Problems with aspen shavings?

[Syco]

Last night I was checking on my snakes and spot cleaning cages and I found some tiny larva (worms?) in the water bowl in one of the cages. There was no fecal matter in the water just these larva, and they were moving. The first thing that comes to mind is "Great my snake has parasites" and then I saw this tiny beetle looking bug crawling in the cage. I took the snake out, cleaned and disinfected the cage and put him on paper towels. My question is... has anyone else that uses aspen seen this type of thing? Is there anything I can do to get rid of the bugs if they are coming from the aspen or should I just trash the aspen and go back to paper towels?

[Invictus]

Well, what brand of aspen shavings are you using? The kind I get at Walmart has been 100% problem-free to date. If you get yours in bulk or from a pulp mill, it goes through much less in the way of quality control procedures.

It's also possible that you just have bugs in the house. If you did, I'm sure the aspen would attract them. I'd inspect the rest of your aspen shavings, but maybe don't abandon it yet. Choice is yours though - paper towel is a great substrate too. :)

[Ron]

Hey Ken,

You should check out Petsmart for aspen shavings, I think the 5CF bag was ~$15. Last time I was at Walmart the aspen seemed pretty pricey. Or if you are ever in Leduc you can buy aspen chip or shavings from a lab supply place for ~$12 for 9CF of shredded aspen or ~$12 for 2.5 CF "aspen chip".

[Syco]

This was the kind from Wal-Mart, I've never had any problems with it either.
This was a new bag, maybe it was just a bad one. :(

[mykee]

I'm guessing that this aspen, from the time of actual packaging, shipping, display, rotation, has been in a bag for maybe 3-4 months minimum? I can't see a bettle, or a bug living for that long in a bag. I would look elsewhere for your problem just to be sure.

[eyespy]

Unless the bag got a hole in it and the bugs crawled in after the fact? I see lots of torn bags in the garden centers of discount and home improvement stores sometimes.

[Syco]

Where else do I look for the problem? I've never seen anything like this in any of my cages before.

[Colin Friesen]

Can't tell ya where else, but in the past i've used aspen with no problems. Good luck!!

Colin

[Invictus]

Ron - Thanks man! I'll check them out. It looks like the NE Walmart doesn't have the aspen shavings anymore anyway. Maybe they were just out last time I was there.

Syco - Mykee brings up an excellent point. There is no way the beetle could have lived in the bag of shavings. The beetle was probably in the house already, and just decided to set up camp in your snake enclosure.

[Jo060]

Hey. A good substrate that I use is the indoor/outdoor carpeting the ones that is normally used in patio's. Get 2 pieces because when the snake pee's the carpet holds it in. So, one s/he does that just take it out spray it down w/ a hose and let it dry. And it also looks VERY neat:)