*NEW* Infestation of Aphids in Newt Tank

This is the first time this has ever happened in all of my 20 years caring for amphibians! ..and I hope that anyone can help!!

Last month my newt's tank became absolutely infested with what I believe are aphids (little white plant lice) just within a day or so, and they were SO large in numbers they were crawling all over the tank (INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE TANK!) and my poor fire-bellied newt laid there motionless almost dead-looking until the tank was thoroughly cleaned and re-built (this time WITHOUT any natural plants, just water, fake plants and food!) Maybe the new moist moss cover had harbored and hatched these gross pests I thought, but upon inspection on my tank today I noticed about a dozen or so aphids AGAIN! Gross!!! SO instead of completely washing out the tank again (I can't wash it outside because we have about 20 inches of snow on the ground here in NJ) So instead, I sprayed natural pest control spray on the OUTSIDE of the tank and killed as many ahpids BY HAND that I could see in the INSIDE of the tank but Also, I feed my newt freeze-dried bloodworms, do you think maybe the aphids are coming from THAT?? Maybe they're from it's feces? The tank ornaments and water is all kept quite clean and I'm baffled as to what seems to be causing these infestations.. I'm afraid I'll wake up tomorrow to find a giant infestation all over the tank as last time and I'm not sure if they'll overtake my newt this time either!

..so if ANYONE knows what I can do to get rid of these nasty pests your reply would be hugely appreciated! I'll be checking this post for replies periodically throughout the day and the rest of the week so please PLEASE PLEASE help!

how about stop feeding your newt for a week. and let all the feces out with the newts in a qurantine tank.
Then prepare a new tank for them and let's them stay there and resume feeding.

mean whil, observe the behaviour or the old tank with aphids. See if removing the newt or the food will change anything.

Just my 2 cents, since I have not encountered this before.

Sounds like springtails: little white bugs that show up overnight and crawl on everything. They eat poo. Do a good cleaning and this should take care of most of them. Some springtails are good to have around because they eat poo, and little caudates can eat them.

Just a note: freeze-dried blood worms have very little nutritional value. I recommend switching to frozen bloodworms or live blackworms.

And no more pesticides!! Natural or not, they can be extremely harmful.

The other option is that she is seeing an outbreak of soil mites.

Are they thin and hop when disturbed or round and move slowly?

Ed

...springtails? hmm.. I'll have to look into it! I'm definetly going to invest a couple of hours to clean the tank tonight either way because I'm just afraid they'll be EVERYWHERE tomorrow morning! Also, regarding the pesticide.. I only used it on the bottom outside of the tank, no worries! (It didn't really help the situation anyways)

If anyone else has any additional advice or thoughts I'd love to hear 'em!

Thanks

...oh, btw they're round and slow...

Hmm, I was thinking springtails too, but if they're round and slow, it sounds more like mites. Mites also feed on any kind of debris or feces (even VERY small amounts). I gather that the newt is staying mostly out of the water? I think you just have to clean his rocks, or whatever he sits on, regularly.

If that doesn't work, is there anything in the tank that can't be disinfected? You can use dilute bleach to sterilize the whole lot. You just have to be fanatically careful to get rid of all bleach before setting up the tank again.

...Thanks for your help guys, I guess we'll conclude that it was in fact, mites. It's amazing how quickly they took over his tank tho - They appeared so quickly! AND my newt only had 2-3 solid droppings throughout the entire 10gal when I cleaned it today (yes he's out of the water all the time!)

I disinfected and everything is A-ok. I threw out the freeze-dried worms and going to get some frozen bloodworms (as Joan suggested) tomorrow.

I guess I'll have to wash it more often even though it seems quite clean, it's worth it tho (see my lil guy in my profile pic?! It was camera-shy at the time)

When the conditions are correct, mite outbreaks can occur very very quickly and escalate into massive numbers (I have seen grain mite outbreaks in mealworms culutures that looked like a massive drift of slightly moving brown dust). You will not be able to prevent the mites from restablishing themselves in the tank after you clean it but if you clean it you will change the conditions allowing for the outbreak. The organic material in the moss is probably contributing to the mite outbreak.

Ed
Ed

Any tips on the "correct" conditions to try to prevent future outbreaks?

The first outbreak occurred in my bedroom which was at about 72degF heated with a moist tank setup, and the 2nd outbreak was in the den (with a mostly dry tank setup minus the pool of water) at about 64degF.

Also, I thought the prior outbreak was due to the natural moss covering the bottom of the tank however after THAT infestation, I quickly got rid of ALL natural tank decor and just went with ALL realistic FAKE stuff.. (rock-shaped pool of water, large smooth stones, false leaves, realistic plastic bark cave & plants, etc) So I thought that would alleviate the problem but it didn't.. Our house is super clean and the tank (both times) is situated eye-level among common household furniture (dressers/tables) not on the floor in the garage or something so it's gross to think that the mites came from anywhere else in the house! They must've been the freeze-dried food, maybe it had some kind of eggs in it?

Clean up poop as soon as you see it. I wouldn't worry about a few mites here or there, as they do eat the poo, so it's good to have some around. Mites can just kind of float in on the breeze, or your clothes, or from anywhere, really.

BTW: I love your avatar pic. Very cute!

Does springtail reall eat poo?? I wonder.... A very useful decomposer.

Yes, springtails eat poo. They are the ultimate decomposers.