My lizard, Lizzy, is gravid with eggs and today I found a ton of bugs in her tank. I have never noticed them before, but in my experience, they look like mites! It's so bad I would say that they have been there for a long time! I don't know how she got them. She doesn't eat pinkies, so it's not from that. Her temp is 100 in the hot spot and the rest of the cage is about 80-90 degrees. I spray her 2 times a day and bath her 2 times a week. She eats crickets, mealworms, and veggies.

What do I do? I know how to treat snakes, but not Bearded Dragons unfortunately. I gave her a bath, but nothing came off her. I'm going to treat her tank like they are mites. That way I know everything is dead. How do I treat her? Should I see a vet? Will this affect her growing eggs? Also, where the heck did she get these from?

Her tank is placed by the window and we live in a deserty area. Is it possible they are sand fleas? How do I tell the difference? There are no vet around here that treat bearded dragons.

What do the bugs look like.
How big are they and many legs do they have?
Color?
Wings?

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Okay, they have no wings. Their color is a pale, almost see through. They blend in with the sand I have. The
legs I can't tell, they're too small.
It's been 2 years since I have seen a mite. They look a bit like fleas though I'm not sure. I'm not going to pretend like I know everything because the truth is, I'm still learning even though I'm starting to breed. The breeding just kind of happened.

Mites are tiny, like flecks of pepper.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

They are most likely not mites. I had a boa with mites 3 times. Mites are dark black. They are most certainly not almost see through.

My advice would be to put your Bearded Dragon in a different enclosure, for my snakes I use a plastic sweater box with just paper towel bedding and water. Give her a bath every day -- (don't make her swim!!) maybe brush her lightly with a soft toothbrush to get the bugs off and change her to a different box with fresh paper towel, dish. Sterilize the heck out of the other plastic box and have it ready for the next day's change.
For the original tank: throw out the substrate in her tank as well as any branches, plants etc. (Get them out of the house and away from anything coming back into the house!) You'll have to clean the tank several times over the next month to be sure to get any eggs if they are reptile mites. Be sure to scrape the corners very well each time. The eggs are resistant to insecticide, so you have to clean it several times to kill them when they hatch. Here's an article I wrote on mites:
Snake Mites - Identification and Removal - Reptile Information - Caresheets Database

If they are sand fleas, they will probably bite you too -- and you will know it!

Tuffgi2001- when reptile mites are in the larval stages they are pale yellow/ivory colored; deutonymphs are dark red or black but don't move, these are the ones that look like specs of pepper in the water bowl: adult males are smaller and tan colored and adult females are the larger typical black which you have noticed in your infestations.

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Andrea

That clarifies that then Thanks for the correction. Is it possible for other reptiles to get the mites or do they only go for snakes?

When it comes to mites, any reptile is fair game!

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

They might be chiggars, they like dry conditions and the larvae are light colored. Here is a website that can help you with your situation.

Getting rid of reptile mites

Mites on spiny lizards are tough to get off, they burrow under the scales. One thing I have used for this problem is mineral oil, it's in the health section of most stores. The oil suffocates the mites. I use a very, very soft tooth brush to gently knock off the dead mites. Since the Bearded Dragon is gravid I would hold off on the tooth brush scrubbings, try to minimize the stress as much as possible. Use a cotton swab to paint the lizard with oil, there some places that you will not be able to cover, keep it out of the eyes, nose, and mouth area. Apply the oil to the lizard after you have soaked in a Betadine bath. The website above will have instructions on how to prepare the bath solution. If you have mites of either kind, you will have to overhaul the entire enclosure. These mites can come in on the crickets, the meal worms, some times the vegetables and new lizards that have been introduced to the enclosure. If you have added new branches or rocks they may have come in on those as well. It will take time, be patient.