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Worm Guard and Mite Guard, are they safe?
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Worm Guard and Mite Guard, are they safe?
#1
hi to everyone,
I am looking to find a good wormer and mite control that I can use regularly with my darts. I had a few brands that I used 2 years ago when I last had reptiles and tree frogs, but i understand that dart frogs are much more sensitive to these treatments than other animals. I have found two products recently that I would like to use, but I would like everyone's experience and input since I am not familiar with this brand and how Darts respond to it. They are both by NATURE ZONE (herptile). One is Worm Guard and the other is Mite Guard.
The mite guard's active ingredients are clove oil, rosemary oil, and thyme oil, bentonite, calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate. It is a powder that's dusted inside the aquarium under the bedding and in cracks and crevasses where mites hide. It kills mites for 3 weeks.
The Worm Guard is a powder that is dusted on the food (crickets) or mixed with water to make a liquid and it is suggested to treat for 7-14 days. Its ingredients are: pumpkin seed,black walnut, cloves, wormwood, black cumin, thyme, kieselguhr, papain.
I would appreciate any help, cautions, or suggestions even if it is for another product (or any suggestions to prevent mites and worms in the first place, new ideas are always great).

thanks, ~Lauren
1.1.1 Hawaiian Auratus (reticulated), 1.2.2 Leucomelas, 3.2.1 Cobalt Tincs, 1.0.0 Kauluha & Creme / Camo Auratus, 2.0.1 Yelloback Tincs, 0.0.4 Azureus, 1.1.0 Spotted Auratus
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#2
Lauren,

Sorry I can not answer your question but do you have a website for the mite guard? I have been having them in my tank. Interesting to hear if anyone has used this stuff before.

Mike
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#3
Hi Lauren,
If you have mites in your viv you have a free Dart food supplement, in my mind. If the little suckers are driving you crazy and are "out of control", then i would seek a product ( I have zero knowledge of the products you have asked about) to take care of them. Otherwise, Darts eat them. It does sound like the ingredients are a bit "holistic" in the products mentioned. Unless made for Darts, I would not use them. There are several vits/mins Darts do not do well with.
As to a wormer, Panacure is a safe, efficient product. Here is a good read on it and a few other topics:

http://www.dartden.com/viewtopic.php?t=86

I hope this helps,
Rich
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#4
hey mike,

here is their website http://www.naturezonepet.com/main2.php . However, it does not have the products i mentioned on it. The products are all natural, but im not sure if they are good or safe for darts. This company is a branch of tetrafauna, which concerns me b/c i have not heard good things about some of their products; but at the same time, these are not their "conventional" products.

I used a product spray for mites a few years ago that was good, but the tree frogs i had at the time did not really like it. I had to remove them from the container, spray it, let it dry, then put them back in in order for them not to have issues with it (i think it was T-Rex brand, it was in a black pump bottle).

i have traced the mites back to the feeder crickets i use, which was the always the usual suspect years ago too.
1.1.1 Hawaiian Auratus (reticulated), 1.2.2 Leucomelas, 3.2.1 Cobalt Tincs, 1.0.0 Kauluha & Creme / Camo Auratus, 2.0.1 Yelloback Tincs, 0.0.4 Azureus, 1.1.0 Spotted Auratus
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#5
thanks Rich, i have observed the frogs eating the mites on the glass and cork wood a few times. As long as the mites wont hurt my darts i feel better about it. I guess I'm disturbed by it, b/c i used to own reptiles and i saw mites as a big threat to them. thank you for the suggestions.
1.1.1 Hawaiian Auratus (reticulated), 1.2.2 Leucomelas, 3.2.1 Cobalt Tincs, 1.0.0 Kauluha & Creme / Camo Auratus, 2.0.1 Yelloback Tincs, 0.0.4 Azureus, 1.1.0 Spotted Auratus
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#6
Just dont let the mites get into your fruit fly cultures. That was my problem, I was leaving the cultures on top of the viv and they infested them.

Mike
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#7
The thing to keep in mind is that not all mites are parasitic. The little white ones generally eat the ditritus and molds that grow in such an environment and are of no concern. they are similar to dust mites, but bigger as I understand it. As an experienced keeper/breeder of tarantulas, this is something I looked in to because there are also a variety of "spider mites" which ARE parasitic and can really hurt tarantulas. With detritus eating mites, unless their numbers get completely out of hand, they are of little concern to tarantulas, although unfortunately they are too small for feeding the tarantulas and can stress them, causing them to go off feed and even starve if an enclosure becomes truely infested!!
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#8
hey there,

i have recently tried the mite stuff with my tokay gecko. i adopted the gecko after it was found, with numerous other reptiles, abandoned at a rental property. its cage was infested by mites and after cleaning the tank and putting in new substrate i sprinkled some of the mite remedy in the bottom under the substrate to catch anything i missed or any mites that could have been on the gecko. everything seems to be fine so far and i have not seen any mites.
i don't think i am going to use the mite guard with the darts at all. but one question, what do you do if mites do become a problem in the vivaria? what is safe for the darts besides changing all the substrate? i also know from raising bonsai and being a gardener that some mites are parasitic to plants. just something that's been on my mind since i am currently setting up 2 new vivariums and putting a lot of time and effort into them.
thanks for the advice guys, ~Lauren
1.1.1 Hawaiian Auratus (reticulated), 1.2.2 Leucomelas, 3.2.1 Cobalt Tincs, 1.0.0 Kauluha & Creme / Camo Auratus, 2.0.1 Yelloback Tincs, 0.0.4 Azureus, 1.1.0 Spotted Auratus
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#9
I never had a mite problem with frogs but maybe that was because they were getting eaten. Everything I have read on mites and dart frogs are they eat them as food.

I was told from a breeder to use mite paper under fly cultures if I had reptiles to keep them out of the cultues. I did have a Iguana that became mite infested and it was really hard to get them all gone. They will get into carpeting and every thing. I used oil on the iguana then gave him a good bath to get them off of him and then spays and powders on and around everything. The mite lifecycle is very short from egg to adult but long as an adult about 30 days. So if you can you need to kill both the adults and eggs to break the lifecycle. After about 3 months they were all gone and stayed gone.

Here is one link on reptile mites http://www.anapsid.org/mites.html#hard
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#10
One thing about mites---if they are rampant in your vivarium, you should consider that, if eaten in large quantities, they could cause your frogs to regain some of their native toxicity. I'm not sure which species of mites this applies to, but it's enough to make me sure to keep humidity high so that at least spider mites can be controlled:

"Poison dart frogs excrete alkaloid toxins through their skin. Most species are not lethal to their predators, but rather taste foul enough that frogs are released immediately. Dart frogs also do not synthesize their poisons.The alkaloids are sequestered from prey items, such as ants and mites"
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#11
I have never heard of any toxic issue with our captive darts eating mites in our hobby.
We need to be careful about clipping statements without full explaination of the quotes. We already have states and communities trying to outlaw darts because they are "poison".

Rich
Darts with parasites are analogous to mixed tanks, there are no known benefits to the frogs with either.


If tone is more important to you than content, you are at the wrong place.

My new email address is: rich.frye@icloud.com and new phone number is 773 577 3476
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#12
RichFrye Wrote:I have never heard of any toxic issue with our captive darts eating mites in our hobby.
We need to be careful about clipping statements without full explaination of the quotes. We already have states and communities trying to outlaw darts because they are "poison".

Rich

Neither have I, and I wanted the experts' response to reinforce this fact. I believed this before your response and I believe it afterward. The mites, in fact, garnish the alkaloids from the rainforest environment, and the absence of this environment in captive-bred programs eliminates the risk. I created this post to assuage anyone's fears about the risk of poison darts should they go looking for answers. This will allow them to feel more comfortable and safe when keeping this animal. It's better that they read the post here and be reassured than to find the article on their own and become worried.

Thanks for your response----you helped me to serve my goal in reinforcing that captive-bred frogs, the ones you can purchase, are indeed safe.
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