Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Guys,
I never post here, more just observe topics and posts. I am in need of some answers though that I cannot figure out myself. I have a rather large collection on herps, including boids, beardies, dwarf monitors, knob tailed geckos and they are my babies. Recently I have spotted some red spider mites on the floor of my herp room, its tile for easy cleaning. It is always extremely clean and thats how I noticed the little buggers. I have found lots of info on red spider mites and their harm to plants but have found nothing out about their relation to animals, and how they could have ended up there. I have no plants in the room, but am worried that that my animals could fall prey to these things. Also I am not 100% positive they are spider mites, but they have fat little bodies, legs like a spider, resemble a mite, and are bright red. When you squish them, it leave like a little red smear. If you guys could give me some info I would appreciate.
thanks wohlerswi

Far as I know red spider mites don't affect any animals..they just attack plants.

If you don't see any in the cages or on your animals, I wouldn't worry about them.
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PHLdyPayne

Thank you. Yeah I don't see anything different about their behavior, but like I said they are all my babies so maybe Im over protective. I haven't found any on the animals or in their cages either just on the tile floor, and not many, maybe 20 up until this point. thanks for your help
Will Wohlers

In Canada we call them clover mites; or they sound like clover mites anyway, and here they are harmless just a pest. If you have a lot of clover in your grass that is where they may be coming from. Just a suggestion you might want to do a little research on them and see if you can find anything. Hope that helped even just a little.

I've had this same problem, but not with bearded dragons; with hamsters.

Have you seen the mites ON the beardie? As in crawling on its skin?

The red mites that I saw in my hamster's cage were (I'm guessing) the ones that had finished "feeding" on the hamster.

I haven't gotten my bearded dragon yet, so I have virtually no experience, so don't take my advice as what you should do no matter what, but I suggest cleaning out the cage thoroughly and get as many of the bugs out as you can. If there are any on your dragon, get all of them off the animal so that you are for sure that you have gotten all the bugs out of your pet's vicinity.

Dispose of the used substrate as soon as possible, to prevent the mites from getting back into your cage.

I don't know of any solutions to spray in the cage that would rid the bugs without hurting your beardie, so I'd stick to cleaning the cage on a regular basis until the bugs don't come back.

I must post my disclaimer again: I have no experience with beardies yet, and this is just a suggestion based on my experience with hamsters.

herpdome420

I think it was already said a few times but i would for sure clean the cage and replace the sand or whatever your using with new stuff. Also if you are using play sand or something like it you need to make sure you clean it like running it through water and getting all the rocks and stuff out of it. If you just took play sand and put it in your dragon cage there could of been many things in it such as the mites. Clean it all up and you will find this wont be a problem.

I swear some of you guys cannot read. Thank you to the ones that provided me with quality info. The mites are not from sand, the mites are not in the cage, the mites are not on the animals. If you read the post you guys would know these things. This is the reason I don't post here its because some people don't read messages before posting "helpful replies." They are spider mites, they are not red from "sucking the blood" of the lizards or snakes or whatever they are red because THATS WHAT COLOR THEY ARE! They are plant parasites and I am trying to find out if they can affect animals also. Bearded dragons are naturally a shade of brown, they are not brown because people forget to clean out their cages and poop stains their skin that way. Please know what the topic is about before posting.

Ok well first way to ask for help and then complain about getting a few bad answers with it on a fourm is like asking for water in the desert and then being mad that it had a little sand in it. If you have spider mites in a "very clean room" which has "no plants in it" then they came from something else. Really if it was so clean you wounldn't of found anything on your floor because it would have been clean. Stop asking questions you already know the answers to. And if you had a question about spider mites that you know all about go to the insect tab and ask someone about them in that area since this whole tread didn't include a beardie nor anything about him. Please stop your flaming in an area where everyone is trying to help each other out in a super friendly way.

OK Let me start by saying I apologize for the flame. I do however keep the room spotless. Just because there are a few spider mites on the floor from unknown sources doesn't mean it isn't spotless. I have a very very expensive collection (that includes beardies) and take the utmost care of them and their surroundings. I didn't ask however where they came from. That is impossible to know. I did ask if they were able to get on an animal if it would fall prey to them. Everything I have found on the says they are plant parasites, I just wanted to know if anyone had experience with them affecting animals. I don't need husbandry advise believe me. I am sorry for being rude (and it wasn't directed at you herpdome). I simply need one answer and that's all. If you can't answer my question don't post. I should be giving you husbandry advise.

You know what? We're all just trying to help. I went back and looked at your first message and saw where you said "herp room". By that I thought you were trying to refer to your bearded dragon's cage. You don't have to attack others just because you weren't clear.

All I wanted to know is if you were sure you didn't see any on your reptiles. I'm not saying my problem was "spider mites" I'm just saying that I had a problem with mites, some were black, and others were red. I frequently saw them on the hamsters, in their hair and burrowing in their skin. I'm not saying that your problem is that, I'm just saying what happened to me.

Besides, I put a disclaimer. Do you know what a disclaimer is? We're all just trying to help, and you say we can't read? That's just silly. If we couldn't read, we couldn't type, and we're typing. Weird, seeing how we're posting messages and not being able to read.

I took offense to your attack, and I knew it was to me. If you didn't agree with what I said or thought that I wasn't helpful enough, you could have said so in a nicer way. My gosh, you didn't have to offend people by saying they can't read and that they post unhelpful info. That's rude and inconsiderate of people trying to help you.

Here's a tip for next time you post a question here:

-If someone posts something and either didn't read a fact in your post or simply didn't understand, politely restate the question in a more understandable way and refrain from attacks.

-Don't get frustrated and say we're not helpful just because we have wrong info or someone already said it. That's rude and it makes people not want to help you in the future.

-Look for disclaimers. I put a disclaimer in my post, but obviously you didn't read it. I wanted you to know that I don't have a bearded dragon yet so I have no experience with them, but that I had mites attack my hamsters that were identical to the ones you were describing. That's all I'm saying.

I seriously hope you read what I'm saying and actually listen to what I'm saying. We're all trying to help one another, and we're treated like we're trying to kill your pets. Everyone has different experiences and are not in the room with you. It would have helped to post pictures or at least detailed descriptions of the problem.

I can understand if you tell of a mite problem and them someone posts back saying that maybe you should spray pesticides on them. That would be crazy and weird and would show that he or she knows nothing about reptiles. But the fact that I own pets gives me at least a little experience and I had some information if they were on your lizards. Seeing how they're not, you could have said this, instead of attacking us:

"As I said in my first post, the mites are not on the reptiles or even in their cages. They are only on the floor, and don't seem to be bothering them."

See? Isn't that so much nicer?

I hope to be able to answer more of your questions in the futures.

Kindest regards,
HerpDome