Good Morning
folks,
I was admiring my
recently acquired WC Uroplatus sikkorae yesterday, and much to my chagrin, I
noticed several very very tiny red-orange spots on her. With the help of a
loop I could tell that they were some variety of bug.
So I called the
reptile shop that I got her from (which for the time being, shall remain
nameless) and I told them I thought they were mites (primarily cause they were
sooo tiny), and they said, oh, orange mites, those are ok, they just eat dead
skin.
Well, needless to
say, I was just a bit skeptical. I removed her from her tank and began by
trying to wipe them off with a wet q-tip.
No
dice.
Soooooo, bless her
cold little heart, this poor little lizard "allowed" me to man-handle the heck
out of her and pull these little buggers out of her with a pair of jeweler's
tweezers. All modesty aside, the "surgery" I performed was miraculous.
Without the aid of magnification, I removed about 8 of them, two of which were
uncomfortably close to her eyes. What a trooper she was. The fact that I
had to pull them off makes me wonder if they were mites or, perhaps,
ticks.
I did a pretty
reasonable search of her underside, leg pockets, etc, and didn't find any
others, so I know it's folley to say she's clean, but she certainly isn't
infested...
So, I'm looking for a
little advice here. Mites or ticks? Has anyone heard of these supposed OK
orange mites? What kind of follow up, if any, do I need to perform on my
little trooper?
Many
thanks!
Neal
Grant
