Dont know where to start.... MITES!

[Nomadinexile]

If you can give the cage a big shake before you take them out, that will get off some. You could move them to another container, repeating if you want before putting them in final cage. This would help. You would help cut down the population even further if you can rinse them off, but remember you tap water has chlorine, (I don't think that would hurt the roaches, but you feed them to t's), but if you have unclorinated water, I would try and rinse them off. People do the same with their T's sometimes! Just keep a close eye on your T's (after changing into new clothes and washing your hands really well!), check them at night with a flashlight on their cage and look for little rays of light moving around. Even if they are the bad kind, it's not a major emergency unless their are a lot of them. If you start to see a population growing in your T cages, it will be time to get serious fast. At that point you need to do the cleaning routine as much as you can. <Put in temp cage, Clean old, rehouse, repeat> And consider Hypoaspis miles. Just keep them in the back of your head for now if you want... But if it gets bad, you will want them. Ryan

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]

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.

what are you talking about?, the mites are in the the Grain feed
and they will eat that grain and thrive
cut off source get rid of mites

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

what are you talking about?, the mites are in the the Grain feed
and they will eat that grain and thrive
cut off source get rid of mites

I think what he was getting at was that he never left more food in the tub than could be eaten in 24 hours. If it was not eaten it was discarded. I know absolutely zilch about the amount of time it takes for these mites to hatch (or whatever they do) but I would assume that amount of time would not be long enough.

Where I obviously messed up is leaving the feed in with the colony, day in, day out, giving the mites AMPLE time to complete the life cycle.

BUT, I am so freaked out by this whole experience I will find an alternate staple food.

I found some H. miles online for 40 bucks, is this a decent price?

 

[Spyder 1.0]

I was in the exact same predicament. i also had my roach bin beside my bed and noticed white mites everywhere. In my case they were soil mites which migrated from my room-mates vermiculite bin...

I rehoused all the roaches into temporary deli cups, ran them through water and back into the sterilized bin. I then applied a tape ring around the inner perimeter of the roach bin to keep out future intruders.

Change your egg crate more often and don't keep food in for so long and you wont have problems.

giganticus roaches died off after the water treatment. a good 10 percent just died... from stress I guess. dubia were fine with it.

 

[anikaisbff]

that is a horrible nightmare i would try to gather as many and look every were

 

[Anastasia]

I think what he was getting at was that he never left more food in the tub than could be eaten in 24 hours. If it was not eaten it was discarded. I know absolutely zilch about the amount of time it takes for these mites to hatch (or whatever they do) but I would assume that amount of time would not be long enough.

Where I obviously messed up is leaving the feed in with the colony, day in, day out, giving the mites AMPLE time to complete the life cycle.

BUT, I am so freaked out by this whole experience I will find an alternate staple food.

I found some H. miles online for 40 bucks, is this a decent price?

And Am talking about source where mites come from,
They WILL happened, it dont matter if it in roach bin with grain sitting around or feed bin full of grain,
is longer you have grain + humid conditions you will have mites
here is what I found

GRAIN MITES
by Lee Townsend, Extension Entomologist
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture



Grain mites are pests that can feed on a variety of processed or finely ground grains, wheat germ, yeast, cheese, powdered milk, flour, or mold spores. Under hot, humid conditions, very large populations of these tiny creatures can develop rapidly. Female grain mites lay up to 800 eggs on the surface of food materials.



The life cycle from egg to adult takes only about two weeks at normal room temperatures. Overcrowding in heavily infested products will force mites to move off in search of other food sources. This "spill over" can produce a fine dust-like layer of these mites on a shelf, product bag, or counter. This "mite dust" is often the first sign of trouble and usually means there are one or more heavily infested items not far away.

and about H. miles online, try this
http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html
call them up, they very good,
shipping bit expensive tho

 

[Nomadinexile]

I just paid $50 with shipping. But don't worry about the exact cheapest price, just make sure you get some on the way. Good luck.

I think what he was getting at was that he never left more food in the tub than could be eaten in 24 hours. If it was not eaten it was discarded. I know absolutely zilch about the amount of time it takes for these mites to hatch (or whatever they do) but I would assume that amount of time would not be long enough.

Where I obviously messed up is leaving the feed in with the colony, day in, day out, giving the mites AMPLE time to complete the life cycle.

BUT, I am so freaked out by this whole experience I will find an alternate staple food.

I found some H. miles online for 40 bucks, is this a decent price?

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

Thanks Anastasia for the info and links!
I just finished cleaning out the tub, and put all the roaches in a pasta strainer and hosed them off.
I threw away all molts, bits of grain, pieces of molts, and egg cartons.
The roaches are in a holding container, and I am letting the tub dry in the sun.
I washed it with 10% bleach solution and rinsed well.

 

[Anastasia]

Thanks Anastasia for the info and links!
I just finished cleaning out the tub, and put all the roaches in a pasta strainer and hosed them off .....

LOL, I never though of that, just pictured pasta strainer full of roaches instead of pasta, OMG
what ways we can go crazy tarantula people, lol
You very welcome,
hope they all die out and you never see them nasty mites again
Good luck, Anastasia

 

[Talkenlate04]

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

This thread is 2 1/2 years old. My mite problem is long gone. And everything I said about my feeding worked perfectly since then.

 

[JC]

This thread is 2 1/2 years old. My mite problem is long gone. And everything I said about my feeding worked perfectly since then.

LOL! Guys he is clean now.

 

[Galapoheros]

Ha!, 2.5 years old, I didn't notice. Yeah Nomad, I checked the miles ID by sending a pic to a co., they said it looks like miles but couldn't say for sure by the pic. I bought miles once and found out the feeders for miles in the container are grain mites and I couldn't find any miles lol! I sent the container back and they gave me my money back, just a rare case I think. They couldn't tell me they could find one in the container either. These sure look pred to me but I'm thinking they aren't miles, I'll find out sooner or later. So Ryan, do you ever see those mites, are they gone or do you keep them under control? I have a small case now and then but I can slowly get rid of them in that container now.

 

[Nomadinexile]

I saw one mite (?) in one cage. I have a lot of arachnids, enough so $50 doesn't really cost a lot. I have seen a few miles and thats it. I am cleaning cages as well. But I would love to have the predator on hand in case. I have been feeding crickets up until now, and I collect w/c scorpions in the woods and desert. So I figure it's a possibility. That may or may not have been one. But if it was, it isn't anymore!

Ha!, 2.5 years old, I didn't notice. Yeah Nomad, I checked the miles ID by sending a pic to a co., they said it looks like miles but couldn't say for sure by the pic. I bought miles once and found out the feeders for miles in the container are grain mites and I couldn't find any miles lol! I sent the container back and they gave me my money back, just a rare case I think. They couldn't tell me they could find one in the container either. These sure look pred to me but I'm thinking they aren't miles, I'll find out sooner or later. So Ryan, do you ever see those mites, are they gone or do you keep them under control? I have a small case now and then but I can slowly get rid of them in that container now.

 

[Nomadinexile]

Cool! Herpinvert girl resurrected it yesterday and it sparked back up. These things never go away!

This thread is 2 1/2 years old. My mite problem is long gone. And everything I said about my feeding worked perfectly since then.

 

[bkelley02]

Here is another site you can order from....
http://greenmethods.com/site/biocontrols/hypoaspis

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

This thread is 2 1/2 years old. My mite problem is long gone. And everything I said about my feeding worked perfectly since then.

Sorry to put a stain on your reputation!

I should have started my own thread, but I wasn't thinking too much at the time, I was in panic mode.

I have also gotten some interesting advice from a gentleman named Maurice Pudlo on the Kentucky Reptile Forums. He raises all kinds of feeder insects among numerous other things. I'll get his permission to quote him here if you all are interested.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Sorry to put a stain on your reputation!

Lol no stain at all. I was just clarifying that this was an old thread and the method I used was proven effective. There is always more than on way to skin a cat. I hope you get you're problem under control and find a method that works for you!