Mites On Turtle

Question

Bowseta My turtle   Today I saw that their were a lot of really small white bugs crawling on my pet leaf turtle. They mostly surround her head, her rear, and some around her leg near her shell. I tried to wash them off, but there's still some left. How do I get rid of them? and how will they effect my turtle?

Answer
Hello Anna,

Mites can be frustrating to get rid of!
What type of substrate are you keeping him on?  
You can get some betadine & dilute it down until it looks like weak tea to soak him in.  The mites should crawl to his head to where you can get them removed with a swab, carefully.  
You will need to take everything out of his tank to clean & sanitize it.  What tank decor is in his enclosure that you can soak/clean & bake?
You may need to take everything out of his tank & just replace it with paper towels & cardboard boxes until you can get his logs, etc cleaned or replaced.
Mites can drain them over time of nutrition if left untreated & become bad enough.


Let me know how that goes for you.

Tracie