Dont know where to start.... MITES!

[Pyst]

Yes they are but I don't know what they are called either. haha

 

[Talkenlate04]

So I am doing what I can to rid the roach containers of the mites, if it is grain mites which I think they might be does that mean I dont have to worry about them affecting my T's?

I already transfered the roaches to new tanks and bleached and washed the old and then set the old ones out in the freezing weather over night the replaced the roaches....... I dont see any mites now.....

But I was about to change all the Ts substrate as well. They were not close close..... closesest ones were 15 feet away. But If I dont have to go through all that I wont.

 

[Pyst]

If they are indeed grain mites which I suspect they are then no need to worry about your spiders. Grain mites are almost dust like in size. There's no need to change out the substrate.

 

[chrispy]

you definatelly have the grain type mites.The mites that affect T,s look like ticks that have been feeding,bloated looking,but much smaller like a pinhead.Dry out the roach tub like everyone says and over the next couple days after you clean the tubs out wipe all the sides w/ paper towel dampened with rubbing alcohol.

 

[Snipes]

Oh man i SO feel you. I jsut found so many mites with my roaches that if i take a handful of food/substrate, it wiggles and writhes. I have the roaches in a container with paper towels for bedding and the tupperware container i have them usually in is soaking in a water/bleach solution. I didnt see them on my roaches either, but they were all over the place. I hope they are grain mites!

 

[Code Monkey]

I hope they are grain mites!

Would it matter? Mites are free living or they are parasitic, they aren't both. While some free living mites will under unusual conditions (sick tarantula with an open wound) feed on a T, this is not the rule. If you have a mite explosion in the roach bin, what you've got are free living mites (specific species unimportant). What you also have is too much moisture and food.

I had big mite bloom in a roach bin a few years ago because I'd been feeding too many leafy vegetables which spiked the humidity and moisture of the frass. I left everything open to the air, gave the roaches no water, and only fed dry dog food for multiple weeks. The mites died out (or down to levels where I can't find them anymore).

Now I feed in alternating cycles of fruits/vegetables and dry dog food so the moisture level never gets high enough for the mites.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Ya I am starting something similar........ I feed lettuce and carrots for a few days then switch to dry food. It seems to be working....... its tricky because I have to have a balance higher humidity triggers molts and babies to be born but also mites....... so we shale see how it goes. Being as I knew nothing about grain mites this has been an interesting experience.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

Thank god I'm not the only one..... I take it my dubia colony can be saved? I was ready to torch them.
Here lately I've been giving them layer feed, sorry I forgot to add that, but I'm still freaked out. I bagged up the colony first thing, and took them outside.

 

[Anastasia]

Thank god I'm not the only one..... I take it my dubia colony can be saved? I was ready to torch them.
Here lately I've been giving them layer feed, sorry I forgot to add that, but I'm still freaked out. I bagged up the colony first thing, and took them outside.

Noooo, dont do that, just keep on dry side and NO grain feeding
I had same story while back
sumone suggested feed chicken or turkey pellet grain food
Bad bad bad idea, heavens for mites, specially in humid season

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

So give the tub a through cleaning and no more chicken feed. Right on. Do i need to try to clean the roaches off? I didn't inspect them very closely after I figured out that the strange dust was in fact THOUSANDS of mites. I just slammed the lid and took off after the garbage bags. (I was envisioning the same sight in all my tarantula cages )

 

[Anastasia]

well, I wouldn't worry clean roaches off
just toss all the grain out
rehouse roaches in clean bin (toss old egg crates is well)
use for cleaning water with dish soap and just a bit of bleach
I also made traps for mites, little bit of moist substrate (in delicup) placed on the lid of roach bin,
but have to toss that every 2days
actually I saw trillions of mites gather in that 'come to mama' trap with substrate

 

[Talkenlate04]

So give the tub a through cleaning and no more chicken feed. Right on. Do i need to try to clean the roaches off? I didn't inspect them very closely after I figured out that the strange dust was in fact THOUSANDS of mites. I just slammed the lid and took off after the garbage bags. (I was envisioning the same sight in all my tarantula cages )

There is no need to get rid of the chicken feed. I had that problem once and once only and the main cause was keeping them to moist. I found that they will breed just fine with conditions much drier then I was keeping when I had the mite explosion.
Once the humidity level or food source goes away then they die off pretty quick. When I had those mites they were gone in a mater of days. I used the chicken feed after that and never had problems.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

I don't get it..... I am keeping them as dry as possible. Dry food and cricket gel.
They are upstairs in a closet, and I live in an older home. We have had an exceptionally wet summer. Perhaps this is the source of the humidity.
This is my first roach colony, and I thought I had it nailed since they are reproducing like crazy.
I think I am going to move them downstairs where the environment is more controlled. I put them up there initially because it is nice and warm. Since then, well, BOTH populations have exploded.
Come to think of it, our roof recently started leaking, right where the upstairs rests on the lower floor, right beside the closet that houses my colony.

 

[Talkenlate04]

I did not even use gel.
I would never keep a constant food supply in the tub. I learned that was trouble. Instead I would feed once a week or so. I would add a cup or two of chicken feed then spray it with some water. By morning there was nothing left.
This helped regulate all the mite problems I had before.
The colony kept going strong too. As it got bigger I had to provide more food each feeding. But there was rarely any left in the morning.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

Did you offer a water dish? Or was the moistened chicken feed enough?
I am totally guilty of leaving the feed in there. I figured since there was no actual "water" in the tub my colony would be less susceptible to mold/mites. Boy was I wrong.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Nope no water dish ether. The colony went from 200 to 20,000 in a few years feeding that way.

If I fed them and noticed the food was disappearing a few hours later then I knew I needed to offer some more. It was an eyeball thing really. Nothing super precise but it worked well.

 

[Galapoheros]

Sounds like grain mites and these do stick to your Ts. True that there are so many species but this is the one that is the most common pest in the hobby. They totally transform their body and go into what's called the hypopus stage. When food starts running out, they crawl on inverts and some mammals, they develop suckers. Their bodies get hard and look like smooth limpets when magnified and stuck to your animals. When people see that, it's normal to think they are two diff kinds of mites but they are the same. You could have something else going on but it sure sounds like the grain mites , I hate those things. I think the theory about them hiking on your inverts and some other animals is that the animals might take them to more food. They can stay alive on your invert for months, I've seen it but they haven't been proved to be parasitic, just overwhelming sometimes if they are really bad. Grain mites are what some people usually call carrion mites too because they also eat and hang out all over rotting stuff like dead crix, those are usually grain mites too, same thing. I've got some kind of free roaming mites in my roach containers that eat those grain mites, I still don't know what species those good mites are in my roach containers. I've watched with a magnifier to see them stab those things and walk off with them. I put a rotting cricket leg in a container and then moved it too sub out of my roach container and they got eaten. I'm not 100% on how they are being kept under control over here, something is doing it, I think it's those little brown mites running around. I really need to get those ID'd.

 

[Nomadinexile]

If you have mites,

You have 3 possible solutions. 1. is the poison bomb. We'll go ahead and toss that option out the window. 2. You can continue to change containers and then bleach,rinse well, dry complete. It is possible from what I hear to keep mites pretty well controlled like that. 3. If you really want to sleep well at night though, you need to do a full cleaning/bleaching of everything, AND get H. miles. They will eat the bad mites and if their are none they die. Harmless to humans and plants. *remember to bleach anything associated with your feeders/arachnids. Anything that gets bleached, needs to be rinsed thoroughly, and dried completely to prevent chlorine gas. Good luck, ryan

100% positive its mites..... they are plump too. lol Must be enjoying that roach food. Thats the only place the mites were was the roach food. The food looked alive when a light was shined on it.....

as a precaution I changed all the surounding T cages too..... i did not sleep much last night!

 

[Nomadinexile]

Hypoaspis miles appear orange to brown depending on light and view etc.

, I think it's those little brown mites running around. I really need to get those ID'd.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

A sleepless night for sure. But I'm going to be taking steps to correct this problem today.
Thank you all for your responses and suggestions!