Should I be worried ?

Last night I did a full clean out in my two viv's. In one of them i noticed 2 x tiny tiny light grey coloured mites amoungst the Aspen. In the other viv there was no trace of the things, but I quickly inspected the boys to see if I could find anything on them. There was no sign of them on the snakes but im a bit worried about having these things in the viv..

could they of come from the Aspen ?

Should I be worried? http://s3.images.proboards.com/undecided.gif

I have heard of mites coming from aspen, but I believe mites are animal specific so if they aren't reptile mites, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Still, you might want to switch aspen brands or bake it in the oven before putting it in your viv. (20 minutes at 200 degrees should do it)

thanks allot, I may just switch, whats a good alternative ?

Personally, I like paper. Either newspaper, unprinted newsprint, or indented craft paper. Cypress mulch if fine if you want the mulch look. :) Or if you REALLY want to spoil your snake, you can get the Carefresh Bedding which is just recycled paper but looks really cool.

thanks muchly

Just mind whatever bedding you buy if you get it from a gardening store. Make sure it's untreated as you don't know what they've used so best to bake it or treat it yourself with a reptile safe product. Baking it is a great idea as it gets rid of bug issues, can do no harm and often the cypress mulch is very damp anyways (at least the stuff I buy over here for the big boa is). I've yet to see any bugs in the aspen I buy but then you'd have a different supplier over there.

I agree with Jo. Baking it won't hurt at all. I do know the "Forest Blend" stuff can carry some wood bugs in it. It doesn't take much to bake it. Just a large cookie sheet or two and an hour or two at the lowest setting should do it.

well both vivs are all cleaned out now, hides & logs have been in the oven for 2 hours (smelt nice!) and I have ordered the diemite online, even tho neither of the snakes had any sign of the things on them..


hopefully its sorted, cheers