My rose hair moult this past saturday night/sunday morning. I pulled her out tonight to take a look at her size ect. Upon looking at her I happened to notice small bugs crawling on her carapace. they are tanish almost white in color. they move relativly slow and are about the size of a pin head. They were crawling in and out of the small opening on the carapace sorry not sure of the proper term for that Im by no means an expert. I have since incubated her from the other Ts and will examine the rest. I have put her in a small enclosure with paper towels. If anyone has any tips or ideas they will be greatly appriciated thanks.
Urgent mites on T????
- Thread starter BigDaddyJ
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How are you keeping your T?
First I would remove the T like you have, second clean out the enclosure, boil any decorations, put what you can't boil in the oven and toast them what ever you can't salvage those ways toss.
Reset up the enclosure.
Third don't put the T back in its enclosure till the mites are gone off of it, if they will come off of it. Get another container to put it in every few days like the first you set up alternating back and forth while you clean out one so it lives in the other.
First I would remove the T like you have, second clean out the enclosure, boil any decorations, put what you can't boil in the oven and toast them what ever you can't salvage those ways toss.
Reset up the enclosure.
Third don't put the T back in its enclosure till the mites are gone off of it, if they will come off of it. Get another container to put it in every few days like the first you set up alternating back and forth while you clean out one so it lives in the other.
You "incubated" your tarantula? Somehow I suspect you meant that you isolated her.
In any case - as has been mentioned here many times before - there are many, many kinds of mites and the vast majority of them do not pose a threat to your tarantula.
However, just in case (and maybe just because they are unattractive and unappealing), you should probably take steps to get rid of the offending mites. Isolating her as you've already done is a good first step. (But don't incubate her.
) If the paper towels are very slightly damp, the mites may be drawn to them. Change them frequently (maybe once a day for the next few days) and watch your tarantula. That by itself may do the job. If so, you can eventually set the tarantula up in a regular cage again after it's been "clean" for a while.
Lithiumflower's suggestions for disinfecting the cage and components would certainly work. Seems like a bit of an overkill to me - but effective and it will probably give you peace of mind. What may be more helpful is to try to figure out what allowed the mite population to develop in the first place. Damp cage or substrate would be my first suspicion. Abundant food for detritus-eating mites also comes to mind (lots of leftover cricket parts from earlier food offerings, etc.). I just dealt with a mite infestation in a cricket tank that I blame on both of the above conditions (substituting plant material for cricket parts, though). The mites were harmless to the crickets, but terribly unappealing. So I emptied the tank, hosed it out and let it set out in the desert sun for a couple hours. New substrate, new crickets and better conditions will do the job. At least until the cage gets dirty enough again.
In any case - as has been mentioned here many times before - there are many, many kinds of mites and the vast majority of them do not pose a threat to your tarantula.
However, just in case (and maybe just because they are unattractive and unappealing), you should probably take steps to get rid of the offending mites. Isolating her as you've already done is a good first step. (But don't incubate her.
) If the paper towels are very slightly damp, the mites may be drawn to them. Change them frequently (maybe once a day for the next few days) and watch your tarantula. That by itself may do the job. If so, you can eventually set the tarantula up in a regular cage again after it's been "clean" for a while.Lithiumflower's suggestions for disinfecting the cage and components would certainly work. Seems like a bit of an overkill to me - but effective and it will probably give you peace of mind. What may be more helpful is to try to figure out what allowed the mite population to develop in the first place. Damp cage or substrate would be my first suspicion. Abundant food for detritus-eating mites also comes to mind (lots of leftover cricket parts from earlier food offerings, etc.). I just dealt with a mite infestation in a cricket tank that I blame on both of the above conditions (substituting plant material for cricket parts, though). The mites were harmless to the crickets, but terribly unappealing. So I emptied the tank, hosed it out and let it set out in the desert sun for a couple hours. New substrate, new crickets and better conditions will do the job. At least until the cage gets dirty enough again.
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There are a HUGE amount of mite species. Only some of them are harmful to tarantulas. Some species will only be an annoyance. Some species can kill your entire collection. You can magnify them and try to identify them online.
You can clean extensively with 10% bleach solution and rehouse, doing this every few days indefinitely. (Make sure bleach is rinse off well and dried completely!) The best option though, in my opinion, is to do the cleaning asap, and call and order Hypoaspis miles mites. It will take about a week and a half to get them usually, and they will cost around $50 with shipping.
They won't live in dry cages, but should be able to go anywhere the bad ones do. Hope it all goes well. Ryan
You can clean extensively with 10% bleach solution and rehouse, doing this every few days indefinitely. (Make sure bleach is rinse off well and dried completely!) The best option though, in my opinion, is to do the cleaning asap, and call and order Hypoaspis miles mites. It will take about a week and a half to get them usually, and they will cost around $50 with shipping.
They won't live in dry cages, but should be able to go anywhere the bad ones do. Hope it all goes well. Ryan
Thanks for the help guys. Got home today after leaving my rose hair in a quarantined enclosure with dry paper towels and didnt see any on her. Im going to keep her in there for a day or two to be sure. I did look through the rest of my Ts and they all seem to be fine thank goodness. I am going to disinfect the rose hair enclosure and go from there. By the way for the record I did mean isolate not incubate.:wall: :wall:
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There nothing to worry about.Put her on new dry substrate and thay will be
gone in a few days.The only problem is that you will kill the mites but you
wont kill the eggs.Once the mite eggs get some moisture again thay will hatch
and you can get them again.So it might be better to keep your T on dry substrate
with a water dish.If she has mites on her body.Then she has mite eggs on her
body.That why thay come back so easy.So you either got to cut off there food
supply.That mean you can't leave dead insects or pieces of dead insects in her
container.Or cut off there water supply.Thats why you put her on a dry substrate.
gone in a few days.The only problem is that you will kill the mites but you
wont kill the eggs.Once the mite eggs get some moisture again thay will hatch
and you can get them again.So it might be better to keep your T on dry substrate
with a water dish.If she has mites on her body.Then she has mite eggs on her
body.That why thay come back so easy.So you either got to cut off there food
supply.That mean you can't leave dead insects or pieces of dead insects in her
container.Or cut off there water supply.Thats why you put her on a dry substrate.
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