# Mite like things, but on food, not pede



## Snipes (Jan 30, 2007)

There is a HUGE mass of what at first i though were eggs on some of teh millipedes' food. There are a lot of mite-things, and a few wormy things.
















but they dont seem to be interested in the pedes. :?  THere are a few non-parasitic mites on them but not a huge number. I dont see any tiny mites or any other thing on them. In the pic there are some things on it, but its just substrate, i looked at it through a lumiloupe.


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## cacoseraph (Jan 30, 2007)

those do look like mites. just not vampires. can you see any body parts with your magical device?

the wormy things... fruit fly larva, maybe.  lots of tiny flies make tiny little maggots.


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## Snipes (Jan 30, 2007)

i tried but i cannot get a close up pic . I can tell you they have peach spots though, and look like other mites that i have seen.


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## Galapoheros (Jan 30, 2007)

Nice close-ups!  I'd be really surprised if those aren't the same species I had.  They got all over the fruits and vegetables ....and dead arthro parts.  If I put a dead crick in with them, they'd eat it too.  Caco, you think carrion mites?  Or do carrion mites Only eat carrion?  I'd change the sub and "poof!", they'd be there again in a matter of days.  I noticed they weren't in another cage I had.  I checked that cage and it had tiny Rove beetles in it.  So I put some Roves in the mitey cage and they ate those mites.  I sent some to a few people.  Some said they worked for them and some said they didn't.  They took care of my problem.  Maybe the Roves will eat some mite sp and not others .  Oh yea, look like fruitfly larvae to me.


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## spydrhunter1 (Jan 30, 2007)

The third picture are Diptera larvae (maggots), wouldn't guess at family or species without having a beast in hand. Identification depends on mouth hooks and formation of the spiracles.


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## Galapoheros (Jan 31, 2007)

Snipes said:


> i tried but i cannot get a close up pic . I can tell you they have peach spots though, and look like other mites that i have seen.


I just noticed what you are calling "peach spots".  That's because of what they are eating... that peach colored thing they are on in the pic.  You're just seeing through them to the food inside them they have eaten.  If they were eating honeydew melon, they'd have a green spot .  Pretty sure those are what were in my cage at one point.


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## J Morningstar (Jan 31, 2007)

they actually look like a good culture of the Hyopsis mites. that is at least what mine look like on food in the millipede tank.


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## Snipes (Feb 1, 2007)

J Morningstar said:


> they actually look like a good culture of the Hyopsis mites. that is at least what mine look like on food in the millipede tank.


How would I be able to tell if it is one of them? That would definitely come in handy in the future


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## Galapoheros (Feb 1, 2007)

Do a Google/images search and look at some pics.  Here's a good one.  The bottom one is a Hypoaspis mite.  The adults are more brown than the ones you have in my opinion.  I just don't think the ones in your pics are Hypoaspis.  I sent a pic of some Hypoaspis that are in some of my cages to Biocontrol to find out what they were.  A couple of days later I got an email that said, "Yes, those look like Hypoaspis mites...."  Also, you can send a pic to this guy at A&M:  j-jackman@tamu.edu  He's helped me out allot when it came to IDing stuff.  He'd prob give you someone else's email for the mites though.  I don't think you'd be bothering him, he likes it.  

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...18&ndsp=18&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&as_qdr=all


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## Elytra and Antenna (Feb 1, 2007)

Your first picture contains the common pest mites, usually called grain mites, that everyone has trouble with. That is the free living form. When they run out of food they attach to the inverts in your cage. In the hypopus stage they are less mobile and the body wall hardens and suckers form on the underside.

The larvae picture likely contains maggots of the dark-winged fungus gnats.


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## danread (Feb 1, 2007)

The mites definitely aren't predatory. I second everything that Orin just said!


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## Galapoheros (Feb 1, 2007)

I thought this was a good basic read.

http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th7g.htm


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