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Little white bugs in corn's cage???

T

thecheesylittlerat

New member
OK, I have a 1 1/2 year old corn, Raja... Every so often I find a few of these very small white bugs crawling around in the cage. Last time I saw them was about 6 months ago, a few weeks after I had put a little moss in the cage for him to sleep in. I cleaned the entire cage out and I did'nt see them anymore. Now, yesterday, I went to get Raja out and I saw about 5 or 6 of those same white bugs crawing around on the water bowl. I looked in the bedding and saw maybe 1 or 2 crawling around near the side of the cage. I dunno what these are. I don't think they're mites. They are very small and white, you can't even really see them unless you look very closely. They are only about the size of maybe a piece of dust??? I looked on Raja and did'nt see any crawling on him. I keep the cage very clean, I spot clean when as soon as I find that he went to the bathroom and I completely clean the cage about once a month. I spray everything with Nolvasan solution and then rinse really good with water. Anyone know what these bugs are or how to get rid of them. Can they hurt Raja?

Tonight I'm gonna clean the entire cage again, take everything out and soak it in Nolvasan solution. I don't wanna soak the wood though because I'm scared it will not dry right and get moldy. Do I just throw the wood away? Anyone have any ideas? :shrugs:
 
What your seeing are mites. There are a few types of mites that aren't harmful I've seen them from time to time in my T cages. You've all ready cleaned everything so thats done. Keep the wood out and away from the cage for 1-2 weeks. But more importantly keep the wood and the cage on the dry side and you shouldn't have a problem again.
 
I don't think you're seeing mites. Mites show up as little dark specks that are usually seen floating in the water bowl since your snake would probably be soaking itself to relieve the discomfort.

Probably what you are seeing are the pupae of either the phorid fly or fungus gnat. Phorid flies actually are predators of fire ants. The female lays her eggs in the fire ant. The emerging pupae make their way to the fire ant's head and begin eating out the inside of the ants head. Eventually the head falls off and out come the new flies.

Last year I used sphagnum moss as an incubating medium and I had an outbreak of some tiny white pupae that turned into tiny flies. Since I never had any problems with these flies before, I'm assuming that they came from the moss I used. The eggs were probably already laid on the moss and had the perfect conditions to hatch ie., warmth and moisture. The company that harvests the moss probably just dries and then packages the moss, so any eggs that are left on the moss are just laying dormant waiting for the right conditions for hatching. This year Im im using vemiculite and perlite for my medium and hopefully won't have the same problems.

You might want to soak your wood in a mild solution of bleach and water for a couple hours. Rinse the wood really well and let it dry in the sun for about 7 to 10 days and it will be fine. A couple teaspoons of bleach to a gallon of water should do it.
 
I agree that they're probably not mites...mites are dark.

It could be springtails too, which are harmless to corns. I see them in substrates like Eco Earth all the time, and I'd assume they could be found in other substrates like the ones you described as well. No need to get rid of them if they're not hurting anything, and it saves your sanity because they'll just keep coming back
 
I'm abit tired of hearing 'there not mites, mites are dark'. There are many types of mites the kind most commenly seen in snake setups are red to black (blood sucking mites) White to yellow mites are a clean up crew the eat left over dead stuff. Theirs also parisitic mites that eat other mites (can't remember their color). Reserch people, it's your best friend. If the cage was kept damp I could belive that she had white mites they wouldn't be harmful to the snake but are anoying non the less. It's highly doutbtful that a spring tails would have invaded with out a mold to feed on (a spring tails main diet).
 
Wood mites are white and occasionally (and harmlessly) show up in cages especially where the substrate is natural wood and humidity is high. I usually don't worry about them as they can't hurt the snakes and they clean up waste particles that are missed.
 
I think wood mites are what I have in my tank as well. Started showing up when I started to use aspen. They are always coming back and I never see then on my snakes, they like the water bowl though. However my tanks are usually only 30% humidity.
 
im so glad i found this thread ive been pulling my hair out for two weeks trying to figure out what these damn little white bugs are ive spent a fortune on bedding trying to get rid of these damn things but i finally did figure out a way so if you feel like you have to heres how you do it bake EVERYTHING in your cage (as long as it wont melt) use a mild bleach for that stuff i baked all of my bedding in the oven for 2 hours @300 degrees hint it help to get all the wood wet before you do this and now im little white bug free hope this helps.
 
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