another reason not to feed LIVE...

[h0mersimps0n]

I have a mega ultra stubborn chondro that only accepts live so I feed him a rat once every 10 days or so. Well this last time I observed the kill then let him be to devour the rat. Somehow in that amount of time that he killed it and swallowed it he contracted what I THINK is flea's. Yep, you heard me correctly, fleas.

It was a crazy week and I didn't check in on him like I usually do all week but went into the snake room tonight, look in and notice these tiny, wood colored, tear-shaped, body (looong and slender) bastard bugs that I've seen on my mice when I used to breed them. So after cussing and swearing and panicking as usual, I bathed the snake (god, chondro's don't like to be disturbed) baked the infected wood at 200F and watched the wood CAREFULLY for about an hour (cause actually I only saw the bugs on the wooded items in the tank and not so much on the snake which was good). Bleached clean artificial plants which had creepy crawlers everywhere and will bleech the glass tank tomorrow. I have him in a completely disinfected plastic tub with an alternative perch and a well-cleaned water dish.

All that work simply because I fed him a life rat.

LESSON: If you don't have to DON'T... it's more hassle than it's worth- I lost an entire night of studying tonight, luckily I have friday, saturday and sunday afternoon and night to make up for the lost time. UGH

[stuart]

unlucky

[Josh241]

I know how you feel, i spent several weeks in the summer holidays a few years back with exactly the same problem. My cornsnake managed to spill some of water on the wood chips I'd bought (but not baked - so they must have been contaminated with something), next time i took a good look at him, his tank was crawling with the little buggers (looked exactly how you described). I had to clean out and disenfect his entire tank, thankfully the little gits had left my snake pretty much alone.

[h0mersimps0n]

yeah that's the wierd thing... they were everywhere all over the wood and plastic plant but I didn't really find any on my snake itself. So either they burrow under the scales or have no interest in snakes...

I think they're flea's cause I think Ticks have round bodies.

Live and Learn

[Skye]

flea
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/t/jth/flea.jpg

tick
http://www.rainbowpediatrics.net/atlas/tick.jpg
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/chf/pub/surveyreports/mar-apr98/tick.gif


Skye

[h0mersimps0n]

Thanks for the post!!! Those pictures are great...

Unfortunately neither of those are what I saw in the tank.

Any pics of termites?

I'm dying to know what these things are..

[Acradon]

Hi all,

I must say that I think not all little creatures in your terrarium are a call for panic.

I keep my pythons and corns all in terrariums that contain slaters and other little bugs. They all help to keep the place clean.

Ticks and mites can harm the snake but not all mites do attack snakes. It is only one kind of mites that can harm our little ones.

So don't panic with every little thing in you tank.

Greetz

Acradon

[Skye]

termite:
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/02/02112000/termite.jpg
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/nav/images/formosan-termite.jpg

I have some lizards for whom termites are absolute candy, and so I buy them occasionally. I have found one place on the web to purchase them, but they aren't cheap.

Skye

[sdmessmer]

What you may be seeing are springtails, a small arthopod that lives in moist soil, leaf litter, and wood. They can range from cream to brown, I've even seen orange springtails. They are great food for dart frogs! Try touching one with the tip of a pencil, if it quickly "springs" away it is probably springtails I have gotten them in bark substrates several times. Just microwave the substrate, they die easily.

Silvia

[h0mersimps0n]

Thanks for the pictures, that is the body shape of the critters but they were REALLY REALLY small...

I assume they were termites, but whatever they were I sure did get them ;)

[REG]

Skye, those pictures were awsome, I printed them out as a easy reference. REG

[Isis' Mom]

There are tiny white bugs that seem to hang out and not do anything. They just sorta live in the really wet areas and eat poop sometimes. I have never seen them anywhere on or near the snake tho and they are never in the poop as soon as it comes out. I dont think they jump tho. They are really small less than 1mm so i cant really tell what they look like, i can just see that they are there. I never really worried cause they are never near or on the snake. Any idea what they are? and if i should worry. I have not been successfull in getting rid of them. I have tried to clean out the tank but I dont want to destroy all the plants.

[h0mersimps0n]

you use real plants in the viv?

I never EVER allow things to cohabitate in my snake cages, if I see bugs, the tank is automattically striped, wood oven baked, plants soaked/washed in tub overnight and tank is 1:1 bleached water cleaned. All new bedding, everything inspected before putting it back in.

If they are real I say scrap them, they'll only harbor more little problems in the future (it's just the nature of plants), if they're fake, clean them and start over.

keep us posted!

[Isis' Mom]

actually i have a sorta mini eco system thing going on. I have read about it and apparently bugs are ok as long as they arnt on or in the snake. they are there to break down waste and other stuff. i think i've been keeping it all safe. it seems like things are going ok. the idea is to make it like the wild. she seems really happy and she is huge apparently. the reason i started the tank like that was because the pet store suggested it. it has charcoal and lava rock for drainage. then some special dirt on top. there are a lot of real plants. there is also a little pond thing. everyone seems to be getting along. the plants grow like crazy and so does the snake

[Skye]

I would love to see a picture of your vivarium if you have one to post.

Skye

[sumguy]

do you have any interesting links on setting up a mini ecosystem?

[Isis' Mom]

this pic is pretty old but i think you can sorta see the tank. The pet store told me to do it and had some stuff to read. They seemed to know what they were talking about. I hope this isnt bad for my cute little Isis.

[Isis' Mom]

hummmm I cant see the whole pic. maybe its too big. I'm gonna make it smaller and post again

[MegF.]

Wow! Awesome looking viv! I'd want to live there :cheers:

[Skye]

well, I'm not great at identifying plants, but it looks great!

Skye

[Taceas]

The one with the long variegated leave is a Spider plant. I raise those here in the house. I haven't a clue about the shrubby thing on the right, looks like some sort of box shrub to me.

I don't know if I'd keep a corn in there, looks awfully moist to me. But it looks like a good anole/amphibian enclosure. =)

[Acradon]

Nice Viv. I have real plants too. BUt unfortunately only in my Python viv at the mooment. I'm currently building a new one for my cornsnakes. Defintely gonna put in real plants there to.

@ Homer: I don't think you have to be that careful with bugs. As I said earlier, I have deliberatly placed woodlice and silvertails in my viv. I never really see them and they help cleaning up the stuff I have missed. Never had a problem with my snakes.

Acradon

[Isis' Mom]

well its not usually that moist. i had just sprayed it and it looked pretty cool with the watter droplet in the pic. i hope its an ok place for her to live. the petstore told me that those plants are ok for her to live with. but they couldnt tell me her sex so i dunno if they really know what they are talking about. especially since no one here seems to have seen anything like it before.

[ronlina]

I'm not even close to being an expert on these things, but it seems like it would be pretty safe to me. Your Isis looks happy and healthy and the viv looks awesome, I don't see anything wrong with trying to simulate nature - if I had the room or resources then I'd probably try to go at it myself.

[Acradon]

Keeping real plants isn't a problem. I think the viv is very nice. The question is not really whether the plants can harm the snake though. The snake might harm the plants, haha. THese snakes have the undelightful habit to squash living plants when they get bigger.

Acradon