Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found what I beleive to be mites in one of my crested gecko cages this evening. I have cleaned, disinfected the cage adn am in the process of cleaning the other and all of the leopard gecko cages as well, disinfected hides etc. What else should I do and where the heck would these little creatures come from do you think? How can i be sure they are gone? I would appreciate any advice. This is my first experience with any unwelcome creatures and I want them gone ASAP! I don't want them to cause any problems for my geckos.

Thank you for your help!!

Suzanne Ewing

Were they parasite mites? If there were tons of them and they weren't particularly on the geckos, they could have been some other sort of non parasitic mite. I remeber at my store, we got these triangular egg carton things that came in the corners of a box. They were PERFECT hiding places for the little reps. So we just put one in a baby kingsnake cage. A few days later I had to clean the cage and there were TONS of little white bugs. I believe that they came in on that triangular thing. So if you have egg cartons....maybe they were on them........maybe this has nothing to do with what you're talkin about......hope this helps you out a little. If they were indeed paracitic, then you may have an annoying problem....if they weren't, don't worry too much just clean everything very well (in either case).

John

The mites are no where near the geckos they are actually on the poop.

they were probably what i call " dust mites" i don't know if that's actually what they're called or not.
they seem to hang around dusty windows. if they're not on the geckos they are more of a visual nuissance than anything as far as i'm concerned. i've cleaned cages repeatedly only to find them a week or so later.

what i think some of you are referring to is whats called a collembolan, or springtail. i dont know exactly where the come from, but im pretty sure its the live plants. they are extremely numerous once they get established. theyre also very tiny, no bigger than a pinhead cricket. they actually do a good job breaking down any dead crickets and poop. i realized once youve got em, theres no getting rid of them. the only bad thing i can ever say i suspect them of is possibly exploiting a weak spot in a newly laid egg and eating all the insides (why one of the eggs from my very first clutch of u. phantasticus was completely empty yet fully formed. anyway, usually thats taken care of by removing the eggs not too long after they're laid. if they start becoming TOO noticeable, i usually change everything out in the enclosure, especially the substrate.

thanks for the info!