Hello all, so I noticed one of my plants not doing so well so I took a closer look to find there are little mite looking bugs, as well as tiny little worms (which are hanging by little silk threads) in my enclosure sadly. Pictures are here of the mites and also a tiny worm. Now my potted plants are in bioactive soil, so I know there may not be a full solution without killing off some of my cleaning crew, but what is the best chameleon safe advice to rid these bugs? Anything I should be worried about?
Little bugs in my panthers bioactive enclosure. Help!
- Thread starter Robby
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MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
No idea what those are, but I would lean towards a natural approach to eliminating them. Hatching out a mantis ooth is always a good way to eliminate small pests.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
I have no idea. @jamest0o0 is our Bug Lord and he may be able to better guide you. Mantids are fierce little hunters and the babies are great for eliminating small pests like soil gnats and their larvae.
BostonKeith
Avid Member
Thrips maybe. If so they are the worse.. Need better closer pics.
Lindasjackson
Chameleon Enthusiast
Oh I pity you! I have spent the whole summer trying to get rid of white flies and was not able to so I took the tree back to the nursery and they gave me a refund as well as I got a schefflera tree to replace the ficus that had the white flies. Good luck and I hope and pray you can get rid of the bugs!
dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
Can you move the oval ones with your finger easily or are they sort of attached?
They are sort of attached, but do move easily when I apply some pressure with my nail. They don’t seem to be mobile, at least to the eye. Here are more pictures of the tiny worms I see hanging from various leaves, and the oval ones. Idk if they are the same maybe in different stages.
Attachments
Here you go, not sure if this helps. The worms that are hanging are so tiny.
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MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Wondering if maybe is scale or mealybugs. For both of those, you could get some lacewing larvae.
dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
Yeah if they sort have "shells" they are probably the dreaded scale 
Another clue is that parts of the plant may appear sticky like there is a bit of honey on them.
Very hard to get rid of. You can start by using a Q tip soaked in alcohol to manually remove as many as possible (especially look underneath, along the vein of the leaf). But there will be larvae in the cage and will re-infect given half a chance.
Usually they will only infect a plant with a compromised "immune system". So review your plant husbandry really well. The usual recipe is "wet feet", plants that never have a chance to dry out, but light levels can do it too.
Since you can't change the watering much for the cham's sake, you might have to rotate the plant out of the cage for a while to get well.
Another clue is that parts of the plant may appear sticky like there is a bit of honey on them.Very hard to get rid of. You can start by using a Q tip soaked in alcohol to manually remove as many as possible (especially look underneath, along the vein of the leaf). But there will be larvae in the cage and will re-infect given half a chance.
Usually they will only infect a plant with a compromised "immune system". So review your plant husbandry really well. The usual recipe is "wet feet", plants that never have a chance to dry out, but light levels can do it too.
Since you can't change the watering much for the cham's sake, you might have to rotate the plant out of the cage for a while to get well.
dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
I'd love to see someone test this in an enclosure.
I have about 20 hibiscus in my yard that were completely infested with whitefly and I spent a fortune buying 3000 lacewings. Eventually I had to give up after 8 weeks and get out the hard stuff (insecticide) after nearly losing my 15 year old trees.
But in the confines of an enclosure maybe they could prevail!
BostonKeith
Avid Member
When you put lacewing outside i usually put melon down at the base of plants with problems. This helps keep them in the same spot.
My tree boa had a bad pest problem and i used lacewing in my enclosure and it worked great. I actually would watch them go from pest to pest like a serial killer.
BostonKeith
Avid Member
scale
oh no!!I assume lacewings are Cham safe? I may have to try this
BostonKeith
Avid Member
https://web.archive.org/web/20041208193825/www.chameleonjournals.com/husbandry/
heres some deep web stuff saved on archives.
they are safe
dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
Totally safe although cham may eat a few!
Thank you all!
To confirm are the little worms just the larvae stage of the scale? Or is that a separate problem
Lindasjackson
Chameleon Enthusiast
i Didn’t think ladybugs were safe for chams therefore not safe to put in a chams cage?
