Grain Mite Question!

[LindsayMarie]

Its been a long time since I have been on the board! I have been very ill, in and out of the hospital :8o

Anyways, I have a question about grain mites. For some unknown reason my last bin of lobsters has grain mites! I am pretty sure that is what they are. Tiny, greyish little thingies. I did have one other lobster bin with this issue before and I had THOUSANDS of lobsters in it. I called a pest control guy and he came out and killed off the whole bin in less then 60 seconds (I didnt want them to suffer, nor did I want to spread mites to the other roach bins I had). I was successful in preventing the mites from spreading to any of the other insect species (Dubias, Distantis, Hissers, Superworms). However the last lobster bin I had left just developed them a couple weeks ago. By keeping them on the dry side, minimal food I have been able to keep the mites at a decent number, but my goal was to kill them completely off so I could feed off the rest of the lobsters ASAP. Because the mites dont seem to be going anywhere we have been feeding off lobsters here and there but it makes me nervous mainly because I worry we will transfer the mites out of the bin and they will find their way into another bin, a dragon enclosure or our kitchen and infest the area! COULD THIS HAPPEN? or am I paranoid? I have been taking precautions by putting olive oil on the rim of the bowls I use at feeding time and washing them after.

Questions:

Why is it just the lobster bin?

Where could they have came from? I freeze all grain food for at least 48 hours before using?

How can I keep the mite numbers LOW until I can get the remaining 1000 or so fed off?

*IMPORTANT - Can the mites infest my bearded dragon cages or the house (kitchen)?

ANYONE LOCAL AND WANT TO TAKE THEM OFF MY HANDS??? :}

Its weird! None of the other bins have any mites at all. I have gotten rid of most of my insects. All I have now is a small bin of juvenile distantis, a small tank of hissers, 1 bin of dubias and a small bin of supers. Not a single problem in any of those bins?!! THANK GOODNESS. My GOAL is to feed off the lobsters and distantis. I had even thought about letting them loose but that isnt a good idea for the environment. I am sure if I really needed to I could give away the distantis. But I wouldnt give anyone the lobsters with mites. So I have to feed them off or "humanely" kill them off. I have a baby on the way and I cant deal with all these insect bins!!

ANY IDEAS?! Thanks a bunch, Lindsay

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

I don't keep lobster roaches only B. dubia.
But do you use some kind of substrate in your roach bins (the grain food?)?
If that's the case, try keeping them without substrate, offer their food in a shallow dish. Never had any mites this way!

Greetings
Bernhard

 

[LindsayMarie]

The substrate I use is aspen shavings. I never had issues with grain mites before. I had kept them over a year with no issues. Not quite sure what is causing the mites now? Good thing is so far the number of grain mites this time is very minimal, not like the lobster bin last time that I had pest control take care of. I dont think there is that many lobsters in the bin, maybe 1000 nymphs (no adults). My goal with this last bin has been to just feed them ALL off. Its taking a while because my dragons eating has slowed down because of the cooler weather and because I stopped feeding them off to try and rid of the mites for a bit. I wish I had a huge monitor I could just give one huge feast too!

My biggest concern right now is to keep the mites in ONLY the lobster bin (not my other bins, lizard cages or house)! Any ideas how I can do this but still feed the lobsters off to get rid of them asap? Like I said I have been using a bowl during feeding time and putting olive oil on the rim and washing it after. I still worry some of them will escape and infest something!LOL

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Are those parasitic mites (attached to the roaches) or are they in the substrate?

I'm not completely sure but I don't think that parasites of your roaches can switch over to your bearded dragons.
If they were only in the substrate, feeding on leftovers, they could get transferred to other enclosures which may be harmless as well.

I guess I'm not much help with my assumptions, sorry for that !

I hope someone else will reply on this topic, with some real help!

Greetings
Bernhard

 

[Wade]

If they're just grain mites, there's not a whole lot of risk for reptiles since they don't feed on blood, and only a problem in invert cages if theres a whole lot of them. Chances are, there are already grain mites in your stored grain products, not because of your lobsters, they'r just common in grains.

The predatory mite Hypoaspis is very useful for getting rid of mites in invert cages. They can be purchased from www.biconet.com , but you may not want to invest in them if you're trying to get rid of the colony anyway.

Wade

 

[LindsayMarie]

Thanks for the replies. The mites seem to be just grain mites. They are staying in the substrate and poop with the majority of them in the bottom layer where the poo is. Yucky. Usually the mites you see on reptiles etc are darker in color, not a greyish white, right? Besides that I dont see how any other type of mite could make it to the reptile room (I.E- reptile mite)?

I didnt see any of those mites in the dragons enclosures last night. I fed a couple hundred lobsters off and looked in each dragon cage and didnt see anything. I worry I may miss them seeing as they are light in color and so small. The dragons cages are white, off-white plastic and birch colored wood! I think grain mites would have a problem living in the lizard cages anyways because the humidity is low and the heat is high. Am I correct?

I also looked in each insect bin real good. So far no mites in any of the other bins? The vaseline on the lobster bin is good at holding more then just lobsters in, I guess!! I also have vaseline on the other insect bins just incase, so that probably helped. I think I will check all the bins again this weekend, paying close attention to the poo on the very bottom where the mites are hanging out. The other insect bins barely have any poo because they are easier to clean, so that may be why they dont have the mites or I cant see them because their isnt as many yet! Hopefully there isnt any because if anymore bins get them I think I am just going to call the pest guy again and get rid of ALL the insects. Its too much worrying that I dont need right now.

If anyone thinks of any other pointers, feel free to jump in I wish my camera would pick up a picture of one of the mites. But they are soooo tiny!