Recently I've noticed that the "M-Word" has been coming up! All this talk about them has rekindled some old fears, as well as nightmares, I've had about them. About 10yrs ago I had a Cayman Island Iguana come in infested with them. Unfortunately I noticed them a little too late & ended up with an infestation that spread throughout my collection. Back then the cure for them was death by dehydration. There was a product that was sold (can't remember the name) that consisted of clay dust and b.b. sized clay pieces. What you would do is empty all of the substrate in your tank and replace it with the clay. Then you would put a bright light over the tank (supposedly mites hate light and retreat into the substrate when they see it), return the reptile to its enclosure, and not give it food or water for 24hrs. Within that 24hr period the mites would dehydrate and die. The biggest problem was that reptiles such as Madagascan Chameleons, Green Iguanas, Green Basilisks, Chinese Water Dragons, Black Roughneck Monitors, and Cayman Island Iguanas need A LOT of humidity. If the mites didn't die the animal would. Man, this seems so Medieval now!
So my BIG question is... Is there any preventive maintenance that can be done to assure that a mite outbreak won't happen again? I take my baby Sulcatas outside and let them roam (while I supervise) and now I'm paranoid that the mites will hitch a ride on them and infest their enclosure!
So my BIG question is... Is there any preventive maintenance that can be done to assure that a mite outbreak won't happen again? I take my baby Sulcatas outside and let them roam (while I supervise) and now I'm paranoid that the mites will hitch a ride on them and infest their enclosure!