Hisser Mites-- Should I Remove Them?

[houston]

Today I got 3 colonies in a local deal. As I was showing the parents the Dwarf Hissers, I noted small mites. I believe them to be A schaefari, and everything I've read says they're beneficial, and impossible to remove.

I'm going to downsize these colonies (there are probably a thousand individuals in the Dwarves alone), and plan on selling them. Do I need to remove these mites, or just mention it in my sales post?

 

[EulersK]

They're beneficial, removing them would be counter productive... and next impossible with a colony of that size. I don't think I've ever seen a hisser without these mites.

 

[Hisserdude]

I wouldn't even mention that yours have them in any ads you post, it's basically a given that most hisser cultures have them.

 

[houston]

Rad! I was hoping I wouldn't have to demite them all, haha.

And since everyone loves pictures, I went ahead and took some! I'm super proud of myself-- it was a heck of a bargain, and these guys all look good!

Halloween Hissers! There's a couple red protronum friends in there, too. I'll probably end up keeping a lot of these guys, since there's fewer. Apparently the neighborhood kids knocked it over, and the past owner had to pick them out of her garden (of course, her chickens probably found most of them first).

Madagascars! Unfortunately they're looking pretty hybridized-- a lot have that dark, thin body of a Wide Horn. I'm probably gonna select for the biggest, nicest gradients. The rest I'll either sell here as likely hybridized (but then again, aren't pretty much all of em?) or see if I can strike up a deal with a LPS.

THERES SO MANY DWARFS... These guys I'll select smaller, more colorful individuals, I think. I might keep a "typical" colony, and then see if I can play with the colors in another. I'm assuming that the smaller size = less time to maturity, so they'll be a nice starter genetic project.

I've only reared fast cockroaches before, so the fact that the Maddies didn't move unless I bothered them freaked me out haha. I'm very excited, overall! Are there any differences between them and dubia type roaches I should know about?

 

[WeightedAbyss75]

Awesome looking roaches! I recently bought 8-12 nymph G. oblongata and they came with mites too. They seem beneficial and are only really seen when one is freshly molted Also, off topic, are those enclosures heated? And what are they eating? Planning on getting more hisser species and would love to have a colony that size one day

 

[Acro]

Mites or no mites, makes no difference on health. I've had colonies, both ways, for many years.
Mites are easy to remove from roaches with a calcium powder (type used for reptiles) shaken in a bag. The mites simply cannot get a foothold on the roaches coated in calcium powder and they slip off. Once this is done, one would have to wash bins and replace any substrate, to eradicate the remaining mites.
Personally, I find hissers more attractive without mites running around all over them. It also helped when I had my educational bug show business, as the mites sometimes freaked out people more than the roaches did!

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

Weirdly, my hissers don't seem to have any mites... I kind of wish they did, it really adds to the interest of hissers for me.

I think I read somewhere that the mites might play a role in controlling fungi that leads to allergic reactions to hissers or something along those lines. It doesn't really seem to make sense though, since feces and other roach waste harbors fungus and triggers allergies just as much as living roaches and at least some roach allergies are caused by a protein found in cockroache's cuticle.