Help!!!!

[priya]

i have found small white things that look like mites on my european toads droppings. they are tiny little round things with legs. what could these be and are they harmful?

[Kurt]

I have no idea what they may be. The only white things I ever see on frog dropping is mold. Sorry, I couldn't be more of a help. I wonder if they may be springtails?

[JeffX]

It sounds like springtails. They feed on decaying material which is good. Unless they are on your frog, but if it's just the waste I'd say they are springtails.

[John]

It could be mites too - the mites could live in the substrate and come out for the "food". I wouldn't worry about them specifically. However it sounds like you have a wild caught toad - have you ever considered treating him/her for parasites?

[priya]

hi, where do the springtails come from? i have had these toads for q few months now and have never noticed anything on there droppings until yesterday.

i dont know if my toads are wild caught or not but they were really small when i got them, i have 3.

[Kurt]

hi, where do the springtails come from?

Good question. Where would mites come from too?

In my dart frog tank various plants have popped up from out of no where. As best I can figure the seeds of these plants were probably in amongst the roots of the bromeliads that I planted in there. So maybe this isn't that big of a mystery.

Now the big mystery, where did the plants that are now sprouting up in the baby red-eye tank come from? There are no real plants in this tank, so there can't be any stow-aways in this situation. The substrate is ground coconut. In theory there should be no plants growing in it. Why? Because I treat all new substrate with boiling water. So if the seeds of any plant were in there, I would think that they would be killed by the excessive heat.

Another mystery, about six months ago I found a ton of mites in one of my scorpion enclosures. Where did they come from? They were crawling over everything, including the scorpion itself. I did notice that the lion's share was in the substrate, again ground coconut. They didn't seem to be harming her in any way, but I cleaned the cage out just to be safe. I took a damp Q-tip and picked the mites off of her. That was real fun, as she is quite ill-tempered and big. She's not even remotely friendly. I had to repeat this process twice, before I finally rid myself (and her) of these little arthropods.

So in the end, where do all these things come from? How come every spring before we treat and open the pool in the backyard I find clouds of daphnia in it? Not that I am complaining, they make the perfect newt/salamander larva food. In the end. life can be mysterious.