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Hamsterita · 02-22-2017, 06:21 AM

Well, I'm in living hell.

The good news is that I'm pretty sure that Blacky is fine. Well, now he is upset but he isn't ill. I checked twice, yesterday night and tomorrow morning and I couldn't find anything in him, but I'm very worrried that he may have eggs on his fur. He didn't like the checks. He had a strange behaviour during the night. He hoarded his food in his potty, but who can blame him.

I checked the tank too and I couldn't find anything on the substrate, but I'm sure that there were all kind of critters that I just wasn't seeing. I found another bug in his potty, and I became terrified. I started to check all the hamster things that I have, and I found another kind on bug on his carrier (well, two of them to be exact, and what seemed to be a dead one) and more on a bag where I was storing the popsicle sticks that I have bought to make him things (another three or four). The funny thing is that they weren't the same species. I don't know about the one that I found in the seesaw and the one that I found on the potty, but the ones in the carrier were definitely different because they were black and longer. And the problem is that all these things were stored in different places, all near the tank, but no in the exact same place, so I started to panick. I told my dad and he told me that we were going to take care of it in the morning. but the last straw was that when I was going to bed I noticed Blacky too nervous, and the reason was that he was chasing a moth... Fu***** unbelievable.

Bottomline: my tank was a nest of all kind of pests and creepy things, and they have spread aroung the furnitures and other places near the tank.

I couldn't sleep. Last time I checked the clock it was 4 am in the morning, and I was awake at 8. I found two more moths flying around.That was it.

I cleaned all the plastic /metallic things that were in contact with Blacky, and I throw away the rest (all the wood things, the sisal string tubes, the chews and the substrate). I had two bags of susbtrate unopened. One of carefresh and another one of hemp. I noticed that some of the bits of hemp that I was using had like black spots, like mold, so I didn't want to risk using the hemp from that store again and even it was unopened I throw the 30 L bag. Maybe now that I know what to look for I found it everywhere, but I think that I found mold in the bendy bridges too. I can post videos and photos of everything later if it's going to be useful for anyone. I baked the carefresh and the sand that I had, so the only good news from this story are that now we know that we can safely bake substrate to sterilize it (I baked it 35 mins at 75 degrees, and It looked super fine to me and not too hot so I raised the temperature to 100 degrees for another 10 mins without any problems).

With everything cleaned and/or sterilized I moved Blacky to the Ovo loft temporarily and I put the cage downstair in our livingroom, and he's going to be there for a while, because my parents and I decided to fumigate my room with insecticide. I know it's not healthy, not even for me, but they were too many bugs in too many diferent places to risk having several plagues.

So now I'm really tired, scared, sick, sad, and I hope that will be enough to solve the problem.

I think that I'm going to go to the vet anyway because maybe he can prescribe something to him to avoid him host the eggs in his fur, but I'm not sure because I don't want to stress him more, and it's obvious that he didn't like the checks, and I suppose that he didn't like the cage change either.

I'm thinking that if he doesn't seem too uncomfortable there I'm going to leave him in the ovo til I have the new tank.

I'm a mess right now. My mom is super sad too, she told me like 5 times that this is the reason why she didn't want to have more pets... pffff

I don't know. I really hope All the measerures will be enough.

02-22-2017, 06:21 AM
Hamsterita La loca de los hamsters Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: A Coruña, Spain Posts: 1,693	Re: Bugs in the substrate/wood toys? Well, I'm in living hell. The good news is that I'm pretty sure that Blacky is fine. Well, now he is upset but he isn't ill. I checked twice, yesterday night and tomorrow morning and I couldn't find anything in him, but I'm very worrried that he may have eggs on his fur. He didn't like the checks. He had a strange behaviour during the night. He hoarded his food in his potty, but who can blame him. I checked the tank too and I couldn't find anything on the substrate, but I'm sure that there were all kind of critters that I just wasn't seeing. I found another bug in his potty, and I became terrified. I started to check all the hamster things that I have, and I found another kind on bug on his carrier (well, two of them to be exact, and what seemed to be a dead one) and more on a bag where I was storing the popsicle sticks that I have bought to make him things (another three or four). The funny thing is that they weren't the same species. I don't know about the one that I found in the seesaw and the one that I found on the potty, but the ones in the carrier were definitely different because they were black and longer. And the problem is that all these things were stored in different places, all near the tank, but no in the exact same place, so I started to panick. I told my dad and he told me that we were going to take care of it in the morning. but the last straw was that when I was going to bed I noticed Blacky too nervous, and the reason was that he was chasing a moth... Fu***** unbelievable. Bottomline: my tank was a nest of all kind of pests and creepy things, and they have spread aroung the furnitures and other places near the tank. I couldn't sleep. Last time I checked the clock it was 4 am in the morning, and I was awake at 8. I found two more moths flying around.That was it. I cleaned all the plastic /metallic things that were in contact with Blacky, and I throw away the rest (all the wood things, the sisal string tubes, the chews and the substrate). I had two bags of susbtrate unopened. One of carefresh and another one of hemp. I noticed that some of the bits of hemp that I was using had like black spots, like mold, so I didn't want to risk using the hemp from that store again and even it was unopened I throw the 30 L bag. Maybe now that I know what to look for I found it everywhere, but I think that I found mold in the bendy bridges too. I can post videos and photos of everything later if it's going to be useful for anyone. I baked the carefresh and the sand that I had, so the only good news from this story are that now we know that we can safely bake substrate to sterilize it (I baked it 35 mins at 75 degrees, and It looked super fine to me and not too hot so I raised the temperature to 100 degrees for another 10 mins without any problems). With everything cleaned and/or sterilized I moved Blacky to the Ovo loft temporarily and I put the cage downstair in our livingroom, and he's going to be there for a while, because my parents and I decided to fumigate my room with insecticide. I know it's not healthy, not even for me, but they were too many bugs in too many diferent places to risk having several plagues. So now I'm really tired, scared, sick, sad, and I hope that will be enough to solve the problem. I think that I'm going to go to the vet anyway because maybe he can prescribe something to him to avoid him host the eggs in his fur, but I'm not sure because I don't want to stress him more, and it's obvious that he didn't like the checks, and I suppose that he didn't like the cage change either. I'm thinking that if he doesn't seem too uncomfortable there I'm going to leave him in the ovo til I have the new tank. I'm a mess right now. My mom is super sad too, she told me like 5 times that this is the reason why she didn't want to have more pets... pffff I don't know. I really hope All the measerures will be enough.