# Grain mite infestation in my dubia colony



## Roblicious (Jul 10, 2012)

I was rounding up some roaches to feed to my scorpions and I noticed some 'powder' on the walls and on the floor of the bin

Upon closer inspection they looked the be moving around, also noticed that some of my.dubia roaches had some.on them. I found out that they were grain mites.

I'm going to remove all.the roaches into another.bin and.clean out and toss out the old egg crates

I know that isn't enough to get.rid.of them, what else can I do? Hate to have them spread to.my.tropical enclosures 

I started feeding them dry dog food a few.weeks.ago I think that might have caused it? But don't people feed their roaches dog food at times? Or did I feed too.much of it?

Any tips would be.great


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## Bugs In Cyberspace (Jul 10, 2012)

Moving them to a new tank will probably solve the problem, but it depends on how many mites the roaches are carrying with them.

So many people use dog food that I suspect your problem has more to do with bad luck than anything else. Roaches don't go through a lot of dog food very quickly usually so when we buy a big bag of it to slowly feed off to our bugs it has a tendency to sit there on the shelf sort of half-closed. Mites get into the bag and then into the tank when you go to feed.

There are mites everywhere so you can probably never avoid them completely. 

get a new bag of dog food and throw the other one out
feed the dog food sparingly if they aren't eating everything you offer in a couple days' time
do a substrate change or two and keep the substrate/tank a bit more on the dry side for a few weeks
you might quarantine the most mite-covered roaches for a while and ask for more advice on what to do with them, but I'm done typing for the moment
and good luck!

Here is a little link I put together a few months back about cage pests and then forgot to finish up. I'd meant to see if the AB staff might want to sticky it somewhere:

http://bugsincyberspace.com/Cage_Pests.html


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## Roblicious (Jul 10, 2012)

Yeah might do a.big quarentine going I have way too many roaches to.individually go through them lol


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## zonbonzovi (Jul 10, 2012)

If you don't want to clean/sort/etc. I've had good luck increasing the airflow, removing a portion of the frass & cutting back on produce for a couple weeks.  It doesn't get rid of them entirely(what does, save for a blowtorch).


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## Roblicious (Jul 10, 2012)

i took all of the roaches out and put them in a clean bin and tossed out all the food, what frass i could get and egg crates

gonna put them outside in the sun during the day inside at night, feed them only a little bit and no water for a week or so just so that the mites die off

pain in the ass


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## J Morningstar (Jul 12, 2012)

severe pain in the ass...


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## catfishrod69 (Jul 12, 2012)

Yep grain mites suck, are an eyesore, but wont really bother much. I have had explosions, then they die down, then come back and so forth. Best thing you can do is try and never use dog food, keep the food from getting moist or wet, dry things up a bit, and dont worry so much.


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## kitkatie (Jul 12, 2012)

I am constantly dealing with grain mites in my many tropical tanks. As long as there isn't like a solid coating of them on anything they are harmless. I'm a big fan of having complete ecosystems going on in my tanks, so I don't mind them there as long as they don't get out of control, as this can stress out your roaches.


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## BQC123 (Jul 12, 2012)

Roblicious said:


> i took all of the roaches out and put them in a clean bin and tossed out all the food, what frass i could get and egg crates
> 
> gonna put them outside in the sun during the day inside at night, feed them only a little bit and no water for a week or so just so that the mites die off
> 
> pain in the ass


I usually feed chicken feed, and keep that in the freezer until I use it, just to be safe. My only dubia grain mite problems came after using dog food in a pinch. I started with fresh eggcrate, in a new tub. Added roaches only, no frass. Cut back on the produce, and increased airflow. No more issues.  

I agree that they are not usualy a real problem, and have dealt with them in enclosures and mealworm colonies in the past. If you are really concerned, you may do as others have suggested, and then add predatory mites. That was my next option, but ended up not needing to.


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## Low (Jul 12, 2012)

Ive used dog food since day one on my 10 thousand plus colony and have never had an issue with mites...

I use cleanup beetles in mine tho...confused flour beetles...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk


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## catfishrod69 (Jul 12, 2012)

I feed only with chick starter made by dumor. What started my grain mites was dogfood that got watergel spilled onto it, and allowed the eggs to hatch. Dont worry too much about them. Might not want to know this, but any grain foods you eat, cereal, dry oats, etc., contain grain mite eggs. The factories that produce these foods keep the food churned to prevent hot spots, as to not allow the eggs to hatch out.


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## kitkatie (Jul 13, 2012)

Oh my gosh, I'm fairly sure that I never needed to know that. Ever. Food is gross.


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