Dung fly’s may be a problem with acanthosaura keeping, they appear to be particularly attracted to acanthosaura faeces, the high moisture of our cages allows them to proliferate rapidly, close observation will yield many larva’s, these are feeding on faeces and decaying matters, they become parasites vector, ours lizards, especially babies will eventually ingest them along with preys, they can also be infected by larva’s while laying on the floor, iv seen larva’s around eyes and cloacae, causing secondary infections, adults don’t seem to be affected as much.

Dung fly’s are smaller then fruit flies, I don’t know how they get in our cages, but I am told they occur all over America, so you may have them in your collection?

They are not a big problem and can easily be controlled, at first I was changing the substrate weekly, works good but not practical. I also tried to let the substrate dry once a week, this also worked well, but often I forget.
Now I simply tie a glue trap on the ceiling of my enclosures, I place it so that lizards cant reach the trap, this seem to really work, few days and I cant see anymore fly’s, it will take a few weeks for my baby lizards to come back to normal, show appetite and colors.

Sorry if this is rudimental, but I have other things to do, and not particularly interested with this situation, however I feel knowing this can help your lizards.

Rgds

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