Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a bag of terrarium bark for my boa. When I filled her cage, there were no bugs in it. When I cleaned her cage out a few weeks later, there were no bugs. However...

The rest of the bark was put into another cage that sat empty for a few days, and then went into a plastic trash bag (the bark, not the cage). When I went to open that bag, the bark was FULL of little gray bugs.

Any idea what these things were and where they came from? As I never saw them in the cage being used, is it probably safe to buy the same bark again? Any help would be appreciated, I'm rather confused...

Without a picture or a better description of the bugs I could not tell you what particular bugs you are dealing with.

What has probably happened is an insect egg sack somewhere in the bark has exploded. It is not uncommon.

Substrata that are not completely cleared of foreign organisms will often incubate hidden insect eggs in the warm safe confines of reptile’s cages.

I use aged newspaper and paper towel for substrata. My species of snakes poop too much to often.

I have used cypress mulch in the past. Even though this mulch deters insect activity I still placed it on a cookie sheet in the oven at 200 degree for at least 30 minutes to wipe out would be intruders.

Hope this has helped you…………Dann