Help!!! Roach colony infested with mites!

[Arach-attack]

As I was checking my roaches this afternoon I was very suprised to find that white mites were moved right in with my Discoids. I have since rounded up all the roaches and put them in a new container. I have taken everything else that was in there and nuked it with pesticide and trashed it.

Okay but here's the question there are obviously still some mites on the roaches themselves so is there any way to save the colony or is it a lost cause?

I'm guessing ventilation was the problem but how do I prevent mites from infecting my Lobster and Orange Head colonies?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Did you use substrate in your container?

 

[Arach-attack]

Yes. I had about a half inch of peat, a small dish for food, and one for water crystals (bug gel).

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I guess since roaches are non dangerous animals you could check them all individually and brush off any mites they might have between their legs and on other places. From your description it doesn't sound as if they were mites which go for the roaches themselves but rather happen to crawl on them.

Obviously the individual checking is a bit hard if you have more than several houndred roaches and not enough patience and even if you have, you'll certainly miss some mites.

You could/should check if the roaches you are keeping will fare well without substrate. I keep my two colonies without substrate, but those are dubia and tartara roaches.

Kept dry, without substrate and otherwise clean the mites will die off soon, but since baby roaches might need the adults poo to eat (not sure about yours, but dubia babies do that) you might lose some of those in the cleanup process.

Hopefully someone else knows more about this than me, since I don't have the right suggestions for your types of roaches.

 

[james]

Mites

The best way to kill the mites is to dry everything out for a few days. Make sure your food isn't getting wet. That is most likely where the mites came from. Some people use pill bugs in their roach containers and I've heard they actually eat the mites.
James
www.blaberus.com