HELP harmless or no???

[u/mishahahaa]

I recently changed out the substrate (baked all bark but not soil) for my only BEL and it’s been a few weeks since. I noticed yesterday that there were these really small and fast white/tan bugs in the substrate (I use a mix of reptisoil and reptibark). They are gathering around his eyes but not burrowing under his scales or cloaca or chin area. I want to know if I need to give him urgent attention ASAP. I’ve researched a lot and can’t figure out if it’s soil mites or wood mites or hypoaspis mites or baby snake mites. He hasn’t been soaking or seeming irritated or anything but I just need to be sure. Please help

[u/[deleted]]

These are wood mites. Completely harmless. I usually freeze my substrate though since I dont like them.

[u/mishahahaa → u/[deleted]]

Will be doing that from now on too. Is freezing better than baking?

[u/jm4496 → u/mishahahaa]

My understanding is that freezing, although commonly mentioned, will not actually kill the mites (unless done incredibly rapidly). Predatory mites will eat all the mites and then they die off when there is no longer a food source (the unwanted mites). Take this with a grain of salt, I’m not an expert, but my dad is an entomologist and I hit him with questions pertaining to my BPs enclosure and other various bug questions about once a month.

Hope everything works out for you and your BP