hay beetles?

[piggiemummy03x]

hiya! hope everyone and your piggles are okay again, sorry for my inactivity, miss all your piggie pics i was just wondering if anyone has ever found little beetles/ bugs in their hay? they are extremely small, do not seem interested in my girls and we just find them walking around. i check hay that i put in and don’t notice any when i look, i also check my girls over regularly for lice / anything on them and nothing. i am assuming they are from the hay, i get it delivered in boxes. i will try to get a picture when i next see one next but i’m not sure how well it will capture it! thanks all!

 

[Free Ranger]

Sometimes stuff crawls out of hay - especially lovely farm-fresh organic hay - most likely it's crawled in there to hibernate for the cold weather. If piggies are outside I wouldn't worry about them if they're not bothering the girls. If piggies are in-house it can be more of a problem depending on how far they wander.

If you haven't got a cat you can use a household insecticide spray. I use 'Insectrol' for crawling insects. The active ingredient in permethrin which is specifically toxic to cats although not for most other things! Have a google first. It can be simply sprayed around the edge of a room or surface and left to dry - although if it's a piggy room you should ventilate well before returning the pigs and cages (I don't know your set up). It lasts about 2 weeks if I recall. I've used it in the past but I've not let my pigs come into contact with it.

This was actually why we stopped getting the lovely farm-fresh local hay and started to buy it from Pets at Home!

 

[Cheekypigs]

I've never had this issue but I wouldn't be surprised. After all, hay bales are stored in the open so that air can circulate and prevent mould, and if you're in the UK, we've had a very mild autumn/winter so far, meaning insects have survived longer than usual, and now that it is finally cooling down, they will be desperately trying to find somewhere warm to hide.