What are these bugs COVERING my ASFs?

[BaierBalls]

Went to clean my breeder ASF tank yesterday (which I admit was over-due), and when I pulled out their food bowl, noticed tons of small black insects crawling all over it. Looked closer and realized they were covering the entire tank, and the ASFs!

They ranged in size from almost microscopic to almost the size of a dog/cat flea...but they were not dog/cat fleas. They were slightly smaller, and rounder, and there were tons, and I mean TONS of them all over the cage. The bigger ones were black in color and the smaller ones appeared to be red, which I can only assume was the color of the blood they were sucking out of my ASFs. When I pressed down on them, they very easily popped and were filled with blood.

I mean..honestly, they looked to me like reptile mites....but I haven't noticed anything on my snakes...and they are on the other side of the room from the snakes, and are obviously living, and thriving, off of the ASF's.

These numbers must have come up quickly, because even though the cage cleaning was over due, I have not noticed them just until yesterday, and they are all ready covering everything in the cage!

My ASF's are in an insulated shed in my backyard...but it is not as insulated from parasites and bugs as someones house would be.

Has anyone seen these before??

I did have a small population of snake mites months ago, but after a VERY thorough mite treatment I have not seen a single mite on a snake in several months.

I didn't think that reptile mites could live off of mammals. I am seriously hoping I am right about that....

This is some type of parasite I am unfamiliar with....help??

[JenH]

Pictures?

[Oxylepy]

Perhaps they're mouse mites. Personally if I saw that I'd take the ASFs out, coat the inside of the tubs with PAM, wash the ASFs in a shallow tub of water, then put them back in the tubs.

[BaierBalls]

Wish I could post pictures, but my camera isn't good enough to capture them. I am planning on doing a complete wash down of everything, including the ASF's...just not sure with what...I'm guessing the same mite treatments used for reptiles will work on these mites?

[Adam Chandler]

Wish I could post pictures, but my camera isn't good enough to capture them. I am planning on doing a complete wash down of everything, including the ASF's...just not sure with what...I'm guessing the same mite treatments used for reptiles will work on these mites?

Prevent-A-Mite (PAM) kills all kinds of mites. And if its safe for reptiles I'm sure its safe for mammals with the same precautions (take the water out and all)

[Darkice]

Dump everything out and wash the tubs in soapy water. Put some substrate back in the clean dry tubs and give it a couple sprays with proventamite. Since you keep them in a shed it will keep coming back. Every time you change the bedding you will have to do this.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I have never experienced this before. I am guessing that your shed is letting unwanted pests in, and those pests are sharing their bugs. What else do you keep in that shed?

[2kdime]

Sounds like rat fleas

Look em up

I've seen em and your description is matching what I saw

[freezingdwarf]

ugh, I just wrote this, and I hit something and it disappeared.

OK, I had these since last september, and it has been a problem, and they are very difficult to get rid of. They can get into your furniture and carpets and can lay some nasty bites on you and your children and friends.

But, i was successful in ridding of them, here is how.

For the ASF's I designated seperate tanks for each colony. I cleaned them thoroughly, and but in no bedding. I went to petsmart and got tick and flea remover for kittens, not for cats, it is milder. I picked up each ASF by their tails and sprayed them good, SOAKED them, and placed them in the new container. I had no pinkies, but everybody got sprayed all the way down to fuzzies that were not even an inch long. Honestly, I didnt think the babies would survive, but this was my last resort before killing off the whole colony, and bombing my house, I was desperate.

I left each colony in each tank for 24 hours with no food, (I didnt want them to injest the poison) I did give them water bottles of course. Honestly, they were lethargic, particularly the babies, I was certain I lost them, they laid still all day and into the night.

The next morning, there was more movement, and hope for survival. So i cleaned out all of the original tanks, and poured powdered tick and flea remover in the bottom of the tanks. I them poured aspen on the top (dont use pine, these mites can come from pine), and reset them up as they were used to with hides, wheels, toys, etc.

Amazingly I did not lose one animal. The next day, one cage was already infested with the microscopic babies, how I missed them I dont know, but they did not survive the powder, they were gone within 24 hours.

Now for the furniture, go to menards and get the raid electric spray pump flea remover. It is odorless, and a much better value than the aerosol sprays. This will kill the animals not the eggs. Vacuum and spray the carpets, floors, furniture, in the area every 3 days. You cannot stop the eggs from hatching but you can kill them off right away. If they do get to you, they will be in the back of your legs in the knee area, and in the abdomen area, where the belt is. Trust me you will know.

Good luck, this worked for me, and i tried many many different solutions

Oh, and i did not feed any ASF's to my reps until they were living in a tank free of any spray or powder for at least two weeks. Just thought I would throw that in