Wayfarin
Arachnoknight
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2022
- Messages
- 237
Hey, folks. Guess what's new?
After our initial excitement from finding a local lizard and reptile store that sells feeder insects, today we found out that the store has grain mites.
The bane of my existence.
It isn't the worst infestation I've ever seen. That was our own bread drawer.
However, it happens that it is enough for them to hitchhike on everything we purchased there. There are even grain mites on the food dish, which is new and unused.
Stupid mites. Or are they anticipating the use of the dish in advance? How smart are they?
Anyway, so now we have more stupid mites after getting rid of the first infestation.
After doing some research, I recently found out about an interesting aspect of their metamorphosis. The hypopus.
If I didn't dislike grain mites so much, this would fascinate me. This is a form of phoresis, in which the mites do not feed at all.
Instead, they attach themselves to animals such as insects and rodents and disperse, like some kind of seed.
I've known about grain mite phoresy for almost as long as I've known about the mites themselves, but I didn't realize that there was a specific stage of metamorphosis for this.
Unfortunately, we got crickets, dubia roaches, and superworms from there, and I suspect that some hypopi (apparently the plural) are probably on our feeders.
Anyway, from what I've heard, this "seed" stage, which is actually a nymph, is incredibly difficult to eliminate.
I'm sure that they would die inside of our lizard's digestive tract. But I was actually hoping to raise these feeders instead of feeding them off.
I previously posted a thread about breeding feeders.
Would there be any way to combat these hypopi?
Apparently, they are insanely tough and resilient due to their hardened carapaces, and are not sensitive to drying out as the adults are. I'd also imagine that they attach pretty firmly onto their hosts. So rinsing the feeders in water is not an option?
Anyway, I've heard of these "hypopi" being discussed on this forum, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on setting them up to fail.
They cannot reproduce, since they are nymphs. Maybe they will die off without finding any food or moisture?
How long can these hypopi cling to their hosts and go without food, anyways? Is this a state of dormancy?
Any input would be appreciated. I have not even heard of these "hypopi" until now.
Thanks! God bless!
After our initial excitement from finding a local lizard and reptile store that sells feeder insects, today we found out that the store has grain mites.
The bane of my existence.
It isn't the worst infestation I've ever seen. That was our own bread drawer.
However, it happens that it is enough for them to hitchhike on everything we purchased there. There are even grain mites on the food dish, which is new and unused.
Stupid mites. Or are they anticipating the use of the dish in advance? How smart are they?
Anyway, so now we have more stupid mites after getting rid of the first infestation.
After doing some research, I recently found out about an interesting aspect of their metamorphosis. The hypopus.
If I didn't dislike grain mites so much, this would fascinate me. This is a form of phoresis, in which the mites do not feed at all.
Instead, they attach themselves to animals such as insects and rodents and disperse, like some kind of seed.
I've known about grain mite phoresy for almost as long as I've known about the mites themselves, but I didn't realize that there was a specific stage of metamorphosis for this.
Unfortunately, we got crickets, dubia roaches, and superworms from there, and I suspect that some hypopi (apparently the plural) are probably on our feeders.
Anyway, from what I've heard, this "seed" stage, which is actually a nymph, is incredibly difficult to eliminate.
I'm sure that they would die inside of our lizard's digestive tract. But I was actually hoping to raise these feeders instead of feeding them off.
I previously posted a thread about breeding feeders.
Would there be any way to combat these hypopi?
Apparently, they are insanely tough and resilient due to their hardened carapaces, and are not sensitive to drying out as the adults are. I'd also imagine that they attach pretty firmly onto their hosts. So rinsing the feeders in water is not an option?
Anyway, I've heard of these "hypopi" being discussed on this forum, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on setting them up to fail.
They cannot reproduce, since they are nymphs. Maybe they will die off without finding any food or moisture?
How long can these hypopi cling to their hosts and go without food, anyways? Is this a state of dormancy?
Any input would be appreciated. I have not even heard of these "hypopi" until now.
Thanks! God bless!
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