# Small bugs in my enclosure



## Rampantsoto (Mar 31, 2011)

I was misting my emperor enclosure and saw little bugs crawling around in the dirt. They hopped around when I started poking around so they might be baby crickets. What should I do to clean these guys out? These guys aren't round or brown so I don't they they're mites.


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## Nomadinexile (Mar 31, 2011)

Well for starters, not all mites look alike.  However, if they are lots of them in the enclosure but not on the scorpion, then they are probably not parasitic mites at very least.  

There are 3 ways I know of to rid yourself of these small unwanted critters.
1.  Biological control.   This would be my first choice if they were mites, but since you don't know what they are, picking a predator to take them out would be tough.  

2.  You can pick them out.  (I would remove scorpion first)  But there could very well be eggs left behind, and you could easily miss some.

3.  Take everything out of the cage, wash cage and decorations with a 10% bleach solution, rinse thouroghly and dry completely.   Then use fresh new substrate, and put the scorpion back in.   

#3 is my suggested solution, but I would wait and here what others have to say before you start.   There are a lot of intelligent people here with lots of experience, and there may be a better option.  Good luck!


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## scorpionguy77 (Mar 31, 2011)

Rampantsoto said:


> I was misting my emperor enclosure and saw little bugs crawling around in the dirt. They hopped around when I started poking around so they might be baby crickets. What should I do to clean these guys out? These guys aren't round or brown so I don't they they're mites.


I have issues from time to time with baby crix, but thats usually from leaving a female in there for a day and she winds up laying eggs in the substrate.  I have never deal with mites or whatever, but I still totally gut and clean my scorps' tanks about once every other month just for a fresh smell and environment for them.


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## Michiel (Mar 31, 2011)

can be baby crix, springtails etc etc, these are harmless will die of starvation anyway........I have never seen mites that jump, so I am guessing that you don't have a mite problem....When they prove to be mites, Nomads' advise will work out fine...


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## Nomadinexile (Mar 31, 2011)

Michiel, don't you think it would be good to get the dead, starved, little bugs out of there?  Don't ya think they might attract something more nasty sitting in there rotting?   

My point about mites isn't that these are mites.  It is that iding mites only as round and one or two colors is about like saying all scorpions are yellow.  It's just not true.  ;p


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## BAM1082 (Mar 31, 2011)

I'd change the substrate to be safe.


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## Michiel (Mar 31, 2011)

Nomadinexile said:


> Michiel, don't you think it would be good to get the dead, starved, little bugs out of there?  Don't ya think they might attract something more nasty sitting in there rotting?
> 
> My point about mites isn't that these are mites.  It is that iding mites only as round and one or two colors is about like saying all scorpions are yellow.  It's just not true.  ;p



Well, the OP did not state the number of organisms in the tank, if a couple are there, who cares, if a hundred, yes, then it is better to take these out.


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## Rampantsoto (Mar 31, 2011)

I've seen a few today, but the hop around a lot. I was told that if they're not on my scorpion that its fine. I'm gonna wait a few days and see if they go away. Hopefully if they are baby crickets they will starve to death.


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## Irene B. Smithi (Apr 2, 2011)

You need to clean the tank.  It's easy to do and will get rid of any little spring tails or baby crickets.  if it's baby crickets put in a few shallow water dishes and they'll drown in them...

But over all, change and clean everything like Nomad said.


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## Jorpion (Apr 3, 2011)

All of my semi-tropical and tropical setups contain pillbugs/sowbugs that do an amazing job of cleaning up uneaten food and other detritus, thus robbing the food source for numerous cage pest. Try em!

Jeff


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## Roblicious (Apr 5, 2011)

I might be having the same problem too, but they are in my hissing cockroach enclosure 

I noticed them when I went to empty the water dish and to clean it and I saw this big piece of bark in there with like 12 of these little white 'bugs' on there and then I look at the corner where the dish use to be and right under the substrate where it is wet I see a huge colony of these white little guys moving around, all of the baby cockroaches have migrated to this corner, are they eating these bugs?

The substrate is coco fiber with some eco earth bark chips, the container used to my temporary home for my scorpions until their enclosures were setup, so there might be poo or a cricket leg buried in there 


Here is the best pic I can take






Should I be worried? They do move around and they are all in the corner that is humid/wet


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## Chrome69 (Apr 5, 2011)

Termites? Haha, i've never seen anything like that before. I would clean the tank out personally.


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## Roblicious (Apr 5, 2011)

lol didnt even think of that, well I just got home and all of the baby roaches have migrated to that corner of the KK and all those white 'termites' are somewhat gone, there are still a few, mainly in the water dish though.


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## ZephAmp (Apr 5, 2011)

They look like springtails to me.
Springtails are harmless little critters that eat mold, debris, etc, and keep the tank much cleaner than isopods can, since they're much smaller and can eat even the tiniest particles individually or they can swarm larger ones.


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## Roblicious (Apr 5, 2011)

rofl i just cleaned out the entire enclosure and put crushed walnut shells as substrate since its all I got at the moment, stuff looks like sand, I guess substrate is substrate as long as its dry lol.

How did springtails get in there anyways? are they like mites and just grow eventually?


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## Galapoheros (Apr 5, 2011)

I have springtails all over the place too.  Those and isopods, it works out OK, I haven't seen a mite prob in a long time over here.  The Springtails get caught in the meniscus in water containers, can't quite jump out of it.


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## cacoseraph (Apr 5, 2011)

you're probably feeding too much/often if you are developing significant numbers of scavengers



i only switch sub for a full mold/mite bloom or thousands of hopping scavengers. like, 100 won't do anything bad, really.  plus, they mean you have rotting food somewhere in the cage, most likely. so they are actually cleaning it up for you


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## Roblicious (Apr 5, 2011)

yeah I got a feeling they are spring tails too, i cleaned it all out its new crushed walnut shells right now, i got isopods in all of my tropical enclosures


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## cacoseraph (Apr 6, 2011)

crushed walnut is not a good substrate for bugs.


aside from other issues it is likely slightly to moderately toxic for inverts.  it might not even straight harm them, it could be a reproductive messer upper, i don't remember for sure.  might want to look into it, though


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## Roblicious (Apr 6, 2011)

bleh, I might as well empty them out and toss out this bag of walnut shells then.
waste of 5 bucks 
Ima have to go buy a brick of coco fiber and use that or something, should of in the first place.

Sucks cause I got a devil scorpion in a mix of walnut, peat, and coco fiber and hes dug a hole for himself in it


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