Tiny bugs in tank??

[Khenut]

I keep my Leopard Gecko, Ramses, and his tank very clean. And I started noticing these tiny TINY white bugs scuttling about the other day. They do not jump, and as far as I can tell they do not look like mites. Nor are they harming my Leopard Gecko in anyway from the looks of it. He has clear nostrils and eyes like usual and is eating normally.
I feed him mealworms, and occasionally I give him a cricket as a treat. He has a thin layer of cocohusk bedding beneath some shale and a large rock tile as substrate.
What do you think these critters are? It's impossible to get a picture of them as they are no larger than a flea and practically transparent. It's not quite yet an infestation, but at certain parts of the day, there are quite a lot.

 

[Amanda1]

I was going to guess mites at first, but I'm not sure. I saw those once with my rescue crestie and assumed they were mites, so I washed everything in his cage with isopropyl alcohol and I haven't seen them since. As near as I can tell (without a microscope), they kind of look like springtails, which are these tiny little things I bought to put in my live terrarium that eat mold and algae. In which case they would be harmless.

 

[Khenut]

Yeah, I think they might be that too. From what I read, mites are jumpy and red or black. These things are so microscopic it'd be easy to miss them. I think they might come from the cocohusk I use, as I have seen them before when I used it in another tank. I will keep an eye on them, though, just to be sure. Thank you for your input.

 

[Caleb C]

Mites are usually a pinkish-brownish white, and are tiny. springtails jump alot, and mites don't. Why is the coco fiber there though?

 

[Khenut]

The Cocofiber is just to make a space between the glass and ceramic tile so the heat pad has some space to 'breath'. It's on the underside of the tank and has space between it and the wood cabinet it sits atop, but I wanted more so it didn't get so warm.
And the little bugs are so small I can hardly even see them. Like we're talking half a flea or less in size. They don't appear to be doing anything but scurrying around. I read about other types of bugs that eat decaying matter in tanks, but there isn't much in there. I clean it regularly, like I said. And they don't jump. I squashed a few during cleaning time just to see how they'd react. lol
Could it be that they might have hitched a ride on the wood I bought from the petstore? I rinse them off to remove particles, but aside from that if there were any there I wouldn't know about it. I buy the high quality stuff called Mopani.

 

[Khenut]

Here is a crude drawing I made of it. They only appear after I lift up things in the tank. Usually like 3-5 of the little things. They like the rocks I have in there. I can't see them very well as they are REALLY small. But I tried. lol

They can be smaller than that dot too. That would be one on the larger side which I've only seen like one of. And they are a bit darker than that against the slate tile, but not black by any means. Or red/"filled with blood".

 

[Caleb C]

They might be mites, but im not 100% sure. You can just use reptile carpet, it works perfect with a uth. You should just wash out your whole tank and leave it in the sun for a couple hours outside, along with all the hides, decorations, and the other stuff in the tank.


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[Khenut]

Yeah I'm going to do that just to be on the safe side. I like cleaning it out, anyway. lol Thanks.

 

[Khenut]

Okay I cleaned everything with a mild bleach solution and rinsed it thoroughly outside. I used a hair dryer to super heat each section of the wood I have in there to make sure it's all dead. Lol I'm fairly sure that took care of it, but we shall see.
I also took out the cocofiber and just stuck papertowels instead. The ceramic tile should be enough on its own but I don't want it scratching the glass.

 

[Caleb C]

Why not use reptile carpet? It makes the heating pad warm,but not hot. Looks nicer than paper towels, and can be reused.


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[Khenut]

I've used that before. And he doesn't poop in the small 1 inch section that isn't covered by the giant slate tile. So I won't really need to replace it. It's just to keep the tile from scratching. Personally, I don't like the look of reptile carpet. When I used it before, it got pretty nasty and I ended up having to replace it anyway.

 

[Caleb C]

Oh, I see. Do you just clean the slate when he poops on it, or do you have it poop on a square of toilet paper?


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[Khenut]

I clean the slate. His poop is solid and easy to pick up off the rock when it's dry.

 

[Amanda1]

Those bugs look/sound like the things I have in my frog terrarium. I bought a culture at a reptile show and was told they were springtails, but I've never seen them jump. Maybe I got ripped off. They do keep it pretty clean in there though.

I don't like reptile carpet either. I used to use in for my uromastyx, but it got pretty nasty. Tile works great.

 

[Geckomaster743]

Sorry for being a bit late to this Topic, Yeah i cant be sure what they are. Ive also noticed alot of wood ants or little black ants in my Tank, They hide under the carpet and climb on the wires of the lights. They make my leo's Crazy! Seen any of those in there along with those White Invaders?

 

[Khenut]

Nope, none. And since I cleaned it out thoroughly with bleach and water it's been spick and span. I also heated the wood up in the tank to try and kill off anything that might be lingering in there. If I have any further problems I'll bake the wood and bleach it all again. lol

 

[Eve Saint]

Hi this happened to me too recently.
I read for hours trying to figure what they were.
I looked up images of crickets at a larvae type stage and found out that these were just coming from a pregnant cricket...
Crickets lay these wormy white to translucent looking things that dont jump.

 

[Caleb C]

if possible, you can transport the eggs to a container in your garage, you should have baby crickets after a couple weeks.

 

[Josh2]

Ugh - I hate crickets!

 

[LeoLover1]

I recently had a bunch of super worms hatch in my cricket box.... not sure how that happened. The superworm breeders are across the room!