Mazuri Tortoise Diet causing insect infestation?

[DTNGUYEN0707]

I recently started feeding Mazuri tortoise diet to my sulcata tortoises. I put the pellets mixed with a pile of greens in the morning and leave it until nighttime when I take the plate out and clean it. I try my best to spot clean as much as I can, especially removing any pellets that might have rolled out from the plate. Today, I picked up a small pellet from the substrate, and under, I saw a bunch of tiny yellow ball-like creatures crawling around the wood chips of the cypress mulch I am using. They look like small eggs of some sort. Should I be concerned of this? Is anyone else having this problem when feeding pellets?

 

[Josh]

I dont think it's anything to worry about per se but you probably want to remove them if possible. Yes they could be eating the pellets but they could be eating any leftover food. You'll have to do a deep clean to get rid of them probably.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I keep Mazuri in air tight containers.
Still, when I open it, tiny moths fly out.
The worms are probably larvae.
(I'm guessing)
I can almost guarantee you that they're not harmful. Just creepy. Maybe.

 

[Josh]

You can also put your mazuri (and other pelleted foods!) in the freezer to kill the bugs!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You can also put your mazuri (and other pelleted foods!) in the freezer to kill the bugs!

That'd work.
I'm sure.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

I recently started feeding Mazuri tortoise diet to my sulcata tortoises. I put the pellets mixed with a pile of greens in the morning and leave it until nighttime when I take the plate out and clean it. I try my best to spot clean as much as I can, especially removing any pellets that might have rolled out from the plate. Today, I picked up a small pellet from the substrate, and under, I saw a bunch of tiny yellow ball-like creatures crawling around the wood chips of the cypress mulch I am using. They look like small eggs of some sort. Should I be concerned of this? Is anyone else having this problem when feeding pellets?

Given the shape, these could be mites of some sort (e.g. soil or predatory mites). They come from environment, not from pellets bag. Not harmful for tortoises.

 

[Yvonne G]

Bugs (mainly ants) is why I can't feed Mazuri to my outdoor tortoises. I'd love to be able to add Mazuri to their diets, but where I live the actual earth is sitting on a red ant kingdom. I've no doubt if I could take a giant earth mover and scrape away the top layer of ground on my property you'd see billions and billions of red ants living under there. I certainly don't want to draw red ants to where my tortoise lives. Red ants can skeletonize a living creature in minutes!

In the indoor enclosures, Mazuri also draws ants, but it's the non harmful black ants. For them I use a non lethal to tortoises ant spray (I use Orange Guard). I take out the feeding tiles and clean them extra good, then I spray the spray ONLY where the tile is going to go back down. I also spray the underside of the tile.

 

[DTNGUYEN0707]

Ok thank you guys! I was scared that I was going to have a massive insect infestation

 

[wellington]

I have never had bugs of any kind in my pellets or food/greens, whether inside or out. Had a fly infestation after buying some fir bark last winter. That was horrible. Will always bake my substrate and I freeze my mazuri except for the bag I'm using.