Red bugs crawling in enclosure

[SulcataTort102]

Sup'
I have three baby Sulcatas in my tank(Gonna' get tortoise table soon)
And there have been these red bugs crawling around.Should I be concerned?
Bug Discription:
-It has 4-6 legs
-Really small. Like the size of *
-It's red in colour
-There are a few crawling in my tank and some of them are even crawling on my tortoises
Any idea what this is???[/color][/size]

 

[Yvonne G]

Could you post a picture?

Most bugs in a tortoise enclosure aren't harmful, but there are some mites that actually bite and suck blood.

 

[SulcataTort102]

Damn.I can't really find one right now.

 

[dk1234]

Sorry, this is unrelated to your original point about bugs, but Tom has made some compelling arguments against converting from a tank to a table for babies. Namely, it's easier to keep humidity and heat up in a tank. If I were you, I would consider staying with a tank. Also, many people argue against housing more than one sulcata together, but that's probably another discussion for another time.

It would probably help if you told everyone what kind of substrate you're using. Maybe a complete change of substrate will do the trick. Even though the bugs might end up being harmless, I feel like if i found bugs in my tortoise's indoor enclosure, I would probably do everything I could to get rid of them, even if they are harmless. But then again I'm more averse to bugs than normal people.

 

[kjr153]

I had the same thing like a week ago. They're so small that a camera would not pick it up. They're smaller than making a dot with a red ink pen. I was wanting to know what they were as well. I noticed mine when I brought my tort in from being outside.

---

I just looked it up. They are red spider mites.

 

[SulcataTort102]

You can see what substrate I use in my profile picture.i don't know the name of it.
Anyway,..how do I get rid of them?
New info.
-6 legs.
-2 antennas
-either dark orange instead of red

@kjr153
Their not that small.My laptop camera can identify them and they would be bigger or at least the equal size to a red ink dot.
So..are they really Red Spider Mites?
I found some white or near transparent ones to.
Please don't tell me their the offspring.

 

[Urtle]

I wouldn't worry about the bugs. You need to worry about the substrate you are using, which looks to me like its no good. Is it wood shavings? Either way it doesn't look like it holds moisture in too well which is what sulcatas need along with humidity. Read Toms threads under the stickies, in the sulcata tortoise section of the forum. There is tons of good info there!