I had the same problem or something very similar to it back in late summer. I thought at first that I had introduced mites into the pen, then saw that the bugs would fly off of the tortoise then land back on him. Closer inspection showed that they were in the substrate, and probably laying eggs.

I replaced the substrate, soaked the tortoise, and hung one half of a No-Pest-Strip in the pen over night. They disappeared for about three months, then returned. I used another No-Pest-Strip and over night they again vanished. I have not seen them since.

I've since switched from using Cypress Mulch to a Fir based mulch. I've read that certain types of flys, and knats, prefer Cypress Mulch for laying their eggs over other types of wood chips.

Hope this helps!
-Kory

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• little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - lilmorton1, Sun Jan 27 17:11:47 2008
• RE: little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - negatronix, Thu Feb 7 12:14:29 2008
• RE: little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - lilmorton1, Thu Feb 7 14:34:16 2008
• RE: little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - negatronix, Thu Feb 7 18:56:19 2008
• RE: little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - lilmorton1, Thu Feb 7 21:47:47 2008
• RE: little bugs in my indoor tort enclosure - negatronix, Thu Feb 7 22:42:41 2008