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Dammmn coco soft

ReptiHabitat
01-26-2009, 07:46 PM
I have never used coco soft, till the last substrate change in my lizard viv. Now its been a month and I was getting ready for the next changing and I just noticed all these little greyish colored bugs crawling around it. I pulled out my fire skink and yellow plated lizard and put them in the tub for about a half hr and then wiped them down with a paper towel and there is nothing on them. Kinda weird the bugs are in the tank but noting on there scales, near there eyes. What could they be?
The lizards have been in the same tank for over a year.
Nothing new has been added except coco soft substrate.
The viv is 10ft from the closest viv's around it. None of my other vivs have any.
It has to be the coco soft.
I wish I could take a pic of them but they are so small. They don't look like reptile mites.

tom e
01-26-2009, 09:46 PM
I forget what they are called but they are feeding on the substrate not the critters. They are so common I've seen this same question pop up about 5 times since I've been a member here. I have never experienced them myself, but they say if you microwave the coconut husk substrate before you use it, it will keep their eggs from hatching.

Good luck!

DeeDee357
01-26-2009, 10:56 PM
I guess that's why they were never on my boas?/ We were totally confused when that happend to us and no one could explain it.... We bought coco soft when we first started getting snakes and within a week noticed the same. Then every time we'd try a diff bedding we'd see mites or some other type of bug... and we've been using the sphagnum peat moss in the 3 cf bags that you get from home depot and lowe's. We havent had a single problem with any of the hognose, corns or boas. We use aspen for the hondurans, sani chips for the hatchlings(after they've graduated from paper towels) and everyone has done fine. The peat moss seems to hold the humidity well here in the lovely dry Vegas climate and it hold tunnels well for the ones that like to burrow, especially the hognose.

DeeDee357
01-26-2009, 11:00 PM
I guess that's why they were never on my boas?/ We were totally confused when that happend to us and no one could explain it.... We bought coco soft when we first started getting snakes and within a week noticed the same. Then every time we'd try a diff soil type bedding we'd see mites or some other type of bug... SINCE THEN,we've been using the sphagnum peat moss in the 3 cf bags that you get from home depot and lowe's. We havent had a single problem with any of the hognose, corns or boas. We use aspen for the hondurans, sani chips for the hatchlings(after they've graduated from paper towels) and everyone has done fine. The peat moss seems to hold the humidity well here in the lovely dry Vegas climate and it hold tunnels well for the ones that like to burrow, especially the hognose.

Edited to add "since then"
I hate not being able to edit my own posts..lol

Bobo's Mama
01-26-2009, 11:22 PM
What you're seeing is wood mites. What I've done before is freeze the substrate while its still in the bag, for a few days. Then let it defrost at room temp, and it should kill all the wood mites. They won't hurt your snake though.