Help!!!! Mites

[gilly2k]

Ive just come home and looked in the tank of my avic avic to find that it has closed the top of its web is this normal.
I also found a large amount of mites, icant work out were they have come from because i have removed any leftovers from the tank.

CAN ANY ONE HELP WHAT SHOULD I DO
It has been mentioned talk why and does it work.

Thanks

GILLY2K

 

[savian]

Where is your T's hide? On the ground in the air? T's will offten close themsevles up. How old is your T? If it is an adult then I would let the cage dry out for a coulpe of days. You can even try changeing the substrate. Hope this help a little.

 

[gilly2k]

Its in the air. and i have placed a tiny water bowl next to it and added another heat mat to tehoppersite side of the tank to help dry it out.

thanks for your help

GILLY2K

 

[Code Monkey]

I'm also going to have to add my bit of commons sense to equation that I never see anyone else bring up in these 'omigod I got mites!' threads: Are you sure they are mites (ascarid arachnids) or are they spring tails (collembola insects)? From an earlier thread:

Not every little crawly thing is a mite...
One of the things that occurs to me is that a lot of "mites" that people come here freaking out about probably aren't even mites at all, but rather some species of spring tail. There are literally 1000s of species of Collembola and to the (untrained) naked eye many are going to be indistinguishable.

Since they also can feed on prey remains, are attracted to moisture, multiply quickly, and can be seen as small critters swarming over the cage and sometimes even the larger invert, I just wonder how many people work themselves up over a perfectly harmless scavenger?

Do this check, approach the little things with a paint brush or something. Did it hop away? You've got some sort of collembola insect and eradicating it isn't going to accomplish anything. A springtail colony in your cage is just like maintaining isopods - it's a harmless insect which will actually compete with any actual mites.

Mites could be good, could be bad, but spring tails aren't hurting anything. In my experience, spring tails are inevitable if you have house plants and other established habitats for them about.

 

[ArachnoJoost]

About the closing of the web: my versicolor does this when he/she is going to molt, so that it will have no distractions when molting. IF you have mites, and if the spider is getting ready for a molt the drying of the cage is probably not a very good idea. (my versi has mites too, and the drying of the cage didn't really help anyways, but that's just one experience, it could help). By the way: the mites don't really seem to bother the T, it's eating fine and is showing no signs of stress.
greetz,
Joost

 

[Gail]

A good trick for getting most (but not all) mites and other unsavories out of a tank is to actually place a piece of apple or squash in there - the next day, take it out and most of the critters will go with it as they are highly attracted to this sort of "feast". Scoop up a little of the substrate around the fruit with it to get even more of the nasties. Unfortunately, mites and springtails are almost impossible to get rid of completely.

Gail

 

[Code Monkey]

Yes, but why would you care about spring tails? This is my "issue" with all the "Ach, Hans, MITES! Dry the tank! Change the substrate! Try a water trap! Sacrifice a chicken!" responses ;P

You keep any box of dirt moist, it's going to develop its own fauna. You can accept that and encourage beneficial critters which will likely prevent potentially harmful mites by competition. Or, you can do the equivalent of recklessly using antibiotics trying to kill every teeny crawler in there until you really do get something harmful.

I would never try to do anything for springtails; heck, I should probably do transfers from my tanks that are crawling with them as a prophylactic measure. Nor, in most cases will I do anything about mites unless there's some reason to believe they're more than scavengers. It's a waste of your time and a source of stress to the tarantula.

 

[Gail]

Humm - me thinks that the Code Monkey is a teensy weensy bit touchy on this subject
But me also thinks that I am going to have to start learning to live with the springies in some of my tanks now that I have some of the more aggressive species who won't tolerate a lot of messin around in their cribs.

Gail

 

[Vys]

*has nightmares about hateful disgusting revolting white mites crawling in big hermit crab enclosure..crabs moving around slowly , looking stupid, and the white things are everywhere...*CHANGEOSCENERY*..to bathe the little buggers..or, rather big crabs rather..and here we dip them into the water *dunk* *sploshsss* ..yes..what have we floating on the surface? Mites...where come they from? soft parts of the hermies...it's pretty scare really, it's so revolting*

 

[chaset]

Mites Bleh,

I have a mite plan, I keep spare enclosure's ready for quick T evacuation, call me anal, but thats one problem im not going to be held hostage to.