HELP: Therea colony destroyed by mites

[mereobiologist]

I've had a small Therea petriveriana colony for about a year. I started with some small nymphs and the colony was just getting into its own: there were about a dozen adults who had just started dropping egg-sacks and as many large nymphs. Today, after being away from the animals for a week, I found them all dead. All the dead adults and large nymphs and the sides of the tank were covered in tiny white mites, like someone sprinkled a whole bag of flour over them (a week ago I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary).

I don't know what to do now. There still are some live small nymphs, probably from the egg-sacks dropped recently, and I'm not sure I could get them all just by sifting. I would hate to throw them away. I'm also worried that my colonies of porcelains, harlequins and bananas that were on the same shelf will get infected.

I also don't know how the mites got there, so I can take precautions for the future. It can't have been the substrate, which hasn't been added to for months and which I baked for several hours before adding it. I've had a moth problem in the animal room in recent weeks. Could the moths have been a vector for the mites?

Do any of you have any suggestions about what I should do to save the surviving nymphs and the other colonies? Has anyone had a problem like this before?

Thanks,
Jura

 

[tin man]

I don't know what to do, but I hope you find out

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Grain mites are tiny and you don't notice them (and generally can't see them) unless there's a mass breakout. Your problem likely stems from the fact Therea don't eat very much and it's easy to overfeed them (excess food = grain mite outbreaks).

I've had a small Therea petriveriana colony for about a year. I started with some small nymphs and the colony was just getting into its own: there were about a dozen adults who had just started dropping egg-sacks and as many large nymphs. Today, after being away from the animals for a week, I found them all dead. All the dead adults and large nymphs and the sides of the tank were covered in tiny white mites, like someone sprinkled a whole bag of flour over them (a week ago I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary).

I don't know what to do now. There still are some live small nymphs, probably from the egg-sacks dropped recently, and I'm not sure I could get them all just by sifting. I would hate to throw them away. I'm also worried that my colonies of porcelains, harlequins and bananas that were on the same shelf will get infected.

I also don't know how the mites got there, so I can take precautions for the future. It can't have been the substrate, which hasn't been added to for months and which I baked for several hours before adding it. I've had a moth problem in the animal room in recent weeks. Could the moths have been a vector for the mites?

Do any of you have any suggestions about what I should do to save the surviving nymphs and the other colonies? Has anyone had a problem like this before?

Thanks,
Jura

 

[cacoseraph]

i would be surprised if the mites were the actual killer. i would try to find out what *actually* killed your roaches. the grain mites are typically present in very low numbers all the time... but when conditions are right they bloom and become very noticeable. they will bloom in an unbelievably short amount of time when they have dead bodies to process.

 

[mereobiologist]

I haven't been able to find any other possible cause of the die-off. No changes in husbandry or environment, no other visible parasites. I did, however, find mites covering a still live nymph, so they're still my prime suspect. If you have any other ideas about what could be going on, please let me know. The colony is kept in a climate-controlled room at 82F and 70% humidity, on a mixture of sterilised coconut mulch, sphagnum and oak leaf litter. I offered them fruits and veggies every few weeks and removed them when they got mouldy.

At any rate, I released some Hypoaspis into the tank today, so hopefully they'll take care of the other mites.

 

[Choobaine]

I know I can't really help on this because I'm as stumped as you where they came from - and where they went but I had a H-H-H-Huuuuge infestation that came from NOWHERE all at once and then about two weeks later just vanished! I really do hope they vanish for you. I know how heartbreaking it is to see your stock and get incredibly angry as to why something so useless can ruin it all. They were on all my plastic boxes and congregated underneath all the edges, and all over it, a huge huge tank of mine was smothered. I couldn't see where they were gathering nutrition from either! I'd wipe them away and the next morning there would be double the amount. I'm glad they are gone now...

As I said I do really hope they go away for you.

 

[cacoseraph]

I haven't been able to find any other possible cause of the die-off. No changes in husbandry or environment, no other visible parasites. I did, however, find mites covering a still live nymph, so they're still my prime suspect. If you have any other ideas about what could be going on, please let me know. The colony is kept in a climate-controlled room at 82F and 70% humidity, on a mixture of sterilised coconut mulch, sphagnum and oak leaf litter. I offered them fruits and veggies every few weeks and removed them when they got mouldy.

At any rate, I released some Hypoaspis into the tank today, so hopefully they'll take care of the other mites.

food is probably a good possibility for a "badthing" vector.

i am VERY particular about what i feed my roaches!

no leafy greens unless certified organinc AND pesticide free. no high surface area to volume ratio foods unless "COAPF". peel everything.

also... do you have pest roach species. those little so and so's can get into cages and bring nastiness with them



do you know what kind of mites they are? grain mites are quite common and can spread from other cages and are not known to be deletorious. they enter a hypopus stage where they attach themselves to other animals and it looks like they are vampiring but they aren't. grain mites bloom quite fast in the right conditions and are quite common in the exotic invert hobby