Worms in my chameleons substrate D:

[Humberto4790]

I found these little worms in the dirt in his terrarium, they weren't there before and i'm afraid it's a parasite, someone please verify if the worms are dangerous or not.

 

[mcanham]

Looks like a fruit fly larvae. Typically harmless. Substrate of any type is usually not a good idea with most chameleons. What species do you keep?

 

[Humberto4790]

Thanks

That makes sense, because some fruit flies did sneak in there a little while ago, and he's a Jacksons chameleon, the lady at Petsmart said we needed that substrate to help with the humidity.

 

[mcanham]

If it were me I would plant heavily with live plants in pots and mist it several times a day. Substrate harbors bacteria and other problems. I'm not a Jackson's keeper but I think most would agree with the no substrate method.

 

[Humberto4790]

What plants do you recommend?

 

[JeffJo]

I have a potted Umbrella Plant, a hanging Pothos, and some tillansias in my Jax's cage. He likes to sleep on the tallest Umbrella plant branch . I just have paper towels that I change daily for the bottom of the cage. For humidity I have a reptifogger and I mist with a spray bottle 3-5 times a day, and a dripper that drips into the Umbrella plant.

Edit - I have also read that ficus trees are good too but I read somewhere else that they can have some negative side effects. Here is a quote about ficus: "One commonly recommended plant which should be avoided is the ficus tree. This plant is mildly toxic and excretes a white milky latex. This secretion has been connected to a number of eye infections in captive chameleons, so this plant should be avoided." and that quote is from this PDF about Jackson's: http://www.skypoint.com/members/mikefry/jacksons.pdf

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

Yeah, substrate causes more problems than its worth. Go with the live plants

 

[carol5208]

and yet another reason not to have substrate!!!