The Booklice are back.

[Angel’s Teddybear]

The title sounds like a news headline- but jokes aside, it’s back. If you read my thread on Angel’s ‘new’ cage, you heard about how her past cage had an infestation. I thought I finally got rid of them: vacuumed the whole floor multiple times. washed the ceramics, glass. Froze hay tunnels, sprays. Froze books that rested on top of her cage. Baked all the wood. Got a dehumidifier to kill any remaining bugs. disposed of her old cage. AND THEY ARE IN HER NEW ONE. I can’t escape them!! It’s extremely frustrating and makes me paranoid; the bugs have only been spotted on her house lid and on items on top of that house. after I found them, i baked the house top and the items on it. Washed her water dish. The whole shibang. I was hoping they were only on the top, but wherever they came from, they are still there. I got my little Angel in January of 2024. She was most likely 2-ish months old. Therefore, she is most likely 2.5 years. That’s longer than I expected her to live, because she is from the pet store. I have since decided no more from the pet store after finding out the terrible truth of pet mills. So, my current game plan is to let her live her life and hope to keep the bugs at bay. The bugs technically don’t harm anyone. They harm my mental state- but for some reason they are always coming back, so I don’t think getting rid of them again will fix my paranoia.

What are your guys’ thoughts? any questions about this situation let me know, i’m happy to help you help!!!

 

[Maz]

Oh no. That's not fair if they're back in her new cage. That suggests they might be either coming from the environment in the room somewhere, or from something you moved from the old cage to the new one (but you said you disinfected everything).

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

Yes! I cleaned around the cage, anywhere I could find. I’ll have to do a deeper dive. I’m off to bed for now.

 

[Maz]

Apparently it needs humidity less than 50% to eliminate them. Did you say you had tried using a dehumidifier?

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

Yes! I currently have it going at all times; I also keep my door closed, since it apparently works best that way.

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

It is springtime where i am. Do you think maybe I should move the dehumidifier closer to the cage? I have a plug closer, but it is behind my bed.

 

[Maz]

I'm not sure. It might help.

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

An update! I may have found the source of the bugs. I was going through some of my items in a bin of mine that has wooden chews and hay tunnels and that sort. And I found the wooden chews CRAWLING with them!! Luckily the wooden chews were in a plastic ziplock bag, and were at the bottom. Unluckily, the ziplock doesn’t close because of the long wooden sticks in there. So, I went through that and bagged the wooden items and the items i have to freeze in two different bags. Then I put all ceramic items I need to wash inside the bin for washing, since I will be washing the bin as an extra precaution.
Since I used some of those wooden chews in angels set up, it’s possible the bugs came from hiding inside of the wood. Or they could have just traveled. So I took out other wood items in Angels cage (the wood items on her house top that seem to have bugs on them) and bagged them.
I moved my dehumidifier to right next to Angel’s cage, so hopefully it will work a bit more there.
I went through a few other bins, but those don’t seem to have bugs. So i’m assuming those came from wooden items that were from her old cage that were taken out before I realized there was an infestation. Hopefully that is the answer. Anyways, I’m hoping to stop this from becoming an infestation. God save this cage

 

[Maz]

This is making me creep and wondering if it's me next! Must go through my drawers of hamster edibles .........

But yes they could be mites from wood. That is quite well known. Some people have bought bark wood hamster houses that had bugs. If that is the source and you've got rid of it, then cleaning up might resolve it.

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

I sure hope so!! I’ll have to rebake her house again. probably the house as well this time, just in case!! hopefully this is resolved..

 

[Maz]

Keep us posted! Can her house actually be baked? Some houses have glue and the glue could melt possibly?

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

Yes! I actually did that all last night. I found that there were some bugs on the bottom of the cage on some food. I took out a lot of the bedding in that area, baked a ton of the items around it, re-put it all in, and I also cleaned the area where the house was with vinegar. Helped me wipe up some sand that was there (access from her fur) and dust. Really cleaned a ton of her house, so I need to do another batch of baking from items I took out today. I, of course, don’t think i got them all out, but I believe that i got most of them. Hopefully that keeps them at bay and the dehumidifier can do the rest.

 

[Angel’s Teddybear]

OKAY! I checked just now. I don’t see any on the top of the lid. Didn’t see any around. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any, it just means I got a lot of them!!! Last time I did just the lid and they were back. I think since I did the whole house and surrounding wood it’ll take a while to build their amount up, but the dehumidifier should do its job!!