Tiny bugs in substrate?

dopamine

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
341
I've recently been noticing these tiny bugs crawling around the sub (coco fiber) in a couple of my T enclosures. There aren't a lot of them, I've only seen one or two at once. They're also not mites, as these move very fast and are more oblong shaped. Taking a photo of one would be impossible.
Has anyone else run into these things? I'm starting to wonder if they came in on some cork bark. I just wanna be sure they're not parasitic or harmful.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
412
Sounds like phorid flies. Theyre tiny oblong critters they look grey or whitish and although they are flies and can fly they normally just scrurry around.
 

dopamine

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
341
They're definitely not springtails. I'd post a pic but they're way too small and blend in with the sub too much.
The phorid flies match the discription, thanks.
 

YagerManJennsen

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 3, 2016
Messages
508
They're definitely not springtails. I'd post a pic but they're way too small and blend in with the sub too much.
The phorid flies match the discription, thanks.
Do you use crickets as feeders? Crickets can lay eggs in the substrate and hatch leaving tiny little crickets. This has happened to me plenty of times.
 
Last edited:

clive 82

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 11, 2016
Messages
204
They could be dermestid beetle larvae. Are they kinda oblong shape & a grey colour, about quarter inch or so long? To my knowledge they do no harm. Some people use these as part of a clean up crew.
Sometimes when I buy crickets from my LPS these are sometimes in the container with the crickets.
 

dopamine

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
341
Thanks for the replies everyone. From what I can see they have little wings so I'm pretty sure they are phorid flies.
 

BobBarley

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
1,486
Thanks for the replies everyone. From what I can see they have little wings so I'm pretty sure they are phorid flies.
If you have a heat humidifier at home... Set it up next to the enclosures and the phorrid flies fly into it because they love humidity and heat. Then they die because it's too hot and too wet. I had an outbreak a few months ago and my heat humidifier pretty much took care of it in a week or two.
 

dopamine

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
341
If you have a heat humidifier at home... Set it up next to the enclosures and the phorrid flies fly into it because they love humidity and heat. Then they die because it's too hot and too wet. I had an outbreak a few months ago and my heat humidifier pretty much took care of it in a week or two.
I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'm not too worried about it just yet. I've only seen one or two at one time. Just wanted to be sure they weren't harmful.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
412
I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'm not too worried about it just yet. I've only seen one or two at one time. Just wanted to be sure they weren't harmful.
Honestly they are much more of a visually distasteful organism more than anything. Ive managed to get rid of them but was not able to find much hard evidence that they can actually harm a t. In reality i would imagine much worse in the wild in terms of small organisms impacting a ts health. I could be wrong but like i said information was spotty at best regarding them actually doing harm to the t.
 
Top