emergency baby food?

[Galapoheros]

I found some plings that have grain mites on them, most likely got them from store bought crix. So I threw in a pill bug and some predatory mites. You can see 3 of the pred mites around the fish flake. Anyway, the pill wasn't getting any food so I threw in the fish flake for it and the pede went for it right away, even passed up part of a roach. I know pedes eat different things but I'm wondering if it might make good emergency food, or even more than that. Not a substitute for real meat I would think though. I haven't tried it yet with any of the others.

 

[bistrobob85]

Hey Galapo, while we're at it, could we have a little isopod ID course? I think i found the two ''predatory mites'', saw the mites on your pedeling, found the obvious pillbug but it would be nice if you could properly ID them for people to see what the mites are like.

Also, i have some mites myself from some chinese centipedes i ordered. I THINK, i'm not sure, that i might also have predatory mites in some other invert tanks and i have some springtails. I'm going to do a little testing on the effects of those presume predatory mites and springtails on different pedes with mites...

By the way, which fish food did you use? Some of them are based on meat items while some other ones on vegetable matter... could a pede even tell the difference ?

phil.

 

[cacoseraph]

in wild and captivity scolopendromorpha is known to eat vegetable matter from time to time. whether this is from a moisture need or a genuine "desire" and ability to eat vegetable matter, i don't know

 

[Galapoheros]

I got lazy. I thought about circling everything before I posted. Yeah I'll do it later tonight. I'm not sure what the flakes are made of. I know someone at a pet store that filled up a small paper bag of the flakes from the back of the store and handed it to me that way.

 

[ShawnH]

Most fish flakes are mostly composed of fish ironically.

 

[Galapoheros]

Bob, I found the pred mites in my cages too. They may have even come off some WC pedes I found and got into the soil. I'm not 100% on the species, I sent a pic to Biocontrol a long time ago and they said they look like Hypoaspis mites. Whatever they are, they take care of the grain mites ...takes several days or even weeks to eat the grain mites depending on how many there are but they work. Then I will get an explosion of the pred mites, then the pred mites will die back. I'm not real careful. I put leaves and wood from my yard in with my pedes sometimes, maybe that's how I got the good mites. It kepts a balance between the bad stuff and the good little animals in my cages. I have other little insects in my cages, don't know what they are, they aren't Springtails but are about the same size and move real fast and jerky. But they seem to take care of mites too. I've got the mini pred Rove beetles too but they slowly tend to eat the pred mites . Oh well, there's a balance going on, but sometimes I help it out a bit.

 

[ShawnH]

It's pretty neat that you got predatory mites in there somehow. People pay good money for cultures of them.

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah, I know. I paid Biocontrol allot and saw no hypos, but I already had these other ones in my cages. I sent the container back to Bio and they gave me my money back, which isn't their policy so, I believe in them. I just feel like some mistake was made, I don't really know for sure. The only thing I saw in the container they sent me were the feeder grain mites. People that buy these need to keep in mind that the assumed intent of the buyer by the seller is that these hypos are going to be used by gardeners and not so much arachnid hobbyist though they do have us in mind. I guess what I'm getting at is that it's easy for someone like a gardener that trusts the mites are there, to be there and just sprinkle the contents of the container on their garden. But bug people are going to look for the curiosities ...and I didn't see any. Most people do, I don't know what happened to my batch. There was some other person on the AB that didn't see any either. They don't make most of their money from us.

 

[bistrobob85]

Thanks for the update, Galapo . Now I'm pretty sure that we're talking about the same little mites as predators. I've had them with my Ts for a very long time and they never actually hung onto the inverts themselves so i figured they were little tank cleaners. I'll try the little experiment with the centipedes that have mites and hopefully i'll get rid of the vampire mites...

phil.

 

[PhilK]

Sorry to go slightly off topic here... but do baby pedes pretty mcuh eat anything? I'm about to receive six (at $2 each!!) and want to know what they can eat.

 

[ShawnH]

I've used pred mites once before to rid my infested collection of millions of grain mites. It all stared with a loaded shipment of feeder roaches... As you've described the predatory mites worked well. They ate everything from the grain mite to gnats, then burnt themselves out and starved to death.

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah man I almost hope to get a mitey cricket or two sometimes because the pred mites do seem to burn out pretty fast if they don't have smaller mites to run after. Seems like a smashed cricket leg works a little though.

 

[ShawnH]

Not sure exactly what they do to culture the pred mites, would be really nice to know though. It most likely involves breeding springtails or something small they like to eat like grain mites.

 

[SouthernStyle]

Interesting enough to find out that It took to the Flake....Might be something worth trying with some of the pedelings that I've got around the house...Those Grain Mites are a PAIN IN THE ARSE! I had A Chinese Redheaded Pede That had them....Found that the best way to deal with 'em is use a bit of baby powder (Talcum powder) on the affected area...It took about 4 Treatments of it Over a 4 day period and they went away...Just gotta keep a close eye on the pede, cuz they'll get into the sphericals (mind my speeeeling) and that's game over...
Here's a Pic of that Pede..Just For Referance

 

[bistrobob85]

Hey, i know those little guys, they're eating my centipedes too... I started my pred-mite ''culture'' today with some of them and a dead pinky. Hopefully they spread out fast...

phil.

 

[Galapoheros]

Weeeedoogy! Yeah man that's a bad case. I've been there before. Several years ago, I was getting the mites and didn't know what they were until the internet popped up and I found this site. I always assumed they were parasitic. I still wonder if there is some consuming going on underneath the grain mites when they are in that hypopus stage, but the people that know grain mites say they are just hitchhiking. I can't help but wonder sometimes though. I've wondered about the mites getting into the spiracles too. Over the years as I would get in and out of keeping pedes, all the ones I had died as though they were suffocating, walking in slow mo and they had many mites like that one in your pic. I feel like a finally got it down now, no adult deaths in over 2 years now since I got back in. IMO, the mites come from store bought crix and mealworms that are fed stuff that the mites are feeding on too, I see them on crix and mealworms allot. And pedes in the wild are naturally exposed to pred mites. I see what appear to be pred mites on most of the pedes I catch, walking around on the pede. So, I hear ya! hard to keep them away in captivity, even if you do keep the cage pretty dry. Keeping leftovers and keeping it dry will put off an explosion of them though. I haven't tried the powder thing, but if it worked for you, I guess I'll give it a try. That's pretty gross Phil, but if it works, I'm doing it too. Right now I scoop out the good mites out of containers that are having a population explosion and move them to the containers that look like they don't have any. Man are we insane! This is kinda crazy.

 

[PhilK]

I've never had mites on any of my animals..