Centruroides sp. (was: I love it when things warm up)

[Eurypterid]

John,

Sorry to hear about your scorps. As you know, I had the exact same problem, probably from the same shipment. Check all your humid scorps. Once the babies came, these things went wild and I lost 5 adults, and 3 adult C. margaritatus (my whole little colony, including 2 pregnant females), as well as almost the whole litter of babies. Check very carfully, especially under the posterior edge of the tergites. You may need to get the scorp to flex its body a bit to see well.

The predatory mites did work for me. That's the one good bit of news. And I managed to save 1 scorpling. Here's the link to the place I ordered from:

http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html

They are expensive though. I ordered 1/2L and it ended up costing over $40.00 with shipping (they will only ship guaranteed 2nd day). Good luck

Gary

 

[Eurypterid]

Below is a pic showing how they got under the tergites of my scorps. It wasn't a great pic to start, so I bumped up the contrast and sharpness to make the mites more visible. They were very small, and were covered by the trailing edge of the tergite when the scorp was flat.

I tried everything, including drying and mite traps. The predatory mites were the only thing that gave any results at all (besides physically picking them off with fine-tipped forceps)

Gary

 

[Kugellager]

Yeah thanks for the link...same critters I have and can see 100's? 1000? on one of the scorps and less on others...(only C.gracilis and C.margaritatas). Sounds like once I get some started they will continue to reproduce as long as a food source is available...I think I will set up a couple of delicups to try to keep the cultures going once I get them.

Strange thing is..is that I never get them in the H.spinifer of my P.irminia(T) enclosures...conversely I notice wood lice in these enclosures...maybe its not the baby crickets (as I originally theorized)but the wood lice controlling the mites...need more study...

John
];')

 

[Kugellager]

Well I bought some...we'll see what happens once I get them.

John
];')

 

[Nikos]

I also use woodlice to control fungus in the humid terrariums, they also eat the feeder remains. Try it, it works fine.

 

[G. Carnell]

is this woodlice as in pill bugs? or the ones which DONT roll into a ball??? im going to get some from my garden now, if this really helps

 

[Nikos]

is this woodlice as in pill bugs? or the ones which DONT roll into a ball??? im going to get some from my garden now, if this really helps

Actually I use both. But I think that the pill bugs control fungus and woodlice the feeder remains.
Woodlice is also eaten by smaller scorps while pill bugs don't.

 

[Kugellager]

is this woodlice as in pill bugs?

Woodlice are tiny tear-drop shaped insects that are 1mm+/- in length. They are greyish or brownish in color and are fast moving compared to mites. They do eat cricket remains as I too have observed.

Here is another interesting thing to note...the enclosures with the wood lice are mite free...the other interesting thing about this is that I have bark in both of these enclosures which I did NOT cook in the oven. The ones with the mite problems have bark that I cooked for about an hour which would effectively kill any wood lice in the bark...I'm starting to believe the theory that it might not be necessary to cook them...

Regardless...the Hypoaspis miles are coming so I will experiment with them first...maybe I'll try introducing wood lice to one of the enclosures for a comparison.

John
];')

 

[G. Carnell]

hmm, are you sure about the size? th eones in my garden (both the woodlice and the pillbugs) get to over 1cm and even the babies are bigger than 1 mm....

anyways, im going to get some now, ill post pics to show you what i mean maybe

 

[Kugellager]

I think we're calling two different things wood lice...not the Pill bug kind.

John
];')

 

[skinheaddave]

So bad news. We had a cold snap here, the heat went back on and I guess everything dried out too much. My ever growing collection of s'lings was decimated. I still have some of each species, mind you, but the C.gracilis were hit hard. I would guess I lost 3/4 of the 2nd instars and all the first instars off one female's back. The C.margaritatus fared better -- I maybe lost only 1/3 of them. The H.charcasus don't seem to have suffered, nor have the C.vittatus. The C.exilicauda are mostly gone. The unknown Centruroides I recently picked up lost about 1/2 the first instars off her back but the remaining half seem to be doing fine. The Opisthacanthus seem fine.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[G. Carnell]

how can they die so quickly? the second instars i mean... mine can survive a few days in dryness, or was it dry for longer?

good luck with the remaining ones anyway

 

[skinheaddave]

Your instars of what species? I have found C.gracilis particularily succeptable to this sort of thing.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[G. Carnell]

Grosphus limbatus, but these are less tropical than your Centuroides so i guess thats the difference, maybe...

 

[Tarantula]

L.quinquestriatus is known to be up in the 100 range at times.

;P

I think my LQ is pregnant Hope I get 100 baby scorps

 

[Liron Samuels]

Congrats on the litters everybody!
Sorry to hear you lost so many scorplings, dave.

 

[Kugellager]

Well I received the Hypoaspis mites today and placed the media in the C.gracilis and the C. margaritatas enclosures only to find another C.margaritatas dead...DOH!

I have a little of the media left and am wondering if I should introduce it to my H.spinifer and P.irminia humid enclosures even though they seem to be stable due to the little critters living in them...or do you think It will mess with the bio-balance and cause problems?

Maybe Gary or Dave...preferably someone who has used Hypoaspis spp. mites before.

John
];')

 

[skinheaddave]

Sorry, John, never used them.

Anyhow, the L.mucronatus dream is back online.

This time I will be leaving them with the mother for a while longer in the hopes that they might do better. Last time I seperated them and it didn't work out too well.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[G. Carnell]

this is what i term woodlice btw- its 1cm long

 

[Nikos]

I think this is a pill-bug, I have these in the moist terrariums too and mine are also around 1cm +- long.