Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ohhh! something terrible happened today! I found a Lone Star Tick on my Black Throat Monitor!

We are trying to figure out how it got on him! He's been in his cage (which is high up with no way a tick could crawl or fall into) the past 2 days, but was out in my bedroom for about 1 1/2 hours 3 days ago. We have a dog who we take running in the woods, and it must have somehow got from the dog's fur onto our Black throat!

I feel just terrible. The tick was not very engorged, and we got the whole thing off and cleaned the area, but it must have hurt him, pulling that tick off!

Does anyone know if reptiles are suceptible to Lyme Disease, or any other tick-borne disease? Remember, mites and ticks are related...is there any mite disease a tick might have that now my lizard could have???

Also, I am from connecticut (where lyme disease was first found!)
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Melissa and Corny the Corn Snake
and Monaco the Argentine B&W Tegu
and Meanie the Black Throat Monitor

You forgot to mention how long you have had your blackthroat, or where it originated from. Black throats are all WC, even the "farm hatched" babies offered for sale, who very often come in with parasites.

Mites and ticks are usually species specific, or at least speficic to a genus or species of organisms, they do not jump across classes from being on a mammal, to being on a reptile. You can count the possibility that it is from your dog or from outside out.

I would say with 99.99999% probability, that your blackthroat has always had this tick on him since you got him, and you just haven't noticed it on him or in his substrate, etc. Or, I suppose he may have been exposed to another infected varanid if it was ever in proximity to another...

As for lyme disease, that is spread by a single species of tick, which is very specific in its host, hence its name the Deer Tick. It is the mite's own mistake when it latches on to a person or a dog, etc, as we are not the proper host for it... let alone a cold blooded reptile..

I would try to trace the origin of your animal back as far as you can go, and you will find your answer there.

Good luck, ticks are not a serious life threatening thing, and not something to get stressed out/worried over. keep the cage cleaned, and physically examine your monitor, picking off any noticeable ticks... I suppose some of the sprays and other treatments might work too, but I think that manually removing them would be your best shot, as they are fairly large, when compared to mites.

Good Luck

Travis

oops, the deer tick is a tick, of course, not a mite... had to correct that..

Hi,
95% of the ticks seen on V. albigularis is Aponomma exornatum, or sometimes the Amblyomma fimbriatum....these ticks are almost exclusive to feed on monitor lizards, and do not carry Lyme disease, but a disease much more nefarious: Q-fever, but this too is rare.

Using needle-nose tweezer, pull the tick off, and drown them in rubbing alcohol until dead, and this can take awhile for these nasty little things. They feed on monitor lizards, not people, although there are a few 1-5 exceptions in the 45,000 records for these species' accounts in Africa that I am aware of. The reading of these ticks is amazing material, and ticks have even been so numerous on African varanids as to kill them outright with blood loss!!

The tick was probably in a skin fold or up the nose and you did not see it until it came out to forage/feed.

cheers,
mbayless

Your BT was imported, that tick is commonly found on albigs brought in from Africa.
I had a few import BTs that had anywhere from a few, to 93 on one. Most of the 93 on one were nymphs, they are tiny, I had to use a magnifying piece and bright light to search him then remove them all. You find nymphs from the throat to the armpits and stomach to the tail base. The adults are found from the ears to the nostrils. The adults are identified by being black background with a single large star (white) on their back.
Pop them off with tweezers and if you want to swab the area with alcohol, sometimes it helps to swab the tick before with alcohol.

The fact that the tick may have existed on my lizard when I got him is something I did not think of. I only got him (a juvie) in january, so this is definately a possibility.

I want to thank everyone so much for responding to my post- i felt so bad for my black throat!
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Melissa and Corny the Corn Snake
and Monaco the Argentine B&W Tegu
and Meanie the Black Throat Monitor