# Massive Mite Infestations: A Must Read Thread



## Stylopidae (Jun 13, 2006)

I have a massive mite infestation in my roach colony. It's almost impossible to describe in words and pictures, but here goes:

The pics are kind of bad, but you get the gist of it. The third is a picture of a 10+square foot patch of ground that is covered in mites. Each little ball you see in the pic probably consists of at least five hundred of the buggers.

I'm planning on contacting RIESM in the next 24 hours so they can experiment with them, but I also plan on experimenting with my own cures.

So, if you have an idea of a cheap way of controlling mites that you'd like to see tested, just post it and I'll see what I can do.

I'm talking college-student-going-through-a-bitter-custody-battle-who-just-bought-three-plane-tickets-to-Texas-for-arachnocon cheap.

I'm going to isolate the roaches in the container and quarrantine them next week.

So...enjoy my misfortune and check back often

<edit> apparrently, they're harmless grain mites.

Who cares? I'm still gonna kill them. ;P


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## Stylopidae (Jun 13, 2006)

The first thing I plan to try is tobacco. Nicotine is a potent insecticide and chewing tobacco is well capable of killing friut flies within minutes.

I plan on putting some sort of attractant (dead mealies most likely) in a deli cup sitting on a dish full of pipe tobacco to see if any make it up there. They got in the roach container by climbing the wall of the plastic, so a 1 inch high deli cup should be no problem.

Check back next week when I begin the experiment.


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## swatc1h (Jun 13, 2006)

DAMMM. I see that those brown ones arent harmful but should considered that white ones are. That second reflection pix no i mean colony of mites is crazy


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## Stylopidae (Jun 13, 2006)

They're the brown mites, but they're directly responsible for the death of two hissers. Not an opponent to take lightly.

The ones in my colony had the desency to dye themselves orange.

I'm guessing the same things kill them...so hopefully I can help a few folks out


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## stonemantis (Jun 13, 2006)

I use denatured alcohol and a Q-tip to remove and kill my problematic mites. This works for a few months and then I have to repeat.


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## Stylopidae (Jun 13, 2006)

I think we're waaaaay past the Q-tip, my mantodean friend


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## stonemantis (Jun 13, 2006)

Evil Cheshire said:
			
		

> I think we're waaaaay past the Q-tip, my mantodean friend


LOL, 

New Battle Plan:
I would put the denatured alcohol in an empty Windex spray bottle and spray the infected area and wipe it clean with a paper towel and discard or burn the paper towel. I know it's alot of work but, the above method works for me.


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## OldHag (Jun 13, 2006)

OOOOO I got those in my mealworm cage once!!! I put in a little tupperwear with some fruit in it and they swarmed into it.. there were BILLIONS AND BILLIONS!!!! I finally had to take each worm, beetle and pupae out and rinse them off and start over with a new cage. I dont let it get as moist and now theyre all gone.  
It was insane!!!
I also put the cage in the tub with about 2 inches of water. The mites, or whatever they are, swarmed out to get to the water. Waves of brown things everywhere... Maybe they wernt the same things...


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## BigBryan (Jun 14, 2006)

gasoline and a match this goes for any infestation... a little something i learned back in elementry school


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## Arlius (Jun 14, 2006)

Try various predators while your at it too. I dunno what you can collect around there, but maybe try some pill bugs and see what they do? Then maybe pseudo-scorps? Whatever you can find....


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## rag (Jun 14, 2006)

transfer each and every roach in the collony to a clean habitat, and cleans the habitat... but this could take ages if you havea  huge collony

i dont know if its of use but when i find a bunch of ants and silverfish in my house i spray a 1/2veggiewash and 1/2water mix on them and they die within seconds.

im a noob, but im trying my best to help with my 0.02


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## PINK1081 (Jun 14, 2006)

Have you tried soapy water.  I use that on box elder bugs on my building in the fall when the are clustered.  They are dead in less than a minute with just a squirt of dish soap in 1 gal of water.   Mites are a different type bug but may be worth a try.

Jim


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## Wikkids_Wench (Jun 15, 2006)

Hypoaspis Miles are a predatory mite that can be bought cheaply - we pay £10 for enough mites to cover several acres and certainly enough to protect 70 or so tanks against infestation by white mites!

If you can't get hold of any, take out the roaches, clean as many mites off them as you can, and put them on dry substrate (e.g. newspaper), in as dry an enclosure as possible. Clean the tank with a mild bleach solution, then leave it to stand in the sun - most mites despise sunlight. Then clean the glass over with a flat razor blade to remove eggs. Keep the tank at least a week or two before re-using it (mites have a short breeding/hatching cycle), and keep an eye out for more hatchlings. They hate salt water as well, so if the bleach solution doesn't zap them, try letting some strong salt water stand in the tank for a while before rinsing and drying it thoroughly.


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## springhalen (Jun 15, 2006)

You might want to introduce buffalo worms (_Alphitobius diaperinus_) in your future roach colony. They will eat the same food stuffs as the roaches, without harming the roaches and they will eat the mites. 
Last but not least: they are an excellent food item.
Interesting point about the predatory mites, what happens when they have annihilated the white mites? Will they become a nuisance looking for food or will they just die down?
Best
Flemming Andersen


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## Normski2020uk (Jun 15, 2006)

An infestation that large there is only one option, complete eradication of everything, and unfortunatly that probably means your hissers. I had 3 hissers delived to me with mites, 4 attempts to clean them up, 4 complete clean outs, and destruction of my other feeders colonys, and they were still there. Eventualy it called for drastic measurs to prevent infection of my Scorps, spiders, and mantis. Boiling water, lots of it, bleach, and left to dry naturally. They havent been back since. I do swear by Hyapsis miles, but in this case the infection was to progressed and they couldent cope. Better to loss 3 hissers  and a bunch of crickets that were doomed to be food anyway, than a collony of scorps.


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## ScorpDude (Jun 15, 2006)

I'd be inclined to completely start again if I was you.

If you don't want to do that, use the h.miles mites, keep the enclosure competely dry, then in another month or 2 use them again to make sure the mites are completely gone.


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## Scolopendra55 (Jun 15, 2006)

Thats crazy!! I've yet to see a single mite in any of my 20 T's cages


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## Wikkids_Wench (Jun 16, 2006)

springhalen said:
			
		

> Interesting point about the predatory mites, what happens when they have annihilated the white mites? Will they become a nuisance looking for food or will they just die down?
> Best
> Flemming Andersen


They die off once they have exhausted their food source (the white mites and any other mite or fly eggs or larvae in the tank).


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## Stylopidae (Jun 26, 2006)

I washed out the roach colony, sprinkled a pack of ciggarettes across the rest of the mites and quarranteened the roach colony without food or water.

Then, I disposed of the mealworm colony where I thought the mites were breeding.

I was feeling pretty good about my impending victory over my foes, until I started to clean my house.

I went into my downstairs bathroom, which I never used and almost immediately started yelling curse words.

The mirror was covered in white dots. _Moving_ white dots.

I'VE BEEN COMPROMISED!

I took out the trash and windexed the mirror, but I think they're on the floor.

This gets better and better.


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## aveul (Jun 10, 2008)

Sorry for restarting this thread but...

My 3000+ dubia colony was full of brown mites in 2-3 days!!!

The new enclosure where I have moved them was not ventilated and all at room temp 26 celsius...

In 2 days I have had 20-30 fatalities... all dead roaches full of brown little things eating them...

Now I have moved all roaches in another container, spray all roaches with BETADINE - antiseptic and I have made a huge ventilation and not giving them fruits for some days to see if the mites ar apering again. In 2 days where huge colonies on the floor...

The bad thing is that all my T`s terrariums ar infected now with some white mites... 

Wish me luck and give me some ideeas!


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## Matt K (Jun 11, 2008)

aveul said:


> Sorry for restarting this thread but...
> 
> My 3000+ dubia colony was full of brown mites in 2-3 days!!!
> 
> ...


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## aveul (Jun 11, 2008)

Thanks Matt,

The other mites are white... or I don`t know...

On the eaten roaches are brown mites in the T`s terariums... but on the walls are white ones...

I have a apophysis female big that have moulted last day and on her joints at 2-3 legs are white mites... I tried to take them all but the nasty girl kicked so much hairs that I`m all red from 24 hours... :wall: 

Look here... http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?p=1171450#post1171450

Thanks!


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