# Gecko Mites



## GeckoJosh (Dec 14, 2009)

Hi guys,
Just wondering what geckos get those orange mites apart from leaf tails?


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 14, 2009)

bump anyone?


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 14, 2009)

Come on peeps


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## ihaveherps (Dec 14, 2009)

wild caught ones....


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 14, 2009)

So are u saying that all geckos get them in the wild?


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 14, 2009)

I thought that only certain species get them


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 20, 2009)

So can any one actually answer this question?


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## m_beardie (Dec 21, 2009)

that's actually a good question i would be interested to find out too  bump.
they aren't harmful though are they?


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 21, 2009)

m_beardie said:


> that's actually a good question i would be interested to find out too  bump.
> they aren't harmful though are they?


As far as i know what effect they might have (if any) is minimal


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## Sdaji (Dec 21, 2009)

Most geckoes can get them, maybe all Australian geckoes. I have seen them on harsh desert specialists and also rainforest species. I have also seen them on skinks. I have also seen species which look very similar on beetles, scorpions and spiders, but I am almost certain they are unrelated and some of the ones on invertebrates are phoretic, not parasitic. 

They don't seem to cause as much trouble as snake mites, but they are parasites and do take their toll. I have seen them very heavily infesting one captive collection without severe issues like you would see with snake mites. When a few geckoes were taken from this collection to another they were given one treatment with Top of Descent which effectively killed the lot. They seem quite easy to control.


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 21, 2009)

Sdaji said:


> Most geckoes can get them, maybe all Australian geckoes. I have seen them on harsh desert specialists and also rainforest species. I have also seen them on skinks. I have also seen species which look very similar on beetles, scorpions and spiders, but I am almost certain they are unrelated and some of the ones on invertebrates are phoretic, not parasitic.
> 
> They don't seem to cause as much trouble as snake mites, but they are parasites and do take their toll. I have seen them very heavily infesting one captive collection without severe issues like you would see with snake mites. When a few geckoes were taken from this collection to another they were given one treatment with Top of Descent which effectively killed the lot. They seem quite easy to control.


Thanks Sadji
I heard that Top of Descent will kill geckos or at least make them sick
I know that olive oil can be used as well by dabbing on the mites and cleaning out enclosures and replacing substrate etc


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## Sdaji (Dec 21, 2009)

No worries, Gkcoemna.

I have treated geckoes extremely heavily with Top of Descent. In the most extreme cases, spraying them directly in containers then leaving them sealed for around half an hour, then leaving them in the same containers for two days or so with ventilation. Even in those cases I never saw any ill effects at all. Obviously I can't guarantee that everyone else will have the same result, and certainly don't recommend you do the same.

Olive oil probably works better on snakes than geckoes, and I wouldn't personally trust it to completely erradicate mites. I can't claim any first hand experience using oil, but I would expect it to be almost useless if you were simply dabbing it on individual mites. If you wanted to use oil it would be best to wipe the entire snake or lizard down with it, and I would only bother if it was a smooth-skinned species. In over 10 years I haven't had mites break quarantine and have only had them in small quarantined click clacks twice. In both cases Top of Descent was used. Before that I had a mite outbreak (long long ago when I had all of four snakes) which was treated with pest strips (no longer available, which is probably a good thing!)


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## GreggMadden (Dec 21, 2009)

My question is are they reptile mites or substrate mites??? There is a huge difference... Reptile mites are black... The kind of look like peper... They feed on reptilian blood... What I do know about reptile mites for certain is that they do not infest geckos or varanids because there is no over lapping scalation on geckos and varanids... If the mites can not hide under scales, they will not infest the species...

Now I have noticed lots of substrate mites in cages from time to time where natural substrates are used... The mites are harmless to your reptile and eat the rotten vegitation and fungus that grow in substrates... These are nothing to worry about and are actually a good thing to have because they naturally clean substrates...
These substrate mites come in a variety of colors from red to silver... To my knowledge, reptile mites are only black...


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## Sdaji (Dec 21, 2009)

I don't know what you have in the way of mites up your way, Gregg, but down here we have the snake mites you are talking about as well as some other species which are also reptile specialists, some of which are bright orange, red or yellow. Some mites certainly do infest geckoes and varanids, in fact, there are mites which specialise on particular species of geckoes, and in the wild they can be very important factors in wild populations. This has been well documented in the Heteronotia binoei complex for example (although in captivity these mites don't cause problems).

There are also phoretic species and harmless species which are as you describe, and they come in many colours. Snake mites are the main species of concern to reptile keepers, but they aren't the only one.


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## GreggMadden (Dec 21, 2009)

Learn something new every day... Thanks for the info... Do you know species names at all??? I would like to look deeper into this...

Here in the US we only combat the black reptile mites that are usually only found on snakes... I have had mites in the past in my snake collection a couple of times and they never infested my geckos or varanids which were right next to the snakes and in the same rack system in some cases...

I have not had any mites in years due to preventative maintainance with Black Night II spray... Really great stuff...


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## GeckoJosh (Dec 21, 2009)

For Greg Madden
Sorry i cant give a species name but as u can see if you look closely in this pic this Phyllurus platurus has got gecko mites 
They are the really small orange dots
As far as i know these mites are native to Australia which may explain why you have not seen them in the US
Thanks Gex


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## Sdaji (Dec 21, 2009)

I'm not sure about species names other than the Snake Mite Ophionyssus natricis, and I'm not sure how well described the different species of mites are. Mites are extremely diverse and taxonomically difficult to work with. I collected some mites from small skinks in my part of the world (south eastern Australia) and provided them to some mites researchers. They were excited at what they thought was a new species and were going to name them after me (I'm not sure if that would have been a good or bad thing! :lol: ). They later concluded that they were just juvenile snake mites, which I know not to be the case because I have seen populations of them proliferate in captive skink populations and none of them ever get anywhere near the size of a snake mite, but even so, they could not find a way to differentiate them so could not produce a species description.


After a tiny googling session...

I see that at Taronga Zoo (a major zoo in Australia) they found an exotic mite species on their iguanas - Hirstiella diolii

I am sure there are hundreds, probably many thousands of species of mites which parasitise reptiles, most undescribed. Snake Mites are only one of them, and you're right, they won't affect many species, at least in any significant way (with the possible exception of as a disease vector). The other species do exist but are rare in captivity, probably largely because they are more specialised while Snake Mites are more generalised, so happily jump between just about any species of snake, as well as at least some lizards (including many/most skinks). So as far as most of us are concerned, most of the time, in terms of captive animals, Snake Mites are really the only ones which exist.


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## GreggMadden (Dec 22, 2009)

Thanks for the photo and info guys... From what I can tell, this might be the ONLY good thing about not being able to get wild caught Aussie reptiles into the States legally... LOL 

Thanks again...


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## shlanger (Dec 22, 2009)

*Orange mites*

Recently returned from the last week, of three weeks pit trapping in the Big Desert Victoria. Lots of dragons had these mites, in particular _Ctenophorus pictus _Some skinks had them also, like this _Ctenotus taeniatus. _Strangely lots of animals from the same area didnt have them, like this _Nephrurus milli_. Not sure what these mites are called, but I collected a few in 70% alcohol, for indentification.


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## Sdaji (Dec 23, 2009)

GreggMadden said:


> Thanks for the photo and info guys... From what I can tell, this might be the ONLY good thing about not being able to get wild caught Aussie reptiles into the States legally... LOL
> 
> Thanks again...



These mites generally don't seem to thrive in captivity  You would almost literally have to actively try to maintain a colony of them or they would die out


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