Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi,

I have a 3 year old Eastern Box Turtle who is housed in a 50 gallon Rubbermaid tub that I bought from a tractor supply store. It's made of very hard, durable grey platic. We keep the enclosure (filled with organic topsoil, coconut bark chips, moss, and a hidey log purchased from Petco) in our bedroom. We moved 2 weeks ago and my husband and his brother had to lug thiss tub into our new apartment. Well, I saw that Shelly had mites in his enclosure and had mentally noted to change out his substrate but it seems that after the mover there are THOUSANDS of these bugs. I see them drowned in his water, crawling all over him and the enclosure and worst of all, I've noticed a few in our bathroom (next to the bedroom) and on our mattress. Not too many but I HAVE seen them. I think the jostling of the enclosure made them worse or more visible on the surface??

My questions are:

1) Are these bugs biting my baby?

2) Are they leaving a funky sheen on his water?

3) Can they live in carpet or mattresses OR box springs? OR on people? I've had the ITCHIES thinking about these creepy crawlies! They cannot live in your hair, can they?

4) Since it's only been about 2 weeks, will spraying with RID spray in can (mattress and carpet in bedroom), vaccuming solve the problem? I read on KINGSNAKE archives that lice spray will kill them on contact.

5) I plan to clean Shelly's enclosure with bleach and water, bake the soil, wood chips and BOIL the moss before putting it in his tub. I also plan to purchase Prevent a Mite for the future. How long do I leave him out of his tub so the bleach won't hurt him?

I appreciate everyone's help!!!

Hi well if they are mites you can control them fairly easy, eradicate that's another thing.

Visit your vet and see if you can get some frontline spray for cats and dogs, remember this is toxic and always read the safety leaflet first.

Work backwards from the house carpet etc cleaning then spraying makes sure you do it with windows open etc and not all at once, then clean out the enclosure use simple substrate that can easily be replaced for now, once cleaned wipe the enclosure around with frontline then lastly give the turtle a wash you shouldn't have to spray the turtle if you can wash them and give him a scrub to remove any eggs, another thing to bear in mind is to not allow any vapour of the spray to enter any drinking water of the turtle replace the water cleaning the bowl every day to prevent the vapour poisoning the water, then keep clean with usual husbandry and repeat in 4 - 5 days then again if required.

As always this is an account of one way, but its no way fool proof, care and guidelines need to be followed when using toxic chemicals.
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Richard Butler
United Kingdom