Mites, please help!

[Haki1323]

Hi guys, I really need your help. I have mites everywhere! That tiny little white dudes. They are in my roaches box, mealworms, superworms, crickets and fruitflies. Please help me, I don't know what to do. Should I remove everything or is there any possible way to get rid of them. Or will they hurt my feeders or even worse my tarantulas?

 

[The Snark]

Are they covering or are clustered on the animals or just present in the environment and only occasionally seen on a worm or roach? If they appear to be attacking it's extermination time and extreme vigilance is in order observing your specimens for infestation. If they are just present everywhere it's probably grain mites which are harmless. Regardless, the mites are hardier and more prolific than the feeders or specimens you keep.
Eradication of mites can be easily accomplished by placing everything infested in a refrigerator for 30 days (<45 degrees F) or below freezing for 72 hours.

 

[Haki1323]

Are they covering or are clustered on the animals or just present in the environment and only occasionally seen on a worm or roach? If they appear to be attacking it's extermination time and extreme vigilance is in order observing your specimens for infestation. If they are just present everywhere it's probably grain mites which are harmless. Regardless, the mites are hardier and more prolific than the feeders or specimens you keep.
Eradication of mites can be easily accomplished by placing everything infested in a refrigerator for 30 days (<45 degrees F) or below freezing for 72 hours.

Oh okay thank you, they're only on box, I haven't seen them on roaches or worms.

 

[Joogvanhedel]

Get rid of the infested box, just take your loss.. Start that box again fresh..

 

[Haki1323]

Get rid of the infested box, just take your loss.. Start that box again fresh..

Well, I was thinking about it. Still don't know.

 

[Vladaz1]

I heard lemons work or is that only for ants

 

[Greasylake]

Throw out all the substrate, egg crate, food etc. And move your feeders to a new container. Wash the original container with soap and water, rinse thoroughly. Set it back up and move your feeders back. This would reduce the mite population to the point where you probably wont see them for another few months. If it starts getting to pop. explosion levels again just repeat the process. Mites are harmless and wont kill your feeders or your inverts unless they are parasitic, and if they are parasitic then go buy a lottery ticket and contact some mite researchers because you just became a very valuable person to science. You dont need to kill every feeder you own. That's just a waste of feeders and in two or three months you'll be back here wondering what happened, because mites are everywhere, literally everywhere. Even if you nuked your room with one of those bug bombs eventually some eggs would float in, land in some nice and substrate and the mites would be back.

 

[Haki1323]

Throw out all the substrate, egg crate, food etc. And move your feeders to a new container. Wash the original container with soap and water, rinse thoroughly. Set it back up and move your feeders back. This would reduce the mite population to the point where you probably wont see them for another few months. If it starts getting to pop. explosion levels again just repeat the process. Mites are harmless and wont kill your feeders or your inverts unless they are parasitic, and if they are parasitic then go buy a lottery ticket and contact some mite researchers because you just became a very valuable person to science. You dont need to kill every feeder you own. That's just a waste of feeders and in two or three months you'll be back here wondering what happened, because mites are everywhere, literally everywhere. Even if you nuked your room with one of those bug bombs eventually some eggs would float in, land in some nice and substrate and the mites would be back.

Okay thank you so much! I did it with my worms, beetels and I throw away fruitflies because there was too many mites. Hope it will be better. The most problematic spots are cleaned. Thanks!

 

[The Snark]

Bug bombs are next to useless for mites and they don't penetrate where mites can hide.