Mites? Parasites? Help?

[cvBon1]

Hello, everyone,

I haven't been onlline in a very long time, so my appoligies for not getting involved more witth this site, but I have come back to this place I trust because my two pacmans seem to have little critters crawling all over them.

My first pacman I ever had, had these, and he died, probably due to them. I figure that they are mites, but I have heard mites do not affect frogs, but these sure do look like mites, or at least frog mites. I gave seen snake mites before and they look different (snake mites look bigger) but I am sure these things are not supposed to be in there.

I do not want them to die due to bugs eating them alive or infecting them, killing them. They are very small, very hard to see, almost see through, whitish looking. Sometimes I can see them on my frogs, I spray them with water to ease them. I just noticed them yesterday, so I have no idea how long they have had them for. They are not crawling all over the place but there are a few there.

Any suggestions what to do?



I have uploaded a pic of the little things... I had noticed them on his face when I was about to edit the picture in paint lol. I saw the pic up close and saw that my camera actually captured them... so can anyone tell what they are and are they harmful?

[gtr319]

I would at least clean out his enclosure, and rinse everything down with warm water first....

[John]

They're the wrong shape for mites. Mites look like chubby little spiders. These look like something else. Possibly some kind of spring tail. Short of completely removing the substrate and washing everything down, there's no way you'll get rid of them forever, but regularly changing out the substrate should keep their numbers down.

[poison beauties]

They do look like springs and if thats it they are harmless as far as hurting your frog. They may stress him out a bit but they are viv cleaners, The population can and will explode without anything in there to eat them. Best bet is to boil or bake anything going in the viv, like media soak the frog to make sure hes clean of them and put him back in there.

Michael

[cvBon1]

I looked up Springtails and I thought that's what they'd be but just to make sure I posted here to see what you guys thought. I will go tomorrow and get myself some new soil and clean out the tanks... to rid them of most of them so they are not too abundant.. but as for the bugs themselves they are okay with the frogs... no worries then?

[poison beauties]

No physical issues they just may irritate the frog when crawling on him.

Michael

[iatakden]

My 2 cents , I would say gnats. When you have alot of really moist soil gnats will lay eggs in the soil an dnever stop producing. If you can let the dirt dry out somewhat that will help a bit . Also I know pac man frog need the moisture . Just from exp, let us know

Sent using my ( Samsung Galaxy S )

[stompjrkz400]

sorry to bump and old post, but i just lost my chubby tree, he was alive yesterday, found him tonight, very very dryed up still standing up almost, he was covered in little white mite like things, tommrow im going to go get new soil beding to clean my cage, but could the mites have killed him? ive had him for about a year

other frogs in the tank inculde

cuban tree frog
2 American toads
yellow spotted salamander


i knew of the mites, but was told they cant harm frogs, i figure the toads and salamanders are fine with them, maybe not the cuban

does anyone have any ideas, the last few days the chubby has been acting werd
he hasnt been burrowed, he has been in the water ALOT! normally i never see him, hes been burrowed down all winter.

[cvBon1]

Yeah my first Pacman was covered in what I thought was springtails too, but he just died one day, and my boyfriend said he thinks the mites practically ate him alive which is why I started this thread when I noticed my frogs now had what seemed to be the same thing. I didn't want them to die.

I would like to know the same thing can those bugs or another kind of mite kill cause it happened to me too long ago!



I also, for everyone else's info, cleaned the tank and they haven't been around so they were probably springtails so thank you all for replying.

Btw, stompjrkz400 ... sorry for your loss.

[stompjrkz400]

thank you, this the second weird death ive had, the last one was a green tree frog, which inturn kill a 6 year old yellow spotted salamander and a wood frog, im learning fast that it is much easyer to take care of toads and frogs from the wood, than it is to buy them from a store, and theres less infections too, there where no mites that time tho all of the frogs slowley went limp and fell alseep, then died,

[Wormwood]

You shouldn't have all these in the same tank anyway, they each produce their own toxins and even in the wild they wouldn't be accustomed to sharing the same little 10-40 gallon space, especially a water source on such a constant basis.

Either get them seperate enclosures or let them go. My guess it's not the "mites" although I'm sure they increase the stress level on the animals. Put them in some small quartine tanks/tubs for a few weeks and let the normal tanks dry out after a very heavy cleaning and baking of the wood and other hides.

Wild caughts can be more hardy but your rolling dice, many come with parasites and infections - it might have been one of the wild caught ones that introduced something nasty to the store bought animals you have.