Insects?

[Yolomanolo]

So my snake Callisto just recently shed, and right after she shed she deficated. This was done in the middle of the night. When i get home from classes I go to clean her tank and I notice little white jumping insects all over her feces. I checked her for any mites or problems and she was perfectly clean. I have heard these might be aphids from the cypress mulch I am using. Can anyone help to confirm this? thanks.

[Tim Mead]

While I can't confirm their aphids they are coming from the cypress and pose no harm to your snake..If this concerns you, you could micro wave
the substrate and likely kill its micro inhabitants..But since their not blood suckers we've never concern ourselves about it..

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

As long as they are not little round, fat, mites that want to stick to your snake, I wouldnt worry too much. Its kinda like how you get gnats everywhere when you have house plants. The grubs are just in the soil. Lots of reptile substrates come complete with bugs of some sort. There is no way they can prevent it at the packaging factory without making it dangerous to your reptiles. IE, using chemicals etc..

BUT, they do sell some natural mite sprays for reptiles that you can use on the bedding to try to get rid of the little buggers. It usually works since mites, fleas and ticks are much more resiliant, so anything that kills them will kill just about any other bug or at least chase it away.

I recently had to go through my entire pantry because I kept finding grain bugs on the floor in my kitchen. Turns out a bag of flour had them and I had to throw away everything grain related that I had. Bugs are everywhere. You just dont want the ones that feast on your animals to be in your house. Or the ones that provide that extra nutty protein when they get into your flour lol! (joe, you better not even touch this!)

[BabysMomma]

Yeah, what you're looking at is probably wood mites. They usually die off pretty quickly in a tank anyway, and they're harmless to you and your snake.

[iHazSnake]

i actually encountered those same things, i am pretty sure that they were just wood mites. Its from the wood constantly being wet. I use repta bark and if not changed frequently they cause little white mites. Also if you have those wood half logs or any type of wood product, they also are prone to wood mites. I just through everything in a bleach/water mixture and made sure everything was clean(Tank,Water dish, Hide, Ect..) . Then when i was finished i sprayed everything down with mite off.