Help with Mites

[Zodiac]

I have a juvenile male emperor scorpion, and I've had him for two years.

The first year I had him he never once got mites, and now it seems he gets them once every couple months. I don't know what more I can do to prevent this from happening.

I feed him in a separate feeding tank. This tank never has a cricket in it for over 24 hours, and if it does the substrate is changed and replaced with new substrate.

The scorpion never stays in the feeding tank for more than 14 hours, and any cricket pieces left over are removed immediately.

The substrate is changed before every feeding.

He has mites again, and I find that completely cleaning out the tank, filling with with a mixture of boiling water and ivory soap, rids me of my mite problem. But they are usually back within a couple months.

He has not molted in about a year, and he should be getting close to doing so. I'm worried this mite problem is going to interfere and cause an unsuccessful molt, and possibly a death.

Please let me know what else I can do : note that predatory mites are unavailable for me and are not an option.

Some extra information: My scorpion has white marks on his claws, the back of his legs, around the joints and on some areas on the back. These are NOT mites, however (absolutely no movement), and the white "residue" can be removed with a wet Q-Tip, however it will build back up within a couple weeks. Is this caused by mites, or is it because his exoskeleton is so old?


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jacek Szubert]

I think you should try with Artemisia absinthium - don't know how exactly it's is called in English, maybe wormwood? Anyways it's herb or so, it should be available in every pharmacy for a change. Smell of it isn't liked by mites, so just putting small amount of this herb to the tank should keep them far away from scorpion. Personally I've never tried this method (didn't have problem with mites so far), but few of my friends praise efficacy of this. Worth to try I think.

 

[Zodiac]

-e- That's not going to work since it's also not available.
I have been doing some research and I've realized that some mites are of no harm to the scorpion.

These mites are usually in the substrate just outside my emp's hole, but I have never once seen one on the scorpion itself, even though I've had to deal with them about five times.

They are rather large, slow moving, white, and round. They don't climb onto the glass, or anything else for that matter.
I never see them swarming anywhere, nor are they in the water dish.

Are these mites predatory to my scorpion? Or are they just harmless scavenger mites that will die off on their own? (Since I don't feed the scorpion in the same enclosure)

 

[Gregg M]

You are looking at substrate mites and they are of no harm to your scorpion... Infact they are a great little sanitation crew that will eat fungus, fecal matter, and uneaten prey... If they get to really high numbers, all you need to do is change the substrate...

 

[Zodiac]

Wow what a relief! Thanks a million! =]

But do you have any idea what has been causing the whitening of the exoskeleton? It almost looks like dried poop, but it's almost embedded into the exoskeleton itself.

If I scrub him down with water most of it comes off, but it will come back within a week or so.

 

[Nomadinexile]

If it's kept in a communal tank outside of feeding, then it's probably just poop. If not, it could be a mold or fungus of some sort, but that's just a guess.

 

[Zodiac]

So best way of getting rid of it is just gently rubbing him down with a wet cotton swap like I have been doing?