Reptile & Amphibian Forums

for many of you who've been here enough to have read my posts and heard what situation my gecko has been in i think i've finally sussed it out. for a week or so i've noticed my gecko hasnt been sleeping on the sand, but up on a stick that traverses half of his tank, and when he was on the sand, he used to flick his feet as though a bug was touching him. then i'd had enough and inspected the sand. it was very hard to see but there were bug's all in the sand. not big bugs. very very VERY small bugs. you coudlnt really see them if you tried to look directly at them, but if you just looked at the sand from 30cm away you could see how many of them there were. soon as i saw how many there was, i got my gecko out, binned all of the sand, and bleached the cr*p out of the tank, and put him on paper towels. has anyone else seen these? i cant even really describe what they looked like. there back end looked oval, with one end tapering to the head/body, but that's all i could make out of them. is it possible there just bugs from the wild? im a smoker so i have my window open almost all of the time, and i'm really sensitive to temperature, so there even open through all of the night, especially with it getting into the warmer months here in the UK. today my leo's eaten 3 size 3 crickets, which is a big miracle considering how picky he's been the past 3-4months.

if anyone has any insight, plz tell

thanks, jamie

keep bleaching, get rid of the stick and any other cage furniture, and there are anti-mite products out there to use. Good luck!
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1.0 Hypo stripe, Het RW from JL (BJ)
1.0 HypoTang from Crested (Apricot)
1.0 Tremper Albino from Petsmart (Cloud)
1.0 SHCT hatched by me! (Sunny)
0.1 Hi-Yellow Leopard gecko from Petco (Beatrice)
0.1 Stripe female (rehabilitated rescue)(Pepper)
0.1 Jungle het RW hatched by me! (Jungle Bunny)
0.1 Normal from 2001 (Freckles)
0.1 SHCT Leopard Gecko from Petco (Brite)
0.1 Tangy Mutt Leopard Gecko from Petco (Rainbow)
0.1 Stripe poss. het RW hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
0.1 RW Stripe hatched by me! (unnamed yet)
RIP Peaches, Ghost, Bill
Adopted out: Goldie, Leucy, "Q"
Hatched: ~50

thanks im gonna look into it. i've already "cooked" the log in the oven for an hour, but they might have took host to it again. anyone know how to cook a log properly? i cooked it for an hour at gas mark 6, not sure what °F that is. anyone?

This may sound weird, but do you have access to an autoclave? That should def clear anything up in a hurry. If not, a pressure cooker is a good alternative. Just 15 mins in either will kill just about anything. I know most autoclaves run at 120 C, or something like 173 F. As for the oven, I'd boil it first for 10 mins then bake for 20 mins and up. Boiling will kill lots, and also help prevent it from burning. Or, there is always just a 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. Whatever you choose, go nuts with it, cause contaminants have a nasty way of hanging around. Good luck.
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0.2 Leopard Geckos (Fire and Mello)

I have had that before too, but with my Hermit Crabs. It's very good that you have cleaned the cage, they will most likely never come back. Good job!