Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I reached into my collared's tank this morning a bunch of miniscule black bugs, almost flea like jumped on my arm. I assume these are mites??? I immediately yanked him out of there and checked the crevices under him arms and legs and didnt find any. Am I correct to plan to yank everything out of the tank and wash it in a bleach solution? Also planning to get new substrate. Anything else I need to do??

i am not really sure but just to be on the safe side i would throw out the substrate and clean everything. most mites i have ever seen are red and didn't immediately jump onto my hand when i stuck it in a cage.

that's really weird, can you get a picture of the bugs?
-----
vonnie
***The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.
— Mark Russell***

very difficult to get rid of. There are cycles /stages of eggs that hatch so you must re- treat everything several times.

It's strange that you say these black bugs jumped on you like fleas, as I did not think snake mites(the tiny blackish ones ) would do that.
I had a snake years ago, small and he had them, and they were very tiny like pepper sized bugs that crawled on me after handling the garter snake.
Never saw any black jumpers, but I have not had much experience with them and can not rule them out.

Collareds usually get what we call chiggers, they turn a redish orangey color.
Have you had him near any other reptiles/snakes? Did you just get him recently? Are you using dirt/soil as a substrate?

If they are mites you have your work cut out for you. Below is a link that may help you out, let us know how you make out!
MITES

-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

I got mites once from a box of crickets that I mail ordered. After launching an all-out chemical assault against the bugs, I managed to turn the cricket cage into a radioactive wasteland with the half-life of a nuclear bomb That was over a year ago, and a dozen scrubbings later I still can't keep crickets in that cage without killing them in under an hour.

If these are mites (and I have my doubts) I wish you the best of luck. I got rid of mine, to be sure, but now I might as well throw away the cage. Lesson learned!

élan
-----
3.6.0 Collareds
1.2.0 Leopard Lizards
1.0.0 Mali Uromastix
1.2.0 Green Anole
1.0.0 Chinese Dwarf Newt
1.0.0 White's Treefrog
1.0.0 Fire bellied toad
2.1.0 Felines
1.3.0 Canines
1.0.0 Equine

Years ago when I had a huge colony of frilled dragons I ended up with mites, my good friend who is specializes in reptiles in his Vet practice suggested using extra virgin olive oil with a cotton swab and putting a light coat on the lizards, this actually sufficates and kills the mites without harm to your reptile. Then get a no pest fly strip and hang it around problem areas. This was the magic recipe without any harm to anything other than the mites.
Bob

P.S. if you have wooden cages it is good to seal the wood with a latex base no oder varnish to keep mites out of the wood grains.