Strange brown lice like bugs in snake enclosure

So, I was doing some cleaning of my little rosy boas enclosure only to find a bunch of itty bitty (I mean so tiny that they are the size of, or smaller than a grain of sand) bugs. They aren’t snake mites since they aren’t on Andromeda at all and seemed interested in the poop/coconut hides more than anything (they also don’t look like snake mites). I don’t have snake mites in my collection and haven’t seen these guys before, any idea what they are?

Hopefully they are springtails. Google that and compare. They’re quite beneficial in bio active tanks and in isopod cultures. I even encourage them in my potted plants.

I am used to the longer bodied springtails but there are also “globular springtails”. It is odd though, I have only been using newspaper for her lately. Maybe they have been in there since I last used aspen and I didn’t notice because they are so tiny and never on my snake. That or they hitched a ride on the newspaper since it was in the trunk of my mothers car and she had gotten some plants/potting soil. I got rid of em using scolding hot water to rinse the tub out (I left the newspaper they were on in there with the water to make sure none escaped). I soaked the coconut halves in hot water and baked em at 350°F for 8 minutes too. Ain’t no bugs surviving that. :joy:

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If they’re as small as you’re wording it, they may be wood mites. Quite tiny and easiest seen on white/leucistic snakes. I had them for a minute after buying Aspen from walmart when I ran out of my bulk supply in a pinch. I would observe them huddled together in the very center of a snakes’s head. Spotting them individually was near impossible. Some good cleaning and replenished supply of bulk Aspen, I’ve not seen them since.

For what it’s worth, the ones I confirmed I had, were not harmful to snakes.

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I found out what they are from my dad. They are paper mites. Apparently they love stacks of old newspaper. When I look them up they are what I was seeing. They can bite humans if they lose their rat or bird host, but I don’t think they can get through scales. Which would explain why they weren’t bothering Andromeda.

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