Beginner here with possible mites

JenniferKatherine

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Jul 25, 2016
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While taking care of our spiders today, we saw one of the tanks has teeny tiny white specks crawling around the inside of it. I have no idea what they are; I'm assuming mites. So far no one else has them. These came out of nowhere...we've had it for two months and just saw the mites tonight. What can we do to help our tarantula? Can we take any preventative measures for the rest?

Not sure if it's relevant, but it's a 1/4 - 1/2" salmon pink birdeater sling.
 

Venom1080

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you can rehouse it, slings take like 5 min to rehouse.
keep it a little dryer and try your best to pick out all the boli after feeding.
 

G. pulchra

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Pictures are always helpful when diagnosing problems. What is the substrate and how wet is it? How much ventilation do you have in the enclosure?
 

14pokies

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You can put the T in a temporary container for the night without substrate or a water dish and freeze it's enclosure over night.. Use a very mild bleach water solution to wipe down the area where the enclosure was.

Freezing the enclosure will kill all the mites and eggs.. After its been frozen for 12-24 hrs let it thaw back to room temp and put your T back in..
 

Ellenantula

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I like the rehousing idea. I would be more worried if the mites were on the T, instead of just in an area in the tank.
Without a pix (and to be fair, mites are too small to photograph well for a positive ID) it could be just springtails or clean-up crew mites or something.
Rehouse and keep fingers crossed that's the end of problem and your other Ts will remain unaffected.
 

Venom1080

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again, just rehouse it. if its 1/4"-1/2" a vial should be fine. takes 10s to set up.
 

Andrea82

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Here are some pics of what's crawling in there.

Substrate is coconut bedding. It's a little on the dry side. Ventilation is about 15 small holes drilled around the container.
I am not sure what that is, but i'm sure it is not a springtail. I would rehouse it as soon as possible. Be sure to check the others a little more often as well.
 

cold blood

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Mites are unaviodable, if theyre in one, you just havent noticed them in the others yet.

If you see mites, 1. Dry the enclosure and 2. Increase ventilaion.

For a sling though, i agree, it will take maybe 60 seconds to re house.
 

cold blood

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Oh, and 3 would be to clean any boli or dead prey irems as they will often be the source of a population explosion.
 

G. pulchra

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Mites are unaviodable, if theyre in one, you just havent noticed them in the others yet.

If you see mites, 1. Dry the enclosure and 2. Increase ventilaion.

For a sling though, i agree, it will take maybe 60 seconds to re house.
I have heard this quite often, but I've never seen any in my collection.
 

viper69

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I have heard this quite often, but I've never seen any in my collection.
Quite lucky. Those arachnids are a pain in the rear. I've had them 2 or 3 times, and not because my sub is damp in the slightest. I've noticed that so-called grain mites are 99% of the time attracted to my Avics w/the dirtiest containers. When I look at the containers that have the most mites and the most poop, the vent holes w/the most poop around it always have the MOST mites around them.

I have a feeling they come and/or attracted to the crickets I keep in the KK. I know they can come in on crickets. I just haven't figured out what causes them to invade my Ts but never the others with concrete data.

I've never had them in my AFs that are located on a separate rack.
 
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