Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just built a new 8x4x3 enclosure for my argentine B/W. I put 8 bags of cypress from home depot in there and i think thats where they came from. Can fleas acually hurt a tegu or do they just piss him off. Im pretty sure they cant kill a dog so is this something i need to worry about imediatly. If so would any of the same sprays used on cats or dogs be harmful if i used them in the enlosure. I think there multipling so i need a to do something fast. Thanks.
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Sea ya Nick & Slash.......

They can kill a dog in large numbers by causing anemia, but I'm not sure if they can latch on to tegus. Probably if mites can. Frontline is safe for dogs and cats, but I dont know about tegus. I would NOT suggest using ANY sprays in the enclosure until you can determine that they are not toxic to your tegu. If you want to get rid of the fleas I would suggest taking out the substrate and freezing or heating it until the fleas are dead. Only problem is that the eggs wont die, so then a flea product would be used there. I would suggest calling your herp vet and asking if Frontline or Advantage could be used. If not, ask what can be used. Good luck.
-Beth

are you sure they are fleas? i had a problem very similar to this and it was mites from wood chips i bought for my snakes.

only thing to do is destroy subsrate start again!!, put all furnishings in hot water and soak over night will drown any mites. there is a treatment you can buy that you dilute in water which you bath animal in made for reptiles(but can't remember name) kills eggs aswell. soak furnishings in this aswell.

if poss bath tegus in warm water now to try and drown mites that are on him, then bath again when you get treatment.

just for now wash tank/viv with warm water untill you get treatment.

was crap but snakes had to have newspaper sheets in bottom of tank, do this with your tegus cos you can change sheets every day.(last few days we used plain white a4 so you could see if there where any mites left). do you have something new that he can hid in/under if he need. will take a few days maybe week to get rid of infestation!!

if you follow these steps you should get rid of problen. also tell store where you got substrate from cos it turned out my guy had doddgy batch, (sounds silly but some people buy chipping from garden centre this is big no no)

Fleas pose not threat at all to cold-blooded animals so if they are truly fleas you have no worries. If they are mites though I would not panic and just keep a good eye on your tegu for a day or two. If you notice them gathering on him (especially around the head) then you should look into some of the anti-mite products available for reptiles.

That said in all my years working with tegus I have never seen a mite on them. I'm not sure if I've just been lucky or if its even possible for them to get mites. Keep in mind that garden products will often have insects and Plant Mites can be found in mulches and such. These are harmless to reptiles as well.
Bluetegu.com

...thanks again
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Sea ya Nick & Slash.......

You should easily be able to tell the difference between fleas and mites. Fleas are quite a bit larger and are extraordinary jumpers. Mites are minute, very small, and look like little grains of pepper crawling around. They don't jump but tend to hide in cracks and crevices.

I would suggest that you remove the Tegu from the enclosure for a few days while you seal it up good and hang a No Pest Strip in the enclosure. After 3 days, remove the strip and air out the enclosure.

I use cypress mulch alot and have found that provent a mite works as a good precautionary treatment. What I do is take a large bag of cypress and poor some into a large plastic garbage can. Then spray Provent a mite for a few seconds and poor in some more. I do this four or five times as I fill the garbage can. Once full, I put the lid on and shake it around. I leave the lid on for a bit and then take it off overnght. Then I have a bunch of bedding any time I need and never have to worry about any unwanted pests. Also I like this method better then spraying the tank and then putting a reptile in it only a short time latter. I would still follow directions on the bottle for a positive case of mites. It works and I have never had a problem.
Hope this helps.
Kevin