HELP! I saw a small bug in my tort's cage!!

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

D: I am scared! When I was changing my tort's food a little tiny bug was wiggling and squiggling and flying! It was like a creamy brown color! Are these like termites or some kind of mites!?! I have goose bumps now

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Well not flying but it was like SQUIRMING EVERYWHERE!! Then I slammed it with my thumb.

 

[ascott]

If it was the only one you see then likely just a rogue bug

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

well it wasn't the first time last time when he first came I saw a bigger one same color on his shell but I squished it too and it was only just one. But what does a rogue bug do!! I think it bit me! AHH! I'm starting to get itchy! ARGH I DONT LIKE THIS! am I going to be like poisoned or something!?!

 

[ascott]

First off...let's relax..we don't want the poison racing through your veins .....JUST FUNNING YOU.....rogue means a solo bug -bugging you if you are concerned...maybe if you see another one...catch it and take a pic..then post the pic or take it to a local plant nursery to see if perhaps they can help you out with id....where about do you live? Maybe we can get everyone else in on this as well?

 

[Edna]

My substrate has lots of bugs, and I like it that way. My favorites are the slugs and worms, but I also have a few centipedes and at least 4 different kinds of tiny bugs that I haven't identified. I am persecuting the centipedes because I don't like them, otherwise I think the bugs are beneficial. They're busy eating the poos and food bits that I miss when cleaning. In the wild tortoises don't live in sterile conditions, and pet torts don't seem to perfer sterile conditions.

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

Well I hope I dont see any of those anymore but it wasn't eating my torts leftover

 

[Redstrike]

Slap a picture up if you get another one, I can try to help you ID it. My guess is it's probably nothing bad, I have pill bugs, fungus knats, and collembolans in my substrate - just as Edna said, they're beneficial. I actually put some earthworm castings (poop) in there too in order to boost the beneficial soil microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.) within the substrate.

Maybe is just inadvertently got into your torts enclosure...? Keep us posted.

 

[tyler0912]

I had a invasion of TINY black/brown beetles that got in the komodo tortoise pellets and hollowed them out and lived in them i just tipped the over the back wall let them live happily
Could of fead them tiago...extra protein?

 

[Edna]

Today I discovered flat snails in my substrate!!! I'm not sure how they came in (plants? earthworm tub? rocks? moss?), but did some reading and found that there are flat snails native to Wyoming, and they eat decaying vegetation. For now I'm going to let them be. A unique factor of my situation is that I live in a very dry climate, and for 6 months of the year my forced air heat makes it extremely dry in the house. I have no reason to fear that any of the little slugs or bugs will leave the torts' enclosures because to do so would mean certain and rapid death.
Redstrike, I really want some sow bugs in my enclosures but haven't seen them here. I traveled to Alma, Colorado in June this year and found them strolling around all over the place but didn't collect any because I thought maybe I had them at home and would get a chance at some over the summer. No go.

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

Im not too worried with them but I always feel like there going to crawl over me while I'm sleeping

 

[DaisyDuke]

What did it look like?
I had a bad problem with those whitish wood mites. Tiny and thankfully harmless, but I did catch Sheldon trying to bite his arm a few times as if it itched. I got rid of them for the most part but have seen a few here and there. Annoying and hard to get rid of jerks of bugs they are!!!!

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

It was like super super tiny probably smaller then the scales on a baby red foot's leg and it looked like wood color