Springtails, or (please no!) mites?...

[Mr_Gunther]

Was feeding the kiddos and changing the water owls in their terrariums when is noticed these little buggers. The white ones kind of make me think springtails, but then there was this odd reddish, brown (almost roach colored) critter, and it's got me fearing the worst...

I use cypress mulch for the ball pythons.
I use aspen for the banded water snake.

I clean out substrate regularly (2 weeks) and water bowls every 2-4 days.

Two 20 gal terrariums and one 40 gal terrarium for the balls, multiple hides, uth's, kept at 85 degrees and averaging 50% humidity when not shedding.

1 5.5 gal terrarium (wild caught water snake) at room temperature, humidity kept at least 30%.

Sorry, may be more info than needed, but I like to be thorough, and I'm trying to preemptively answer any questions I've seen asked on other similar posts.

I assume they came in with the bedding, which seems to be a common conclusion.

Thanks so much for any help or info provided. Pics of the critters below.



The white ones







And the reddish, brown colored one that has me worried (circled in red, sorry pics taken with phone)

[bcr229]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I don't think those are snake mites.

If you are worried about insects in the bedding, spread some in a baking pan, put it in the oven, and bake it at 200*F for 30 minutes to kill off the bugs and eggs before using it.

[Miranda2]

snake mites leave a red smear when you squash them. And they are perfectly round little black dots.

I used to use cypress mulch but cant get it anymore.I had quite a few bug problems from it. Once it was infested with ants, and another time I had it hatch out a ton of these weird crickets that looked like bees, I mean several dozen hatched out of the cypress all at once.

[Mr_Gunther]

I've been using cypress for almost 8 months, but this is the first I've seen the little buggers. As long as they're not harmful to the snake and behave themselves, I won't do anything too drastic. I change out the bedding regularly so maybe they won't get out of hand.

I hear that they are a favorite of some frog species, so I guess I could always look in that direction.