# bug problem



## kurtle55 (Apr 10, 2009)

i have little red bugs in my tegus enclosure. i was thinking about emptying everything out of it this weekend and spraying it down with some bleach water and then changing the substrate from coconut husk/cypress mulch mix to aspen bedding. would that take care of the problem?


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## dragonqueen4 (Apr 10, 2009)

little red bugs is not a good sign. are they crawling on your tegu as well? your going to have to treat the tegu and the tank. throw out all the substrate, any accessories in your tank will have to be baked in the oven or soaked in boiling water to kill any mites/eggs. wash the tank with boiling water so that you burn the mites and kill them. put paper towel back in for now, until you are sure the mites are gone. mites live in wood, so i wouldnt use substrate yet. your going to have to treat your tegu as well. some people recommend using a veg oil bath, it will sufficate the mites. while others recommend a beytadine bath, or buying nix(lice treatment), diluting the cream in 4L of water and rubbing this on the reptile. if not diluted enough nix is toxic. 
heres a good website <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pkreptiles.com/informationterms/articles/mites.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.pkreptiles.com/informationte ... /mites.asp</a><!-- m -->


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## wes (Apr 10, 2009)

i would suggest NOT to use nix, it doesn't work at all. a while back i brought in mites with rats for my snakes and had to treat all of them so i bought nix and 4 liter of distilated water to kill the mites, after i used the complete 4 liters 15 days later i still had mites while all sites which speak of nix tell you that you're rid of the mites with 1 or at most 2 treatments but here nothing happened. a friend went to treat his boa constrictor(mine are all shorttailed pythons, curtus brongs and breits) with nix and it gotten a very bad ri followed by mouthrot caused by nix. it contains permethrin (very diluted though) which can cause respiratory or lung problems so don't use it cause it's toxic and doesn't even work(at least not for my snakes)or better for my mites lol.


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## Beasty (Apr 10, 2009)

The red bugs are likely from the substrate. Occasionally this will happen.
There's no absolute assurance when you buy substrate that it will not have any bugs at all. It's a crap shoot. I will say I personally have NEVER had this problem with any substrate I have ever used. (have had rodent mites from new ASFs but that's a different story) I would do a Google search on the subject to see what the possibilities are. The net is a great tool if you use it!

To fix the problem you can clean the cage entirely and bake your new ground covering of choice for an hour or two at low heat (200) to ensure no parasites are alive to bother your animal.

As far as the tegu goes, I'd wash him and he'd likely be fine as if it's mites they don't have over lapping scales under which to hide and burrow. BUT if it would make you feel better you could cover the tegu from head to toe with olive oil. IF anything was on it it will be smothered. The fun part will be either finding substitute housing for the tegu while the oil does it's job or trying to hold on to your slick lizard.  
Luck to you!


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## kurtle55 (Apr 10, 2009)

is boiling water really necessary?? i mean i would just soak it in bleach water. that seems ok to me. and as far as substrate goes, i think i am done with cypress mulch. only aspen for me now. is that ok?


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