If you were using dry oats as a substrate I'm not surprised that you had a ton of grain mites! Wet oats acts as the perfect breeding ground for grain mites.ok i couldnt kill all my roaches...so i went and looked at them, and they were all hidden, and huddled together under some egg carton....and the temp outside was 50 F....all the mites looked dead...looked like tiny particles of sawdust only whiteish clear, everywhere, so i took paper towels and got rid of all the mites i could and took them back into the house....then as the roaches warmed up so did the mites and they were back to crawling...so i turned on a fan and kept the top off them....so they should dry out pretty good....and i think i have narrowed it down to what has caused the mite problem..it all started a few months ago....i had some get in with my florida blue centipede....he got a shower, and i emptied and cleaned his house....then my emporers, then tailess whip, then dissapeared until now....but ok my lateralis roaches are the only roaches i keep with more than room humidity, my others just get whats in the room...anyways...i narrowed it down to 4 things....1.dry oats bedding 2.cheap dry dog food 3.goldfish flakes 4.cricket gutload......and im thinking that the oats is the source...cause i had them before i started feeding goldfish food, and doubt its from that, cricket gutload and dogfood, maybe, but most likely the oats bedding.....so what do you think? i really hate to have these mites in my house...kinda disgusting....but if i take my roaches outside they will be dead tomorrow....so should i get it dried out and wait til theres no sign of mites, then rehouse them with no bedding at all? sorry for such a long post, and thanks for your answers
---------- Post added at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/flour-and-grain-mites
look at this website, kinda makes me never wanna eat anything grainie again....i mean if those were in dry oats that i used for bedding, then those are the same oats i and everyone eats, and the grains, they just basically keep them aerated....kinda nasty...
If you were using dry oats as a substrate I'm not surprised that you had a ton of grain mites! Wet oats acts as the perfect breeding ground for grain mites.
Might I suggest using coconut fiber as the substrate and placing small amount of grainy food in a styrofoam cup to be consumed?
If you were using dry oats as a substrate I'm not surprised that you had a ton of grain mites! Wet oats acts as the perfect breeding ground for grain mites.
Might I suggest using coconut fiber as the substrate and placing small amount of grainy food in a styrofoam cup to be consumed?
I keep mine on coco fiber and quite humid...never had mites nor am I remotely worried about them if I do...basically lats can survive dry substrate for a very long time, their egg cases may not hatch but the lats will be fine. Drying it out kills the mites and viola, problem averted.