fleas?

[breanna-banana13]

my bf has a bearded dragon in a 55gal breeder tank with sand as the substrate. we just noticed these little flea lookin things all over the place. we keep the tank very clean (we pick up his dropping immediately after he goes) and he eats his veggies out of a bowl so its not like there is stuff everywhere for them to eat...any suggestions?

 

[bohannbj]

Are they baby crickets. If your feeding adults they might have laid eggs before they were eaten.

 

[breanna-banana13]

no

thats outta the question, he eats all the crickets within minutes of us feeding. and they dont even look like crickets, they look like fleas. they are really tiny and they fly...

 

[leolover23]

Sounds like fruit flies (if they fly) and that would make sense if your feeding them veggies. I don't belive fleas fly...only hop...and itch. :wink2:

 

[Lena]

Could be anything, sand is very unsanitary and allows who knows what to breed. Especially if you miss anything after a poo or something like food gets buried.

I'd recommend switching to tile or newspaper.

 

[Echostatic]

id strongly recommend switching to a non-particle substrate as well. this should help with the bug problem as well as prevent other serious health risks associated with sand.

 

[LadyGecko]

Yes-there are "sand fleas"

It is one of the main reasons that I took my adult Beardies and BTS off of the sand

Our area is very bad with them and once they get into the house they quickly find the sand
If we are not quick enough to get the FrontLine on the dogs then we have fleas that spread to the cats

If there was a sand substrate in any of the tanks-I found them there too

I would get rid of the sand asap as the fleas will hop put of the tank and infest everything
Paper towels will work fine until you can get some tile or whatever else that you want to use

hope this helps

Sandy

 

[leolover23]

But if they fly then they can't be fleas...fleas don't fly! They only hop and you said they flew...like I said, sounds like fruit flies.

 

[Pookachu]

I would guess at fruit flies as well.

 

[Echostatic]

do you have any wood in your tank? i had termites start coming out in a peice i had, i guess there was a colony in there. they were winged, flying around and stuff.