Book lice (?) in hamster cage

[Sam]

Hi everyone,

We were freshening up squeaky's cage and found little brown bugs moving on the paper towel we placed under her water bowl. I tried to Google image search it and the closest thing I could match it to was book lice. Has anyone dealt with this before? Google says I have to use a dehumidifier but I'm not sure how it'll affect squeaky It also says they're not harmful to her and they seem to cingregating only by her water bowl. We were going to get her new bedding and freeze her solid stuff but we currently don't have enough space to freeze all her bedding at once. Please help thank you

 

[Maz]

Hi. and oh no not another one! Two other members have been having similar issues recently. I'll reply properly later, but if it's that wormy thing on the right, that doesn't look like book lice. The little dotty things could be some kind of bug - there are various bugs can hatch out from hay, sprays, hamster food etc. Although the fact they are congregating round the water does hint at booklice yes - from what others have said recently.

So you'll need to do a full cage clean. I wouldn't freeze the bedding anyway - you'll need to get new and replace it all. You can bake some things - wood items (not the ones with glue), cork bark etc. You can freeze other things (food and sprays) for a week. Ceramic or plastic items can be sprayed with white vinegar and then washed in dishwashing soap and water. The enclosure itself needs to be thoroughly cleaned/disinfected. You could use white vinegar spray or small pet disinfectant. Spray is best so you can spray into corners and crevices.

So sorry you're having this. But try and nip it in the bud. What enclosure is your hammy in?

 

[Sam]

Thank you for your reply, it's reassuring that we won't need to freeze her bedding. The little worm thing on the right was not alive and likely a mealworm or something we had scattered for her. It's just a little disheartening because I made sure everything that had gone into her cage was frozen or baked - including her food and toys.

Thank you for your advice on what to do next. I'm going to work on switching out everything this weekend. Should I worry about a reinfestation? Also do you think that I should change out the bowl and just give her water exclusively in bottles? She's a got a bottle and a bowl but the bugs are only by her bowl.

She's currently in the bucatstate 2.0 100x50x52. She's been in there for about 6 months now. Since the enclosure is metal I'm hoping the disinfectant spray would be enough to kill them. She's got two large java wood/aquarium wood pieces in her enclosure, how long should it be baked?

Thank you again for your reply, I'm just really worried about squeaky and her comfort in all this. I'll update as we go about it

 

[Maz]

For baking it's 100 degrees centigrade for about 40 minutes. Any longer than 45 minutes and it could start to smell of burning. So 40 minutes is about right. Technically 30 minutes is ok but I tend to do 40.

There are a couple of other members having a similar thing, and they did come back after cleaning. It's very difficult. If they are book lice they like damp and humidity. The real question is the source of them. One member found a bag of wood chew sticks was full of them and that seemed to have been the source in the first place. So I would treat wood items carefully. Hay can also hatch out mites.

I freeze absolutely everything! Except ceramic or plastic which can be washed with fairy liquid or similar. And except for things which can be baked (eg wood or cork). Any wood houses etc that can't be baked, you could spray with white vinegar (especially into the corner crevices). Leave to stand for an hour or so and then wash them with dish washing soap and rinse and leave them to dry.

Which pet disinfectant do you have?

I would throw away any chew sticks and freeze any other chews or food you might have. Even packs of chewsticks need freezing. I even freeze whimzees.

 

[Amy]

Goodness gracious, I got the itches again sorry to hear of this, hope you get it all sorted out. It must be a nightmare.