Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have veiled eggs that are going to be ready in march, we moved and a few were lost but when I looked the other day there were white worms, very SMALL almost the size of a grain of sand. the worms were leaching onto the eggs. What is this and how bad is this??? (the eggs also have some white bumps on them now, very small white bumps)

Also, I had an egg that was dead so when I opened it (curious) it was all white mush inside, wouldn't you think that when they are a month away from being ready there would be a chameleon formed inside?

I have been looking a lot on line but nothing comes up..

Are you positive they are fertile?
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

yes, they have been "toghther" then after that she was gravid. the eggs have been white since last oct. and only a few died. If they werent would't they be all gone by now??

I had problems several years ago with parasitic worms attacking one of my clutches. They caused most of the eggs to break open on the bottom. Some of them had Chams that were fully formed but you could see right through them. The only thing I could figure out was that the parasitic eggs were in the vermiculite and they hatched when I added the water. I didn't have any Panther eggs make it all the way to hatching. Get rid of all of that vermiculite or pearlite or whatever. Redo the eggs in a new batch of vermiculite and hopefully that will be the end of it. Good luck.

YES!! I added water the other day because it was starting to get to dry. I'm cleaning it all up now, hope some make it

This happened to me before. It was when I kept the eggs and their medium too moist, and the damned nematodes killed my eggs - they were coverign the eggs, like a fil, wen touched, they moved - disgusting. Some were clearly penetrating the shell, sticking out like a worm coming out of an apple. Last year, I couldn't get a single leopard gecko egg to hatch - this is why. I didn't notice until it was too late -all my leopard gecko eggs wer ein vermiculite, covered with nematodes (Ok, they might be some sort of tiny annelid worm, I don't know. Didn't see how they moved)

This is why I stopped using vermiculite.

NEVER had it happen with pearlite.

I use alot of vermiculite to hatch collared and agama eggs and also use for leaftail geckos.
Never have had that happen so far.... but can vermiculite be heated , lets say in the oven, to kill any creatures, like people do with soil? Or posssibly frozen first?
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Along those same lines....why couldn't you microwaveit?? (I am being serious...)

I don't know where the worms came from, but I do know they seemd to live in the virmiculite. I lost a few leopard gecko eggs, and threw them out (they apparantly just dried out, no good). I put two new eggs in the same container, months later, and within days they were compeltely covered in tiny threadlike (thinner than threads) worms.

They might not have come in with the vermiculite, but it's obvious that they can LIVE in it. The eggs were clean when I put them in.

I don't think they can live in th epearlite as easily as vermiculite - it's more "soily". PEarlite seems to be more inhospitable to lifeforms.

I'm sure nuking it would kill anything off. I just worry about long term. most people use vermiculite with no problem.

I put in new stuff and washed off the eggs at the best temp I could get the water at. I had no choice to do this because they had things on them. I was careful not to shake or bother the eggs and to put it back down the same way it was. I mocrowaived the new stuff and let it cool down to the right temp. This was yesterday or the day before, when ever I put up this post and they are looking well. I hope it all works out, they seem to be sweating, there are water beads on them. I posted a question above to find out some more things.
thanks for the help people

Fungus knats love the moistness, do they have a larve stage?

I'm not quite sure, hhehehehe
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

definatly not. these were very long and threadlike - more like clear tubifex worms than a maggot.

I've seen maggots - phorid flies got in and laid some eggs on some of my deremensis eggs once. not pretty.

whether you use oven or microwave you will be putting a certain amount of the "dust" into the air which can cause problems for anyone with asthma, allergies or other respiratory concerns. Healthy folks should not breathe it in either. Should always be moistened before working with it. This is not "scare" anyone just FYI. Never cook perlite - the dust from it is worse :-O

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

a fly is a fly is a fly - and they all have the larval (maggot) stage

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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet