Reptile & Amphibian Forums

do these critters effect/harm hatchlings? somehow they have gotten into the aquarium repti-bark. I picked up the newest hatchling and found several on its tail end. I wonder if this could be the cause of hatchling #1's extended cloaca? I went out today and bought coir. Am soaking the coir now and will completely change out/clean the aquarium tomorrow. Originally I placed #1 into wetish peat moss, but read that the repti-bark was better. hmmm. thanks for any ideas./p
-----
Patsy

Hmm, in my opinion, reptibark is not a good substrate for hatchlings. It doesn't retain water well. Hatchlings need a very moist substrate, such as sphagnum or peat moss.

Red spider mites shouldn't pose a threat to box turtles, but there are so, so many species of mites out there it may be impossible to identify them. You can soak the turtles until you don't see anymore mites crawling on them and microwave the substrate for about 30 seconds to kill the mites. You may want to microwave the substrate daily for a few days just to be certain that the mites are all eliminated. I do this when I have an outbreak of fungus gnats or fruit flies. I count the hatchlings nearly 6 times to make sure that they are all removed before placing the substrate in the nuker .

Thanks for the info. over the weekend I cleaned out overgrown plants to let sun into the adults village. I was v. intimadated by the possibility of hurting an adult and therefore located all 4 before any digging roots out.(sorta like your microwave bit?)

Today I am in the process of changing the bark out of the hatchling aquarium
.
The 1st enviroment: peat moss

2nd try: reptibark mixed in with the peat moss and Hatchling 1 could dig real easy. It also seemed to absorb moisture.

3rd (Current): only reptibark. It does not absorb water, so I mixed in grass cuttings. That might be the source of the mites.

Today I plan on putting them into strait coir. Whatcha think?

It has been raining for days. Now it is very sunny here in Maui and VERY HUMID.
/p
-----
Patsy

Thanks for the tip about microwaving--I microwave the kitchen sponge every day and never even thought of microwaving substrate. I have done the conventional oven bake to sterilize substrate but decided it was more toruble than it's worth--nuking would be much easier.

Here’s a little FYI:
Keep in mind that microwaving for sterility is another form of heat treatment, and that the irradiation may not actually kill everything in there. Put an ant or a fly in the microwave and turn it on for 30 seconds. Many times, the insect will emerge completely unscathed when the door is opened. There are detailed explanations as to why this happens on the internet.
Good luck!

You are right, RMB. It seems to be the heat that kills them. The substrate gets very hot in my microwave after 30 seconds, but others may need to keep it in their longer to attain a high enough temperature. It can also depend on the moisture content of the substrate.

Baking works well also.

>>Baking works well also.

I bake substrate in the oven for an hour at 250. I have large stainless steel bowls I put it in.. can't put those in the microwave so oven baking works well for me.
-----
PHRatz