fungus and mites

[cul3one104]

I have emperor scorpions and there are white patches on them.. I think they are fungus. And I see very tiny insects and I don't think it's small crickets. It's too small, so I think they are mites. Can someone tell me what I'm suppose to do to get rid of fungus and mites? Thanks for the help.

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Well, to start with, the white patches usually occur on the scorp's tail. If this is the case, it is "poop" as refered to by another thread here (forgot who wrote it and where).
As for the mites, there is a sp. of mite that eat the harmful sp., and when they run out of food, they just die. It is a pretty expensive deal though (if I recall correctly, they are around $20 plus $25 for overnight shipping) If I were you, I'd try to find someone else in my area who wanted to go in 50/50 split on them. I believe they come in numbers of 500. Though I could be wrong. Someone else will have to cue me in again on the species name and where to get them from. Sorry, I keep forgetting, I have it written down here somewhere.


edw.

 

[Wade]

They are a Hypoaspis sp. (usually H. miles) and one place to get them is www.biconet.com

Make sure the bugs in question aren't springtails, which are minute insects and are more elongated while mites are more round. Springtails are harmless and may actually be bennificial because they out-compete the mites for food within the cage.

Wade

 

[XOskeletonRED]

For id of a species of mite, you'll need a microscope or a really good magnifying glass. Just kill em' all.


later,
edw.

 

[Wade]

Springtails aren't mites at all (they're insects), and you definately don't need a microscope to distinguish them. They often turn up in moist enclosures and are often mistaken for mites by those who've never sen them before. It's quite obvious to the naked eye once you know what they are, they're elongated and even have antennae (which mites, as arachnids, lack). As you already mentioned, the predatory mites are expensive. Purchasing them to get rid of springtails is a waste of money, especially since it probably won't work anyway.

Unless, of course, you're talking about Hypoaspis miles. That's the scuientific name of the predatory mite you mentioned in your first post, not the name of a pest.

Wade

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Wade,
Interesting enough. I have a microscope and in the years I have been working with scorpions (non-professionally), I have never watched an insect (with antennae and six legs) crawl from beneath my scorp's exoskeleton. I have watched mites (no antennae and eight legs) come out and have purchased many scorps and other inverts. I have also watched the same species of mite crawl from beneath the exoskeleton of pedes and heard everyone on the pede forums say "They are good for them.". Nobody said anything after I told them I saw the shadows of the same mites inside the legs of my pedes and scorps right before the legs were hollowed and disabled (scorps) or hollowed and fell off (pedes). Now you have me curious about these insects though. Can you get some pics of them posted? I'd like to find some info on them (I think I have seen these in the tanks before, though they were not on the scorps or pedes). They were all "run out" last time I cleaned the tanks and heated the substrate (3 days ago). I think I would've mauled them anyway while trying to get them on a slide though. :?

Thanks,
edw.

 

[Wade]

Although millipedes often do have mites that are bennificial, as you pointed out it will be difficult to see the difference between the harmful ones and the good ones. Darrin (of Golden Phoenix Exotica) posted some good pix of both pest and bennificial mites on the millipede yahoo group recently (I think you can link to it from arachnopets). I've never heard of centipedes having bennificial mites, so I'd definately assume anything I saw an a centipede was bad news.

In the case of springtails, you probably wouldn't seem them crawling on the scorpion unless it just happened to wander onto one. If they're actually attached or appearing in large numbers on a scorpion, that they proabably are mites and not springtails. I usually see them on the underside of bark slabs or in moist substrate, but not on the animals themselves.

If I had a digital camera, I'd post a pic. It would need a really good macro capability, because they're real tiny. I'd say they look like minute termites. I see them mostly in my millipede bins because the leaf litter is an ideal food for them. They do occasionally turn up in my more humid scorpion and spider enclosures however.

Wade

 

[XOskeletonRED]

Most excellent Wade, I'll have to check out his photographs of the mites, as I have currently never seen the differentiation between the species while on a scorpion, other than the actual mite photographs off of the scorp. It disables many of the proper methods to determine species, etc, because I am peering through the scope at the mites on the scorps, etc. I love the Yahoo groups, though I don't get much time to spend there because I skip from forum to forum to see what problems I can find elsewhere.

Thanks,
edw.