Mites in enclosure. Help?

[Hyeniik]

Hello!

So, I just noticed my B. Vagans has mites in her enclosure...yeah.
It´s my fault because when I was filling her water dish, I overfilled it by accident.. a lot. I was hoping it will just dry and will be okay, but I was wrong.

There isn´t many of them, but it makes me really anxious. I have no new substrate at the moment, and would take few days to get my hands on new one.

So, I´m thinking: Can I just scoop all of the old substrate out and bake it on really high tempreature, about 250C? Would it kill all the mites and make the substrate sterile?

It tears my heart having to destroy all of her webbing, but I don´t want my baby to have mites in her home.

 

[EulersK]

Don't bother doing anything at all. Mites are harmless unless you have an absolute infestation. Mites are actually beneficial, they're a free cleanup crew.

As a side note, B. vagans can be kept on bone dry substrate, but they do prefer some humidity. Overfill that water dish more often

 

[Venom1080]

The tarantula keepers guide strikes again..

 

[KezyGLA]

Nothing wrong with moisture in a vagans enclosure. They thrive in it to an extent.

Try to remove half munched or uneaten prey asap to avoid pests in moist enclosures.

If it is crazy number of mites, remove specimen and put in completely dry temporary enclosure then remake the permanent one once dumped the old sub and cleaned it.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Can I just scoop all of the old substrate out and bake it on really high tempreature, about 250C? Would it kill all the mites and make the substrate sterile?

No point in doing this, just primes the substrate as a breeding ground for mould/bacteria, most mites are harmless (they just eat mould and decaying organic matter) unless you end up with a gargantuan infestation of them.

If you really don't want them around then you can either let the enclosure dry out (kills the mites as they have no drought tolerance) or you can add springtails (these outcompete the mites for food), keeping up with spot cleaning (picking out boluses etc.) helps keep the numbers down too.