MITES!?!

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MORTYtheTORTY

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hlester22 said:
Like I said, I don't know about torts, but it works on snakes so I can only assume it would work for them too. I would be very careful and make sure to rinse it all off very well.

How long has he been doing this with the snake?
 

StudentoftheReptile

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Extra virgin olive oil works well, too...as long as you avoid the eyes, mouth, nostrils.

Dish soap or olive oil,...the main idea is that you are essentially choking/drowning the mites. They can't crawl through it, swim in it, breathe it, nada. They die.

You still wnt to take the measures to make sure the rest of the enclosure is treated.
 

hlester22

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Well, can't say our snakes have had any mite problems, but he used to run a pet store about 15 years ago and had to use this method several times on snakes that would come in with mites. He said it never had any ill effects on the snakes and got rid of the mites.
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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That's good to know! I might take that in consideration...I'm sure the tort would be fine but just be extra careful and might need an extra person to hold the tort up since they can get into the eyes. I think washing with dawn would do the trick and then going over with olive oil and cleaning the enclosure with dawn as I stated above would def work! YAY THANKS GUYS...great info!
 

Kvoigt

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ok cool so heres whats gna happen i think..im going to scrub down both torts in a very mild dawn bath and SRUB the hell out of there enclosures tonight lay news paper down for the night boil all the long sphag moss and put that back in there.... i will do all this tonight and buy more peat moss tomarrow :) and go from there.. keep a close eye here in a cple weeks for more and do it all again? does that sound like it could work? :rolleyes::tort:
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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yes! Make sure you don't dilute the dawn so it will kill them instantly...it kills fleas in less than 2 minutes and since those suckers are smaller than you can use a tiny bit of dawn as it's easy to spread out...gluck and hope this works everything else you metioned sounds fantastic.
 

Kvoigt

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you know now that i think of it, my mom used to spray dawn dish soap water on her garden to keep certain bugs out
 

wellington

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FYI for the future. Coir can be found much cheaper on the Internet. Many different places. Just have to surf the net for the cheapest. Good luck to you and your torts, bad luck to your bugs:p:D
Sounds like you have a plan:cool:
 

Kvoigt

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so sphag moss is almost all boiled...sux tho cause i dont have any HUGE pots so it took 7 of the biggest one i had just to boil sonnes moss.... i cant bring it upstairs till i boil krakens moss and get all the old substrate out and both torts and enclosures scrubbed....crap im gna be up all night again only this is for my "other" kids this time lol

wellington said:
FYI for the future. Coir can be found much cheaper on the Internet. Many different places. Just have to surf the net for the cheapest. Good luck to you and your torts, bad luck to your bugs:p:D
Sounds like you have a plan:cool:

everything ive found if its cheap the shipping is not..... im going to try with the peat moss again this time im going to pour boiling water over it all (just incase). wich will also take freaking for ever LOL i need to borrow some pots and pans lol
 

StudentoftheReptile

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Kvoigt said:
wellington said:
FYI for the future. Coir can be found much cheaper on the Internet. Many different places. Just have to surf the net for the cheapest. Good luck to you and your torts, bad luck to your bugs:p:D
Sounds like you have a plan:cool:

everything ive found if its cheap the shipping is not..... im going to try with the peat moss again this time im going to pour boiling water over it all (just incase). wich will also take freaking for ever LOL i need to borrow some pots and pans lol

I got mine on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DQPS5U/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

Of course, I bought something else to get the free shipping, but it was still cheaper than just buying the single bricks at the pet store.
 

EricIvins

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What you're seeing are Springtails and other tiny Insects that are all part of a bio-active substrate........These are perfectly normal and natural, and help break down waste so your substrate doesn't sour.......So get rid of them and make your life harder, or keep them and make things easier on yourself.......Think of a biological filter......

I have never seen a Mite on a Tortoise, only Ticks........There is no need to boil, bake, or otherwise treat a substrate......Putting something combustable in an oven doesn't make any sense to begin with......
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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StudentoftheReptile said:
Kvoigt said:
wellington said:
FYI for the future. Coir can be found much cheaper on the Internet. Many different places. Just have to surf the net for the cheapest. Good luck to you and your torts, bad luck to your bugs:p:D
Sounds like you have a plan:cool:

everything ive found if its cheap the shipping is not..... im going to try with the peat moss again this time im going to pour boiling water over it all (just incase). wich will also take freaking for ever LOL i need to borrow some pots and pans lol

Hey..I think the one I get for $25 and free shipping is a better deal...the bricks they give me are huge and even bigger than the ones they sell in the store or individually wrapped. They sent me a big box and 3 HUGE bricks and then 2 smaller ones but even the smaller ones were way bigger than the ones in the store. =)
I got mine on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DQPS5U/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

Of course, I bought something else to get the free shipping, but it was still cheaper than just buying the single bricks at the pet store.



EricIvins said:
What you're seeing are Springtails and other tiny Insects that are all part of a bio-active substrate........These are perfectly normal and natural, and help break down waste so your substrate doesn't sour.......So get rid of them and make your life harder, or keep them and make things easier on yourself.......Think of a biological filter......

I have never seen a Mite on a Tortoise, only Ticks........There is no need to boil, bake, or otherwise treat a substrate......Putting something combustable in an oven doesn't make any sense to begin with......

Do you have a pic of the insects you are talking about so he knows if they are the same type he's talking about? or NM we can just google images. I know every reptile I've had in the past has had what he's mentioned but IDK if they are called mites and he doesn't know either so it's just a guess they are mites cuz they probably look like em but smaller. I just looked at the images on google and that's def not what I've seen on my reptiles in the past and I don't think that's what's on his either...We have tiny spider mites that attack our plants and they travel through the air, IDK how the ones he's mentioned travel but I've seen them in my green anoles in the past and on birds.
 

Kvoigt

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MORTYtheTORTY said:
StudentoftheReptile said:
Kvoigt said:
wellington said:
FYI for the future. Coir can be found much cheaper on the Internet. Many different places. Just have to surf the net for the cheapest. Good luck to you and your torts, bad luck to your bugs:p:D
Sounds like you have a plan:cool:

everything ive found if its cheap the shipping is not..... im going to try with the peat moss again this time im going to pour boiling water over it all (just incase). wich will also take freaking for ever LOL i need to borrow some pots and pans lol

Hey..I think the one I get for $25 and free shipping is a better deal...the bricks they give me are huge and even bigger than the ones they sell in the store or individually wrapped. They sent me a big box and 3 HUGE bricks and then 2 smaller ones but even the smaller ones were way bigger than the ones in the store. =)
I got mine on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DQPS5U/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

Of course, I bought something else to get the free shipping, but it was still cheaper than just buying the single bricks at the pet store.



EricIvins said:
What you're seeing are Springtails and other tiny Insects that are all part of a bio-active substrate........These are perfectly normal and natural, and help break down waste so your substrate doesn't sour.......So get rid of them and make your life harder, or keep them and make things easier on yourself.......Think of a biological filter......

I have never seen a Mite on a Tortoise, only Ticks........There is no need to boil, bake, or otherwise treat a substrate......Putting something combustable in an oven doesn't make any sense to begin with......

Do you have a pic of the insects you are talking about so he knows if they are the same type he's talking about? or NM we can just google images. I know every reptile I've had in the past has had what he's mentioned but IDK if they are called mites and he doesn't know either so it's just a guess they are mites cuz they probably look like em but smaller. I just looked at the images on google and that's def not what I've seen on my reptiles in the past and I don't think that's what's on his either...We have tiny spider mites that attack our plants and they travel through the air, IDK how the ones he's mentioned travel but I've seen them in my green anoles in the past and on birds.






i dont have any pics.. all i know is the babys are white and the adults are not (hubby said the kinda looked like fleas but smaller) ....they were all over my torts and thats y im cleaning it all out ...i dont minds bugs that stay in the dirt and off my torts like gnats and stuff like that...i duno what these are i just assumed they were mites as they look like them to me....its gna make me feel better to change it all out....
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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then they very well could be springtails..I know you don't have pics kvoigt but you should google it and look at the images and then get back with us. They could be aphids too...if they look like fleas then I don't think that's the same thing I'm talking about as the ones I've seen in the past aren't that fast moving and do look like tiny tiny mites that are brown, red, and black in color.
 

StudentoftheReptile

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The only mites I have ever seen on a reptile are the common snake mite (little black beads under the scales or crawling on snakes): http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/burm_with_mites.jpg
...and the red mite (seen mostly on lizards, and occasionally on snakes): http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/62/62C...-with-a-mass-of-red-mites-behind-its-head.jpg

I have never seen a mite on a tortoise, but my experience with tortoises has been limited. I have seen ticks and leeches on turtles.
-----------

But yeah, if you're using cypress mulch, or coconut coir, some other naturalish bedding, springtails could be what you have. They are very tiny, smaller than fleas, and a light-tan/brown color. They feed on dead vegetation debris and are completely harmless to reptiles. If you leave uneaten food in the enclosure for too long, you may seem them more often.
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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well then I'm glad I won't have to deal with little pests like that! Those little mites are hard to get rid of without antibiotics or some sort of over the counter product specifically made for them but DAWN has worked many wonders for numerous occasions but I hope that it's ok to use on torts =/ Someone mentioned it was for snakes so I hope it's ok for torts.
 

Kvoigt

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MORTYtheTORTY said:
well then I'm glad I won't have to deal with little pests like that! Those little mites are hard to get rid of without antibiotics or some sort of over the counter product specifically made for them but DAWN has worked many wonders for numerous occasions but I hope that it's ok to use on torts =/ Someone mentioned it was for snakes so I hope it's ok for torts.



i dont think its spring tails and look alot smaller than the pic of the mite shown above.....but again i could be wrong..they would not bother me if they wernt on my torts..that bugs me :)rolleyes:) so ive already cleaned out sonnes table and krakens is gna happen in a few mins.... they are on newspaper(kraken is in a seperate box inside sonnes tort table) till i get all the old substrate out and new in... i hope they are just the springtails but im just not sure so thats y im cleaning everything..i would hate to be out of town for 4 days and come back to a really ill tort from a bug infestation i could have handled(like im doing now)...better be safe than sorry. if i wasnt leaving town n had more time to research n stuff i might have just left it till i figured out more....
 

Kvoigt

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ok so ive been researching pictures and reading a ton and what i have come up with is.. i have something(springtails i duno) AND mites... the springtails im sure came from the dirt i got from outside a few weeks ago and the little white bugs are def mites.... im sure from the moss i ordered there was to high of a concentration for them to just be from taking them outside the last week or so.... i found a pic that is almost exactly what it looks like...

mite.jpg
 
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