Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys, my mouse colony got fleas, I figure they came in with a group of new blood that i picked up from a petstore but they are bad now and my mice are dropping fast. Unfortunately they are in the same room as my roaches, crickets, supers, bulk bags of bedding, food, etc. Luckily I have no animals anywhere near this room and haven't seen any on any of them (i don't even know if fleas will mess with reptiles). How do i get rid of the fleas without harming my other bugs??? And does anyone know if fleas will infest my other bugs or if i just have to worry about ridding the mice of them?

Sean
heartmountainherps@bresnan.net
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Heart Mountain Herps

>>Hey guys, my mouse colony got fleas, I figure they came in with a group of new blood that i picked up from a petstore but they are bad now and my mice are dropping fast. Unfortunately they are in the same room as my roaches, crickets, supers, bulk bags of bedding, food, etc. Luckily I have no animals anywhere near this room and haven't seen any on any of them (i don't even know if fleas will mess with reptiles). How do i get rid of the fleas without harming my other bugs??? And does anyone know if fleas will infest my other bugs or if i just have to worry about ridding the mice of them?
>>
>>Sean
>>heartmountainherps@bresnan.net
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>> Heart Mountain Herps

If it were me I would move the mice out to treat them for the fleas. Haul out your bedding too and give it a spritz of Ovitrol Plus flea spray. You can call your vet and ask what they have or recommend but this is what my vet uses and loves since it is very safe. I honestly don't know anything off the shelf to use and you definitely don't want to treat them near your other bugs.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I just wanted to mention that I found an over-the-counter product at my petstore called UltraCare Flea and Lice spray for rodents. It lists rabbits, GPs, and mice specifically. The active ingredients are:

Pyrethrins .06%
Piperonyl butoxide .06%

You may be able to find something similar but you may still want to check with your vet as I did. Oh, and again don't feed treated animals to your reptiles for at least two weeks. Pyrenthrins are a low intensity toxin that actually break down very quickly when exposed to air and sunlight but just to be safe it's better to wait. Please note that pyrenthrins only kill adult fleas so you will need to retreat every two weeks until the fleas are gone.

Some other notes:

Ovitrol contains pyrenthrins to kill adult fleas but also contains an ingredient called methoprene. Methoprene works on flea larva and it thought to be completely non-toxic to mammals. If you can find an over the counter with methoprene that's even better.

I am including a list of common chemicals in flea products and the max amounts considered safe for rabbits from the House Rabbit society. This may give you an idea for mice.

.15% or less of Pyrethrins

1.0% or less combined of the following:
Piperonyl butoxide
Sesamex
Piperonyl cyclonene
N-octylbicycloheptene dicarboxamide

Precor aka methoprene (good) keeps insects from maturing

Sorry for the length. I've done quite a bit of research lately to combat a bug problem I had. Seems to be under control now and I'm not seeing side effects from the spray but I will post any that I experience. I also tried ivermectin because my vet said it's safe for reptiles but I noticed I higher number of still born pups after only one treatment which was at least a month before any treated females were pregnant so I stopped using it.
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Gray Ghost & Pink
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
1.0 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
I have two pet rats and about 14 breeders
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Plus 3 kittens
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody
Plus whatever animals I am fostering for the local shelter!