Grain. Mites. Again. (AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!)

[billrogers]

I. Hate. Grain Mites. Like... with a passion.

I have them once again. this time it's my mealworm bin. Is the best course of action to kill everything?? That would be bad because I am finally seeing the baby mealworms growing... Do dubias also get mites in the bins? Maybe it's time for me to switch over. Any advice? I am convinced grain mites are a creation of the devil because their about as easy to get rid of as your shadow... I hate those little demons :'(

 

[Hisserdude]

I. Hate. Grain Mites. Like... with a passion.

I have them once again. this time it's my mealworm bin. Is the best course of action to kill everything?? That would be bad because I am finally seeing the baby mealworms growing... Do dubias also get mites in the bins? Maybe it's time for me to switch over. Any advice? I am convinced grain mites are a creation of the devil because their about as easy to get rid of as your shadow... I hate those little demons :'(

I completely agree with you, my hatred for Acari runs deep into my soul.

It would be really hard to remove the grain mites from your mealworm enclosure, I assume you are using oats as the substrate? All I can suggest is to dry the enclosure out, hopefully the mite population will shrink a bit. This is why I use coconut fiber as my mealworm substrate, and offer their food in bowls.

As for the dubia, they may spread to their enclosure as well, so I would make sure not to overfeed them, and keep them pretty dry, to avoid any infestations.

Hope this helps!

 

[Tenevanica]

I feel like I should start culturing mites. That way I'd be breeding the only thing that even invert hobbyists won't touch.

 

[InvertsandOi]

I recently noticed some little moving white dots in my amblypygi enclosure. From what I understand these are the dreaded grain mites. I was under the impression that they don't really do any harm and can be kept under control with some springtails and isopods, so I added some. Is this not the case? Should I be more worried than I am?

 

[Esherman81]

I raise fruit lies and I get them in the fly cultures too ..I found something on Joshes frogs that works wonders ..thro ..not sure it would work for meal worms thro

 

[billrogers]

Thanks all for the info. I will most likely get rid of the mealworms. My collection is especially small at the moment and I think I can get by without them *sigh*
So there's really no way for me to ever completely get rid of them from my house?

 

[Esherman81]

Look on eBay I use from Joshes frogs ...it's called bug blade mite control power ..I use it around my flies and worm farm ..it helps with mine ..maybe try it ..

 

[Tenevanica]

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/bug-blade-mite-killer-5-oz.html

I think that's the stuff @Esherman81 is talking about. It doesn't really kill the mites, but it stops them from spreading. It's cheap and it could be useful...

 

[Esherman81]

Yes that's the stuff I use ..yes he is right it doesn't kill them but helps lots ..hope that can help ..

 

[billrogers]

Look on eBay I use from Joshes frogs ...it's called bug blade mite control power ..I use it around my flies and worm farm ..it helps with mine ..maybe try it ..

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/bug-blade-mite-killer-5-oz.html

I think that's the stuff @Esherman81 is talking about. It doesn't really kill the mites, but it stops them from spreading. It's cheap and it could be useful...

Thanks! I will probably have to try that.

 

[The Snark]

http://www.joshsfrogs.com/bug-blade-mite-killer-5-oz.html

Or just buy diatomaceous earth at a fraction of the price.

And to beat a dead horse, caution. Diatomaceous earth is microminiature razor blades capable of penetrating any animals exoskeleton. It may not immediately kill the animal but cause wasting and unthriftiness, and the stuff is more or less dust. It can easily migrate into your enclosures. Figure leaving the dust out in your invertebrate room some eventually will get into the enclosures.
The only protection is to carefully isolate where you use the stuff and still assume you will be carrying some around on your clothing.

And again. Grain mites cannot reproduce when the humidity goes below 50%. That is the only way to assure you won't get future outbreaks barring bathing in nasty pesticides.
And no, they don't present an immediate hazard to your animals. But a hefty outbreak can present a hazard to your sanity when you find them in your box of breakfast cereal, the flour container, and eventually nearly any surface in your kitchen causing a yucky musty odor.

On a positive note, a good infestation into your modern day breakfast cereal is one way to help get your daily protein requirements from those Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and similar.

Damn but they do get around. With the fans pumping air through the house the past few weeks, >100F during the days and rice harvesting season in full swing blowing chaff far and wide across the countryside, if I stand near any window that's been left open, after a few seconds I'll feel little tiny somethings crawling on my bare feet.

 

[sschind]

Or just buy diatomaceous earth at a fraction of the price.

And to beat a dead horse, caution. Diatomaceous earth is microminiature razor blades capable of penetrating any animals exoskeleton. It may not immediately kill the animal but cause wasting and unthriftiness, and the stuff is more or less dust. It can easily migrate into your enclosures. Figure leaving the dust out in your invertebrate room some eventually will get into the enclosures.
The only protection is to carefully isolate where you use the stuff and still assume you will be carrying some around on your clothing.

And again. Grain mites cannot reproduce when the humidity goes below 50%. That is the only way to assure you won't get future outbreaks barring bathing in nasty pesticides.
And no, they don't present an immediate hazard to your animals. But a hefty outbreak can present a hazard to your sanity when you find them in your box of breakfast cereal, the flour container, and eventually nearly any surface in your kitchen causing a yucky musty odor.

On a positive note, a good infestation into your modern day breakfast cereal is one way to help get your daily protein requirements from those Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and similar.

Damn but they do get around. With the fans pumping air through the house the past few weeks, >100F during the days and rice harvesting season in full swing blowing chaff far and wide across the countryside, if I stand near any window that's been left open, after a few seconds I'll feel little tiny somethings crawling on my bare feet.

I wasn't going to step on Josh's toes but since you brought it up...Yeah, its a lot cheaper just to buy the diatomaceous earth.

I also had to give your post a thumbs up for the Calvin and Hobbes reference.

 

[billrogers]

I wasn't going to step on Josh's toes but since you brought it up...Yeah, its a lot cheaper just to buy the diatomaceous earth.

I also had to give your post a thumbs up for the Calvin and Hobbes reference.

Agreed! Calvin and Hobbes are still the best comics imo.

 

[Jacob Ma]

It should also be noted that Josh's Frogs sells it for FROGS and other FROG vertebrate tankmates. Pretty much, the best way is to just ventilate the container, and I have practically roasted an entire container of them by putting an open cup full of them in direct sunlight. The mites made great food for my salamanders and fish. Mind if I mention that if you somehow bait them into water they will clump up on top of the water and eventually drown themselves.

 

[The Snark]

Since I bent Watterson-wards, the ultimate mite eradicator. Take your average percision framing hammer, 32 oz, assume a steady stance near the kitchen counter, grasp hammer firmly, and exclaim "Leave me out of your life's plans, you little weirdos!" Wappity wap wap wap wap wap wap wap wap..........................

 

[Ranitomeya]

Grain mites are quite disturbing. There's nothing like going to grab some feeders or some food for the feeders and realizing that all the dust you've just disturbed is actually a crawling carpet of mites. I wonder sometimes if I should inform my arachnophobic friends of the much smaller arachnids that can and will crawl into orifices as they fear much larger spiders will.

Grain mites come and go in my enclosures, but I do try to do a thorough cleaning if--or rather, more of a when--their numbers explode. They don't seem to bother my animals too much, but I've noticed that they can and will attack injuries on your inverts and prevent them from healing if their numbers get very high. I've seen them swarm onto roaches with minor injuries caused by others nibbling on them after molting, slowly causing them to die as they crawl into the wounds.

Springtails and isopods will help control mite numbers by competing with mites for food sources such as fungus and remains of feeders, but they've unfortunately never really controlled mites to the point where I don't notice them easily. The population explosion of grain mites in my enclosures seem to come about once a year during our rainy season. Keeping bins with grains or processed food sources well-ventilated and dry definitely keeps them from showing up in huge numbers for some time. It also helps to make sure to feed only as much as feeders will eat within a certain period of time.

 

[Jacob Ma]

@Ranitomeya While that is a good suggestion for the containers of grains, that also raises another concern of other pest animals to take advantage of the open food source for their own consumption. Instead of doing this, I suggest that the containers of whatever may be a possible source of the mites be monitored & cleaned at least weekly and the areas be kept relatively clean, open, and spaced out so that infestations of any species are kept to a minimum.

 

[Ranitomeya]

By bins, I was talking about feeder bins that are being fed grains and processed foods. You definitely wouldn't want to store food sources out in the open for the reasons you've mentioned, especially since doing so can invite the grain mites into clean batches of food where they'll breed deep inside where there might be pockets of space where humidity is higher.

 

[Dark]

I hate them too, they started off in my dubia bin and now every invert I have with soil has a few of them. Right now I appear to be lucky cause their numbers aren't that high and they seem to be remaining only in the invert cages for now. For the dubias what I did to kill 90% of them was to wipe the cage walls inside and out with a lysol wipe a few times a day while keeping the cover off to let the soil dry out. I also would remove all food and water bowls once or twice a day and rinse them with scolding water and scrub them with soap. I also only feed them once or twice a week so there isn't food laying around all day. This method helped me a lot because once the food source was removed the mites would crawl up the walls and I'd kill a decent amount of them with my daily cleanings. Eventually the soil became desert dry and I saw fewer and fewer mites.

I stopped feeding my dubias grains and stuck strictly to fruits for a while. Right now they seem to be doing pretty well on a few slices of apple and a small dish of water crystals. Every other container I have with soil has springtails which I believe help a little by out-competing them. I'd say I still have a few thousand grain mites spread out in my room living between various enclosures but it's a very small number compared to when the walls were covered in moving dust and they were literally crawling everywhere. Now I only see a dozen or so walking around on the top of the soil so I'm content for the moment.

Eric

 

[Tenevanica]

I have to admit now that I've never had grain mites. The only pests I've encountered in my invert enclosures have been fungus gnats and Indian meal moths. It makes me scared to order from anybody because I don't want mites to be transferred to my enclosures...