Help! Thousands of...

[Pokie1]

Little white beasties that look like grains of sand have invaded my T. enclosure. I have always kept the enclosure clean and there is no food in it. I misted it well two days ago and when I woke up this morning, it looked like sand was covering everything-the substrate, the water, everything. Some people talked about crickets eggs, but these eggs are crawling around. I assume they are mites, but I have never seen mites before. How come they sprang up overnight by the thousands? Is this normal?

What should I do? Where did they come from? Will they harm the T.? Should I put my T. in the ICU? How do I clean the T? My T. won't let me bathe em. LOL

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

P.S., Code, I did a search, but am still unsure.

Pokie1

 

[JJJoshua]

I'd say get your T out of there asap. Dump out and clean the entire cage, and get new substrate. Not sure how to clean off T. Hopefully someone else can help with that.

 

[Pheonixx]

what kind of spider is this? If its a cal one and these are mites you best bet is vaseline and q-tips. get the t into a deli cup where its movement is restricted and use the -tips with a little bit of vaseline to "pick up" the mites. doing a thourough job will be difficult and very time consuming, so be ready if there are alot of mites. another option is to make a mite trap. I'm not sure exactly how it's done but if you search for "mite trap" on these boards i know you will find the awnser. But first and foremost get that T out of there, if there are thousands like you say your T is in danger. Good luck

 

[Pokie1]

Okay, I was watching spot and noticed that she was standing up and running her legs back and forth underneath her like playing a violin. So I immediately moved her to a clean, dry and barran Kritter Keeper. Holy cow, the "sand" is moving up the glass. Yikes. My head is starting to itch. :? Anyway, I guess I will bite the bullet and strip down everything. Can I sterilize the log n glass with H2O2. I Don't want to use anything that will harm the spider. I guess I could rince everything off and microwave it. I assume that will kill everything.

Incidently, Spot is an extremely nervous adult A. seemanni. In fact just getting her into the critter keeper took some doing. I have handled her briefly before, but this time she went nuts, turned and just as I pulled my hand away I felt her front legs hit it-almost got me. Obviously 1 "stressed" spider. I do not think she will let me do the Vaseline thing. I don't want to hurt the T. by trying to contain it with it fighting or trying to flee.

Still, how do I clean Spot? I don't think she would want to be microwaved.

Thanks in advance

Pokie1

 

[Nerri1029]

I have a bias agaisnt microwaving..

DO the oven thing..

250F is plenty hot enough to kill anything but should leave everything else alone..

Ever microwave frozen veggies??
some are almost lava temperatures.. while others feel like they just came from the arctic..

So microwaving to sterilize is NOT the way to go in my book..
But then again I have accerss to an autoclave for my needs

121C and 2 atmospheres nothing survives !!

 

[tnguyen]

For the mite trap, Can you use, say an apple or a pear instead of dead bugs? I'm at work, so it would be kind of weird going around the building looking for dead bugs.

 

[Bloodletting]

fruit and veggie

Any piece of fruit will gather the mites but you will never get rid of them that way. You need to start over. Get rid of the substrate, wash the tank--hot water, very hot water-- and just get all new stuff for the inside. I am sure anything that you are using is quite inexpensive so you are better off getting new and not risk reinfesting a clean tank.


I hate mites, hard to get rid of. I now keep my substrate dry in my t tanks and I have not had a problem in over a year. I do get them in my cricket tanks because of the moisture, fruit and dead crickets. Also, check out the tarantula keepers guide, special section on getting rid of mites. They suggest dusting the abdomen of the t with baby powder I believe. My copy is at home, so don't try baby powder til someone confirms or denies.

How wet is your substrate? And did you mention the type of t you have?

Scott

 

[tnguyen]

Any piece of fruit will gather the mites but you will never get rid of them that way. You need to start over. Get rid of the substrate, wash the tank--hot water, very hot water-- and just get all new stuff for the inside. I am sure anything that you are using is quite inexpensive so you are better off getting new and not risk reinfesting a clean tank.


I hate mites, hard to get rid of. I now keep my substrate dry in my t tanks and I have not had a problem in over a year. I do get them in my cricket tanks because of the moisture, fruit and dead crickets. Also, check out the tarantula keepers guide, special section on getting rid of mites. They suggest dusting the abdomen of the t with baby powder I believe. My copy is at home, so don't try baby powder til someone confirms or denies.

How wet is your substrate? And did you mention the type of t you have?

Scott

I have a Chilean Rose. And the substrate is fairly moist on one side and is completely dry on the other, where the T is. The reason for this is because the water dish spilled some water.

 

[Wade]

So microwaving to sterilize is NOT the way to go in my book..

No kidding, I stopped even trying to use the microwave this way after I saw dermestids and ants walking around on wood that had been in there cooking for 15 minutes!

The best defense against mites is keeping a dry cage. There's certainly no need to be misting the substrate, chances are the mites were hiding in the substrate until you provided some surface moisture which encouraged them to come up. In this case, it's probably too late to just let the cage dry (which is a good plan for minor infestations), and a substrate change is in order. You might also want to think about chucking the log to, wood products are notorious for giving mites a place to hide and lay eggs. If you want to save it, an extended period in a big pot of boiling water will do a better job than the microwave. It should then be dried out completely. The cage should be washed and sterilized with a bleach solution, rinsed thouroughly, and be dried before using again.

The mites in question here are probably either grain mites (who hitch rides on crickets) or soil mites (who were probably living in the substrate to begin with). When conditions are right (moisture combined with food) the population can explode. The good news is that neither are really parasites in that they don't feed on the T's themselves but are instead feeding on whatever organic material they find in the cage, from prey remains to moist substrate. The bad news is they can still cause problems for tarantulas if enough of them accumulate on the spider to block the book lungs or other orifices. Plus, they agitate the spider to no end, causing stress.

A mite trap is nothing more than a small, closed container like a film canister with small holes poked in it (to allow mites to enter but to prevent the spider fom exploring) and a dead insect sinside. The mites are attracted to the dead insect and away from the spider. Using the trap inside an ICU might be an effective way to get the mites off the spider itself.

Or you could skip all that and order predatory mites (Hypoaspis sp.) from www.biconet.com . These mites prey on other mites and are a great way ro rid a cage of pest mites. After doing their job, they die off. It's more expensive than the other methods, but much, much, much less labor intensive.

Wade

 

[luther]

Pokie, these sound more like cricket babies than mites. Either way you can fairly easily deal with them by cleaning out the tank and replacing the substrate with a 100% dry version. Your A.seemani will tollerate a completely dry tank, at least for long enough to establish that the invaders are gone. Baby crickets would die in a couple of days in a dry tank, and mites won't survive long in those conditions either.

Don't try to keep the old substrate. Wash the tank out well with a mild detergent and rinse VERY thouroughly.

Check nearby potted plants for mites. You don't want to cross contaminate after cleaning out the tank.

I maintain an inch or two of bone dry surface substrate in my seemani's tank. I allow her to burrow into the deeper, damp substrate underneath, to regulate her own humidity. This helps to minimise the chances of an infestation.

 

[Pokie1]

Moisture n sterilizing

Well, as for my enclosure, I saw it was down to 65% so I immediately misted the whole thing and overfilled the water bowl on the warm side of the tank. The humididty jumped up to 90 and the temp 75. Two days later-mite city. I just ordered my copy of the T. keepers guide, but BnN said it's a week away. So, in the meantime, any ideas about cleaning Spot like the "baby powder" will be good. I would need to just dust her with it, cuz she is not gunna hold still for me to flip her over.

Okay, as for the log, I washed it with hot water, then poured the hydrogen peroxide on it, let it stand for a bit, washed it again, microwaved it (wow the house smells like woodshop now) and then, reading that microwaving is not the best, put it in the oven to bake. If there is anything left alive in there, I would be truly suprised. LOL

I just bit it and went and bought a whole new, small, setup (5.5 Gal.) with all new substrate, guages, etc. I even got a "spider" plant for the spider cage. I figured that the Spot will have to spend less time in that little critter keeper that way and now I can clean and reuse the other one for my next T. I am thinking OBT.

 

[Pokie1]

luther, I thought they might be baby crickets at first too, but I have never seen baby crickets or mites. Since they did not hop, but crawled, I thought mites. If they were crickets, I coulda let them grow, gather them up and buy a sling or two. Doh! LOL

Hey, thanks to everyone who responded. :clap:

Pokie1

 

[Wade]

I think you worry a little too much over the humidity issue. Tarantulas will let you know if they want more humidity, often they will stradle the water bowl, or fill it with dirt. If you really think the humidity is too low, DON'T mist, as this is probably what led to the mite explosion in the first place. A better way to create a high humidity environment is to offer a water bowl with a large surface area (like an 8 oz deli cup) and then cover 1/2 to 3/4 of the lid with plastic wrap. Water evaporating from the bowl will create high humidity even if the substrate is dry. This is amuch healthier arrangement than damp, mite-friendly substrate.

Wade

 

[Pheonixx]

the oven thing

I have found i can cook things in the oven at 400 degrees without problems. Alot of the wood i get comes from the woods behind my house. I cook all of it at 400 degrees for about 30 mins. I suggest keeping watch on it and using a towel or something when you take it out cause it will be hott. Oh yeah and it makes the house smell good too. I would not try this with anything plastic...bad idea LOL

 

[Hoffy]

Pokie I was wondering, what are you using for substrate?

 

[Catherine]

I'd get rid of the substrate and completly clean the inside of the tank and accessories, as has been suggested.
Apparently you can make a neat little mite trap using a film pot and some vasiline. Just make lots of pin holes around the side of the pot, stick a dead cricket inside and smear the inside with vasiline. I've never tried it, but the mites go in for the cricket and Bam! get stuck the vasiline. Sounds like you have too many for this. I'd just give the tank a really good clean.
Also letting the tank dry out from time to time is supposed to keep infestations down.
As for your T, I only know about wiping them off with a paintbrush or similiar. But I've read you can fridge your tarantula for a short while to slow and calm it down. As to how long for, I've no idea, I'm not sure about fridging them, but others have tried it and seems to work. But I don't know how long you are supposed to do it. I don't want you to end up hurting your spider. Maybe someone else on here knows.

Good luck.

 

[Pokie1]

Mites

Lets see, I am using Bed-a-Beast as a substrate. After I set up a new enclosure and moved my T., I went back and decided to see how to kill the little creeps in the old enclosure. Using the "dry it out" and "heat" ideas from this forum, I turned a couple of large incandescent bulbs and a fan on it and went for a drive. When I returned a few hours later, there was not a trace of the little buggers. I don't know how warm it got, but too hot to touch. And the substrate was bone dry down about an inch or a bit more. I am going to change out the substrate, clean and dry the tank and then think about getting that OBT.

Spot seems to be no worse for wear, and is enjoying his new home. I decided to head the "no misting" advice. I was still concerned about humididty so I added a small, potted plant to the enclosure (set above the substrate) I figure this will give a bit of "native element" for the spider too. Then I added a water dish and a few ornamental rocks. The enclosure looks a lot better-more like a "natural" environment, I think.

Thanks again, everyone.

Pokie1