spent the day redoing my enclosure.

 

[Jodie]

What kind of bug? It is most likely fine. Bugs happen. Tortoises live outside with lots of bugs.

 

[Tortoisekatie]

Just a tiny bug, looked really tiny like the size of a small ant or even smaller

 

[Jodie]

There is no reason to do anything. Watch for an infestation that you might have to deal with, but i don't see any reason to be concerned.

 

[Maro2Bear]

I agree with Jodie. Theres no way that you can keep bugs out of your tort's enclosure. I'll bet if you looked closer, you'd find more. All part of nature.

 

[Tortoisekatie]

Even in an indoor enclosuer ?

 

[mike taylor]

I have yet to get any bugs in my indoor setup . As for my outside setup flys and some kind of roaches . I hate bugs . My wife laughs at me about it . I can pickup snakes, frogs, alligators, but not bugs .

 

[WillTort2]

I have yet to get any bugs in my indoor setup . As for my outside setup flys and some kind of roaches . I hate bugs . My wife laughs at me about it . I can pickup snakes, frogs, alligators, but not bugs .

Sound like immersion therapy is needed. Buy 50 crickets and start passing them from hand to hand. Then work you way up to the giant hissing roaches. I would skip the fire ants.

 

[mike taylor]

Sound like immersion therapy is needed. Buy 50 crickets and start passing them from hand to hand. Then work you way up to the giant hissing roaches. I would skip the fire ants.

Not no but hells NO! haha When I had lizards that ate bugs I would open the bag slowly, then pour them in and close the top fast . I don't know why but I hate bugs . As long as they don't touch me I'm fine . If one ends up on me I turn into a little screaming kid .

 

[Elohi]

Not no but hells NO! haha When I had lizards that ate bugs I would open the bag slowly, then pour them in and close the top fast . I don't know why but I hate bugs . As long as they don't touch me I'm fine . If one ends up on me I turn into a little screaming kid .

This is me. I loved my box turtle but I didn't like his favorite snacks. I love lizards and snakes but I don't have any because of their diets. I will however eventually get some uromastyx.
The only bugs I can handle are earthworms and pill bugs (and they aren't really bugs).
I can't handle other feeder bugs without tongs. LONG tongs lol.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I worry about FIRE ANTS.
Bugs are just a fact of life.

 

[Elohi]

Fire ants are bad down here in south Texas. I sure hope I don't have issues with them and my leopards.

 

[Jodie]

This post has reminded me why i am thankful for the long cold winters here. We have very few and much smaller bugs.

 

[tglazie]

So Mike, would you handle bugs with a pair of latex gloves, or perhaps some of those household dishwashing gloves? Me personally, I've never had a problem with bugs. It may sound morbid, but when I was a kid, I always took delight in feeding fire ants to black widows or other web slingers. Those spiders were always such quick and effective predators. I went through a tarantula phase as a kid, though I really lost a taste for it after a few attempts at breeding. Ultimately, what drew me away from lizards wasn't a distaste for insects, but the sheer hassle of keeping crickets alive and breeding (plus they smell like a corpse after a few days). When I heard about the rising popularity of dubia roaches and all of the advantages they have over crickets, I've gotta admit, I started thinking about getting back into lizards. I still think about it quite a bit.

T.G.

 

[mike taylor]

Nope I touch no bug! No bug I hate them all . From a ant to a fly . I have no idea why most of all I hate spiders. They all give me the creeps . The side ways mouth to the legs .

 

[rkelleh]

My husband has chameleons and when he is away, dealing with the cricket breeding and super worms is not my fav but doesn't bother me. It is when he asked about dubia roaches that made me go cross eyed. I never say no however my compromise was that they could go outside and I will not deal with those. We have yet to have dubia roaches show up...lol. I love the torts because it is less bugs to deal with and I am more drawn to their uniqueness.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You've never seen a lightning quick, flying and very large Florida palmetto bug or flying water beetle, have you?
It's the stuff nightmares are made of. Once you see them, you wont worry about the other bugs. They become almost pleasant!

 

[Ross Malcolm]

I worry about a big palmetto bug carrying me off when I go visit the relatives

 

[Chenderson]

I just don't like mean bugs, like wasps! I hate wasps! Remember when visiting France a few years ago with my family, we locked my Gran in the car so she could have a nap while we walked around this village. We came back, she was banging on the window, we had locked her in the car with 2 wasps lol, don't think she realized she could have just got out from the inside. Don't know why I thought of that.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Out tortoises, turtles and other reptiles are all wonderful beautiful animals.
But so are arthropods, all your 'bugs', insects, spiders and so on. They are fascinating and usually harmless if treated gently.
I often let wasps, bees, bugs etc crawl over me and have yet to be stung, except by scorpions a few times, and always my fault for fiddling with them.
Even mosquitoes rarely bite me, though they adore my wife.
All nature is wonderful.
Except camels.