# Soil centipedes=mite control



## super-pede (Jun 10, 2010)

I have been using soil centipedes for about a month now in a old 2.5 gal tank that is(was) over run(1000's) with mites.
What I did was collect around 100 of them and just plopped them in the tank that had the mites and the number of mites is down to maybe 100-200 mites.
The centipedes reproduce faster than I thought (I have around 300 of them in there now ) and I am wondering if this  way of controlling mites has been attempted by anyone else here and if so was it succesful.they also eat small nematodes that were in the substrate as well.


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## whitewolf (Jun 10, 2010)

Interesting. Are you keeping them with anything in the tank. Has it harmed it at all. I was a little surprised when I was sitting on my butt filling up 400 water balloons for the kids the other day and thought a fire ant bit me. Stood up and it was about a 1/2 soil centipede... wow I didn't know they bit but apparently they will if you sit your fat butt on them. It stung a little but didn't really hurt, no mark, and forgot all about it after a couple minutes.


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## super-pede (Jun 10, 2010)

The ones I was using wouldn't be able to harm anything larger than a egg-with-leggs.the tank that I started the experiment in didn't have any thing in it.I am using them in a communal polymorpha setup (that I have a uncomfortable amount of mites in) at the moment and it is going quite well.The soil pedes have been in there for a week now and already the mite count has gone down by at least 30%.

-*S-P*


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## Galapoheros (Jun 10, 2010)

You think they are a common sp of grain mite we have in the hobby?  Those mites can appear to disappear if there is nothing for them to eat by going into a dormant, immobile stage.  What if you threw a dead roach in there(?)  It wouldn't surprise me though if they do eat those nasty mites and I had no idea they could multiply so fast.  So they don't bother each other?


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## super-pede (Jun 10, 2010)

Galapoheros said:


> You think they are a common sp of grain mite we have in the hobby?  Those mites can appear to disappear if there is nothing for them to eat by going into a dormant, immobile stage.  What if you threw a dead roach in there(?)  It wouldn't surprise me though if they do eat those nasty mites and I had no idea they could multiply so fast.  So they don't bother each other?


The the soil-pedes don't eat each other for some reason.I'm not sure what species of mite we have in the hobby but the soil-pedes will eat any thing smaller than they are except for there own species it seems.


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## super-pede (Jun 11, 2010)

bumperdoodle


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## Malhavoc's (Jun 12, 2010)

I would begin by experimenting with a ommon used tarantula that can survive in high humidity honestly its the best way to find out if it would work or not, perhaps try it on a moist roach? a hisser colony? various things to start?


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## cacoseraph (Jul 1, 2010)

do you mean soil centipedes (geophilomorpha) or stone centipedes (lithobiomorpha?)?  soil centipedes have super in curved fangs and usually eat snails and very soft bodied prey.  some stoners are the most aggressive feeders, for their size, i have seen.

i'd be kind of surprised if either order actually eats mites or the small wormthings that crop up in cages. possibly possibly the low instar babies might, but even though i kind of don't think so.  both orders should clean up leftovers from much larger predators, though.

this is a soil centipede:





hi res http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/centipede/local/geo/CPP_Geophilo_GBRH01_01b.jpg


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