# Are these mites?



## UralOwl (Jun 5, 2012)

I should probably start off by saying that I've seen these 'mites' long before I started getting tarantulas (only got into the hobby earlier this year). They are tiny little white specks, they actually look like dandruff that moves, though they often look very dark brown or black when against a light background, like a computer monitor that's switched on. They literally get everywhere: Before I had Ts, I would often see them on books, furniture, household objects and they would even find ways of getting in-between my LCD computer screen. I used to think they were just dead pixels on the monitor, until they started to crawl around.
I'll sometimes spot one walking on my mobile phone screen from time to time as well.

I live in the UK and normally see them in the late summer and autumn. I've been living at my current house for 3 years now and started to spot them around 2 years ago.
Anyway, getting to the point... I noticed a bunch of tiny white dots littered across the lid of my G.rosea's enclosure earlier. I assumed at first that it might have just been dust, but when I looked closer, they were moving. I managed to wipe most of them off with a cloth, but I'm a bit worried that they're on my tarantula's cage. I have no idea if they're inside the cage as well, though my rosea seems to be perfectly fine and is acting normally (which is sitting in one spot for hours on end doing nothing, lol).
I haven't noticed any other swarms on any of my other T's enclosures, though I did spot two lone bugs on the lid of my B.boehmei's enclosure.

Does anyone know what these bugs might be and are they possibly mites? I've tried searching for this, though I can't seem to find anything. That said, I don't really know what keywords to search with in this case.


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## syndicate (Jun 5, 2012)

Sounds like woodlice to me and if so they are completely harmless.Some people actually add tropical species of woodlice to there tanks which act as tiny clean up crews eating any left behind waste.
-Chris


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## Curious jay (Jun 5, 2012)

I think I have the same thing your referring too in one of my true spiders setups, I believe they are mites just non-parasitic mites. As I'm yet to them on any of my true spiders.

I don't believe your referring to woodlice either, being that English woodlice are pretty large and are easily recognisable even as young.

Mites are everywhere it's the ones that appear on the softer areas of your T you gotta look out for (they desiccate quickly in dry conditions so if your worried and have no specific humidity requirements on any of your Ts just let the tanks dry out and just provide a water dish).


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## UralOwl (Jun 6, 2012)

Curious jay said:


> I think I have the same thing your referring too in one of my true spiders setups, I believe they are mites just non-parasitic mites. As I'm yet to them on any of my true spiders.
> 
> I don't believe your referring to woodlice either, being that English woodlice are pretty large and are easily recognisable even as young.
> 
> Mites are everywhere it's the ones that appear on the softer areas of your T you gotta look out for (they desiccate quickly in dry conditions so if your worried and have no specific humidity requirements on any of your Ts just let the tanks dry out and just provide a water dish).


I haven't seen any of the mites on any of my Ts yet either, so fingers crossed they're 'good' mites.

Agreed, they don't look anything like any woodlouse I've ever seen.

The only humidity my adult tarantulas get are their water dishes which are refilled or changed whenever they get shallow or dirty. I only give humidity to my slings since they're too small for a bottle cap water dish at the moment. I mist one side of their containers usually every 2 or so days.

I noticed some of the 'mites' both on the outside and inside of my B.vagans sling's jar this morning, which has made me all the more worried. The sling seems fine from what I can tell, but it molted just yesterday and the exoskeleton still looks quite soft.


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## bigwurmb (Jun 6, 2012)

Sounds like a type of springtail. I've put them in my T enclosures to eat the Ts left overs. They eat certain fungus and ballus(sp?). And help things stay cleaned up.  They seem to like water, sence their constantly in the water bowl.

But examine your T just incase its something else. And from what I've seen, they only thrive in warm humid conditions, like 9 of my 10 setups.


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## UralOwl (Jun 6, 2012)

bigwurmb said:


> Sounds like a type of springtail. I've put them in my T enclosures to eat the Ts left overs. They eat certain fungus and ballus(sp?). And help things stay cleaned up.  They seem to like water, sence their constantly in the water bowl.
> 
> But examine your T just incase its something else. And from what I've seen, they only thrive in warm humid conditions, like 9 of my 10 setups.


I just want to add that I've noticed a bunch of them inside my G.rosea's enclosure now as well, though still can't spot any on the tarantula itself. 

I fed her earlier and changed the water dish (didn't spot any mites in there). I might try and pick her up later after she's eaten her cricket to get a better look at her underside, though I have to admit I am worried about stressing out the T.


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## Curious jay (Jun 6, 2012)

UralOwl said:


> I just want to add that I've noticed a bunch of them inside my G.rosea's enclosure now as well, though still can't spot any on the tarantula itself.
> 
> I fed her earlier and changed the water dish (didn't spot any mites in there). I might try and pick her up later after she's eaten her cricket to get a better look at her underside, though I have to admit I am worried about stressing out the T.


I may or may not be correct here, but if they're thriving in dry environments and not in the water bowl they may just be dust mites. Is the area you keep your Ts dusty at all? 

I think the main source of parasitic mites are the ones that 'piggyback' on feeder bugs, but I could be wrong.

But if your talking about the same things I'm talking about they're definatley a type of mite, maybe some more experienced people can chime in.

Situations like this generally call for pictures, due to their size it's very difficult to get a good picture of them without some kind of microscope camera.


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## UralOwl (Jun 6, 2012)

Curious jay said:


> I may or may not be correct here, but if they're thriving in dry environments and not in the water bowl they may just be dust mites. Is the area you keep your Ts dusty at all?
> 
> I think the main source of parasitic mites are the ones that 'piggyback' on feeder bugs, but I could be wrong.
> 
> ...


I keep it next to my bed and admittedly, it is dusty underneath my bed since I never bother to clean it out (it's not like anyone ever looks under my bed, lol). Other than that, I normally wipe the small drawer it's on whenever I notice dust.

I'm afraid I can't get a photo of them since I haven't got a good camera, especially not one that can take microscopic pictures. I can only describe them: They just look like little white pinpricks that move upon closer inspection.

I picked up my Chilean Rose earlier to inspect her body and she seems just fine. I couldn't see any of the mites on her what so ever and I looked long and hard. Thankfully I didn't seem to 'traumatise' my T too much by pinch grabbing her; she started grooming herself a couple of minutes after putting her back in her enclosure as if nothing had happened.
Either way, I am still a bit worried about the 'mites' as I don't know if they pose any kind of threat. Since I've seen them live inside my computer screen and books before though, I don't think they have any intention of wanting to live on an animal, hopefully.


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## Curious jay (Jun 6, 2012)

Well here's a good page to read just for general purposes of being ready incase the worst does happen. I read this before I got my Ts I come across when I was researching 'hazardous' situations that could possibly arise.

Edit: LOL forgot the link my bad. 

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html


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## UralOwl (Jun 6, 2012)

Curious jay said:


> Well here's a good page to read just for general purposes of being ready incase the worst does happen. I read this before I got my Ts I come across when I was researching 'hazardous' situations that could possibly arise.
> 
> Edit: LOL forgot the link my bad.
> 
> http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html


Thanks for the link, very informative.

I just noticed a couple of the mites on my keyboard as well (and my computer is kept in a separate room from my tarantulas) so I'm still all the confused as to what they are exactly.
I'll continue to check my Ts daily and see if I can spot any of the mites crawling on any of them, though I haven't as of yet and all my Ts are behaving as they always have done. They're not showing any kinds of stress and from what I've read, mites usually tend to cause tarantulas a great deal of stress.
So fingers crossed that the mites are harmless, though I can't deny that I'm still a bit concerned.

P.S. They're definitely not springtails by the way, they don't jump and they look much smaller than springtails (less than 1mm).


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## Storm76 (Jun 7, 2012)

If those -are- mites, it would mean your G. rosea tank is too moist, actually. Mites need moisture and hide in the first 1"-2" of susbtrate usually, where they reproduce. They commonly come out at nighttime and can be seen crawling around on the substrate then. To get rid of them, I'd do the following (it worked for me three times this way):

a) Get the T out of the tank.

b) throw away the whole substrate in the tank, including any and all decorations (plastic plants are cheap)!

c) Clean the cage thouroughly! Don't forget the lid...

d) Set the cage up again with FRESH substrate (DRY! since it's a G. rosea they only need a waterdish!)

e) Put the T back into the enclosure and check on it the upcoming nights if you see anything moving...

In case the T is close to a molt and the mites are already on it, try if you can rehouse it a day right after it molted (VERY carefully since it'll be still soft!) to avoid having the T getting infested with mites. Another method would be to pinch-grab the T and carefully brushing off the mites (use a soft, thin paintbrush)...

That's what I can tell you...pictures however would help (of the tank and those things you recon maybe being mites)


EDIT: Forgot to mention - until you are SURE that those are NOT mites (or you got rid of them) put that enlcosure into another room!!! Away from your other Ts...


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## UralOwl (Jun 7, 2012)

Storm76 said:


> If those -are- mites, it would mean your G. rosea tank is too moist, actually. Mites need moisture and hide in the first 1"-2" of susbtrate usually, where they reproduce. They commonly come out at nighttime and can be seen crawling around on the substrate then. To get rid of them, I'd do the following (it worked for me three times this way):
> 
> a) Get the T out of the tank.
> 
> ...


My G.rosea's enclosure is kept bone dry with just a water dish which is refilled whenever it gets shallow, so I'm not sure how it can be too moist. The same goes with my other adult Ts since they're mostly just Brachypelmas anyway.

Thanks for the info, though I have already cleaned the tank out once and it didn't seem to help. As I said, I've seen these 'mites' swarming on book covers as well, so I don't think they're looking for moisture.
I have tried getting photos of them, but I only have the crappy camera that's on my cell phone and the photos often come out unfocused and blurred. I know no one is really going to know what they might be without photos, but that can't really be helped at the moment until I eventually get a very good digital camera.


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## Storm76 (Jun 7, 2012)

Have you ever witnessed them ON your T's at all? On their substrate or a film of white stuff in the water of the waterdish? Especially the latter would point to mites, as they usually drown in the waterdish which leaves that white film. 
If nothing of that applies, I wouldn't be too worried, as they might just be booklice...


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## UralOwl (Jun 7, 2012)

Storm76 said:


> Have you ever witnessed them ON your T's at all? On their substrate or a film of white stuff in the water of the waterdish? Especially the latter would point to mites, as they usually drown in the waterdish which leaves that white film.
> If nothing of that applies, I wouldn't be too worried, as they might just be booklice...


I haven't noticed any on my G.rosea and I've pinch grabbed her to check her underside, nothing that I could see crawling around there either. The 'mites' normally seem to crawl around the outside of the lid on the enclosure, though I sometimes see them crawling around the glass both on the outside and inside of the enclosure. I have occasionally seen them on the substrate, but they seem to crawl around the edges next to the glass and don't seem to stay on the coco fibre for too long each time.
I cleaned out the T's water dish a day or two ago since she had kicked some of the substrate into the dish. While I was cleaning it, I didn't notice any white specks in the water or any where else on the dish.

Hopefully it isn't anything to worry about then, but obviously I can't help but be a bit concerned. I don't want my Ts being nibbled on by mites.


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## Storm76 (Jun 7, 2012)

My simple suggestion then would be to place the enclosure somewhere else, as I don't think those are mites you're describing, but indeed boocklice.


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## Bill S (Jun 7, 2012)

Curious jay said:


> Mites are everywhere it's the ones that appear on the softer areas of your T you gotta look out for (they desiccate quickly in dry conditions so if your worried and have no specific humidity requirements on any of your Ts just let the tanks dry out and just provide a water dish).


Mites are indeed everywhere.  But not all are averse to dry conditions.  My wife works with mites, especially with predatory soil surface mites.  Some of the varieties she has captured and documented are found on the surface of rocks during mid-day in hot weather here in the Sonoran Desert.  Conditions that would kill many tarantulas, but that these mites thrive in.


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## UralOwl (Jun 8, 2012)

I have to admit that I'm a lot more worried today: I was refilling the water dish to my Aphonopelma sp. "New River" and noticed a lot of the mites have somehow found their way to her enclosure now (she's kept in a different place). They were crawling over the cage walls, some on the substrate and there were LOADS around the water dish. None that were actually in the water from what I could see, but there were quite a lot of them around the sides by the looks of it. I did also notice two lone ones crawling on the feet/legs of my spider, but I didn't notice any on her underside when I pinch grabbed her and they didn't seem to have much intention of crawling on her, the two lone mites probably accidently walked onto her feet when crawling on the sub.

There also seems to be a lot more in with my G.rosea today, all over her hide, though still none on the water dish. There were no mites on her though when I checked.

I've already moved the enclosures, but it looks like the mites have found their way to the other room now as well. I'm certain they're probably in with my other Ts as well, but I haven't checked their enclosures yet.
Fingers crossed they are just booklice, but the fact that they're in with one of my other Ts now and on the water dish has made me a lot more concerned.

Edit: Just checked on my G.rosea again and did notice quite a few mites on one of her legs, as well as a few lone ones on some of her other legs and abdomen. I think she probably got them because she was sitting on top of her hide where the mites were swarming for about an hour. I've decided to push her down with a paint brush and she didn't seem to protest. She walked a few inches forward and has been sitting on the substrate for a while now.
Anyway, the fact that there are actually quite a few mites ON my tarantula this time, I have to admit that I'm on the verge of panicking, lol.
I just don't know what to do, I've cleaned her enclosure out once and they've come back. Not to mention I've also moved all of my T enclosures. There just doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of these mites.


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