# What are these white things??? Mites??



## grayhound (Mar 17, 2011)

I found these little white bugs of some sort in two of my T's water dishes tonight while doing maintaince..... One was my adult OBT, which stays around 60 - 65 % humidity.  The other was one of my Cobalt Blues which is always at least 80% humidity.  These two tanks are on opposite ends of my T room, and there are no other tanks that have them.... I know that they are bugs because a bunch were floating in the water, and some were crawling around the water dish outside.  There are NOT any crawling on the glass, lid, or spider.  I can't see any in the substrate.  They are SUPER small, and kinda look like a grain of rice, but WAAAAYYY smaller....  I am always really good about removing carcasses.....

I have been collecting T's for less than one year, and I saw this one time before.... It was with my Fireleg about 5 months ago.  That time, I just cleaned out the water dish, and made sure that there were no feeder carcasses anywhere, and replaced the water dish back where it was.  I haven't seen any in there since....

I am terrified that it might be mites, but also have read about small white bugs that are NOT harmful to T's.  I want to get this fixed right away!!!  Please anyone.....  What are these?  What can I do to make sure they are all gone?  What do I do to ensure that it is not a problem in the future?

Thanks in advance for any help and info!!!

Here is a picture...


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## Shea (Mar 17, 2011)

Sure it's not spider poo?

... Nvm about the poo


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## Royal_T's (Mar 17, 2011)

Are they pin-head crickets? I've put adult female crickets in with my larger tarantulas and in the short time they were in there they laid eggs... I thought mites at first too but after looking closer I noticed they were crickets and a majority of them were found dead in the water bowl.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## grayhound (Mar 17, 2011)

*maybe*



Royal_T's said:


> Are they pin-head crickets? I've put adult female crickets in with my larger tarantulas and in the short time they were in there they laid eggs... I thought mites at first too but after looking closer I noticed they were crickets and a majority of them were found dead in the water bowl.


I guess maybe they could be..... Are they that small?  I have bought pinheads plenty of times, and have never saw one this small, however I have never seen freshly hatched or born crickets besides the pinheads that you buy from pet stores.  These almost look like a speck of drywall dust or something..... until I notice that the ones that aren't IN the water dish yet, are MOVING!!  I can't stress enough how microscopic these are.... which is why I thought mites.

I am 100% positive that these are living things...... when I look really close, I can see them crawling on the outside of the water dish, and until they drown, I can see them swimming in the water too.  You have to look really hard and close to even see that they are moving, but I am positive of it.

Also, upon discovering these, I cleaned the water dish, refilled it, and then replaced it.  I just went and checked after about two hours.  There are a few more in BOTH dishes, but not nearly as many as when I discovered it.


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## Spiderdan24 (Mar 17, 2011)

Springtails. Harmless to Ts an they keep the substrate clean


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## JamieC (Mar 17, 2011)

Spiderdan24 said:


> Springtails. Harmless to Ts an they keep the substrate clean


Yep, you've got springtails. No need to remove them, they are beneficial. I purposely add them to nearly all my enclosures. They eat mold/fungus.

They are white in colour and measure up to 4mm. They typically gather in masses in water bowls and can jump great distances.

Jamie


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## Spiderdan24 (Mar 17, 2011)

Nothing to worry about at all matey


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## Hamburglar (Mar 17, 2011)

If you start to see them bloom too much you can cut back on the numbers by letting the enclosure dry out a bit.  OBT's seem to like it dry anyway.


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## Querx (Mar 17, 2011)

I had the same thing in my P.Cambridge and H.Lividum enclosures. They are springtails which are harmless but if you do want to be rid of them then simply change the substrate and they will be gone. Worked for me anyway. Remember that you dont have to get rid of them as they can be beneficial.


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## grayhound (Mar 17, 2011)

*Whew!!!!*



Thank you everybody!!!!  I don't think I even got any sleep last night because I was :barf: to my stomach all night worrying about mites and how fun it would be to get rid of them.....  I was REALLY hoping they were springtails.......  Should I clean the floaters out of the water dishes right away?.... or are they ok for a day or two? ( I clean and give fresh water to ALL of my T's almost every day anyway, but sometimes I can't EVERY day.)

During my insomnia / worrying last night, I evicted my OBT from her hide, and did some cleaning / investigating.... There was a shedskin that she had balled and webbed up at the bottom.  It was definately OLD, and looked like it could've been the cause of them?  Don't springtails feed on  cricket carcasses and shedskins and whatnot?

Thanks for the responses..... I feel MUCH better now!!!


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## Spiderdan24 (Mar 17, 2011)

They can swim so they should be alive.they feed off food waste and mold and even poo.


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## Mez (Mar 17, 2011)

If they're the little white mites, they will have a very large round sbdonen for their size.


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## grayhound (Mar 17, 2011)

Mez said:


> If they're the little white mites, they will have a very large round sbdonen for their size.


They DO NOT have large abdomens..... They literally look like MICROSCOPIC grains of rice...... that crawl.

I have done more research, and talked to a few local T enthusiast where I live and everyone is reassuring me that they are springtails......


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## esotericman (Mar 17, 2011)

Collembola come in many species, an none of them are of any threat to any tarantula.  Mites come in thousands of species and only a tiny percentage are even remotely a problem for tarantulas.


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## JamieC (Mar 17, 2011)

I use Folsomia candida. Very good for controlling fungal or mould growth.

Jamie


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## ZergFront (Mar 17, 2011)

Collembola as others have said. Usually tarantula poop sinks. 

 I used to just rinse them all out but now I just dump most of them into my Josh's Frogs collembola colony that feeds my baby Batrachoseps.


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