Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All-
I have a Rainbow Boa in a 20 gallon tank with cypress mulch as substrate. I purchased the mulch at a snake show and made sure it was the best I could get for snakes. I was told this is the ideal substrate for rainbow boas since I am able to keep it very moist. I've had the substrate in for a few months and i'm not noticing super tiny bugs taking over the tank. The bugs are a whitish/silver color. While they are not on my snake- they do occasionally migrate to his water dish. You can see them hopping and crawling on the surface of the water. I do have a large bark log in the cage- that i also bought from a snake show...could the bugs be coming from there?
Basically, I'm wondering if anyone experiences these critters in their cypress and if they are harmful or just to let them be. Any advice would be most helpful.
Thanks in advance
Katie and "Diego"

those are I believe, wood mites or wood lice. They come with the cypress mulch and I'm pretty sure they are not parasitic with respect to the reptiles. They should be clearer in color than reptile mites. I used to keep tortoises and some monitors on the fresh cypress mulch and I always found those little insects in there. I guess, if it bugged(pun intended)you enough, you could gently treat the mulch with your favorite reptile friendly mite spray but to be honest, I wouldn't even bother. I'm sure some of the Ball python guys will tell you roughly the same thing. Best of luck. Mike Panichi