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Hello, I lifted up my tegus wood in her enclosure and found a lot of mites! But I have identified them as hypoaspis mites. Are they dangerous? Should I remove all wood???
I would remove all wood and start fresh with new substrate and wood. Or anything porous as well as other bacteria could potentially grow. I would say any mite is terrible and don’t want her ingesting them or getting in her eyes, nose, skin etc.. disinfect the whole tank after removing substrate. That’s just would I would I’m sure there are more knowledgeable people on here to chime in. It’s a PITA but gotta do it. ZooMed makes a product called “WipeOut” in a green bottle that should do the trick. Use it, rinse, dry and air out
I removed all wood and got a nice basking rock and got the temp to be at 115 at the highest part and 98-102 on the lowest. Ill remove all substrate now
They aren’t the the mites that are parasitic though. They apparently are actually used to kill the mites that bite reptiles and are common in damp soil/substrates. Still going to remove the substrate though
Quickly googled and found>>>> Predatory Mites (Hypoaspis miles)......Predatory mites can be added to an enclosure as a preventative or reactive measure against various pests. When available they will eat any mite species (including snake mites) fungus gnat larvae and nematodes. When these pests are not available they will eat springtails, mould, algae and decaying plant matter, however they will not overwhelm the springtail population......
Hypoaspis miles is a small (0.5 mm) light brown mite that lives in the top ½ in layer of soil. As a natural predator of fungus gnatpupae and of the snailparasiteRiccardoella aspersa it is used by gardeners and snail breeders for biological pest control. Hypoaspis miles is also commonly used by reptile, amphibian and invertebrate keepers as a preventative or reactive measure against grain mites and reptile mites. Where most mite treatments are chemical based, Predatory mites are used as a natural method of preventing and curing mite infestations