Hypoaspis predatory mites

varanidfan

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
63
Ok, so I just received my Hypoaspis miles predatory mites. I don't have any mite outbreaks or anything serious, but I have noticed some type of fungus gnat, fruit fly or something in a few of the more humid cages. There has also been a lot of discussion of them lately so I figured hey, lets show everyone what these guys are about.

I ordered 1 liter as I have several large arboreal enclosures and a bunch of small terrestrial and sling cages. Today I used less than half the liter. I added between 1-2 tbsp of the medium into each enclosure, less for sling boxes. 10-20 minutes before I added the predatory mites I shut off any heat sources and dampened the substrate as they like it a bit moist and room temp to slightly cooler than room temp.

They are way too small to photograph with any equipment I have, otherwise I'd have a pic of the actual animals. You can see them with the naked eye, especially when you put some medium into the cap, then empty it. You will see quite a few of them running around. It's good because you know you aren't just getting a plastic tube full of wet wood chips...lol

Now that all the cages, and roach bins have healthy doses of H. miles in them, I will sit back and let them do their thing. I will continue to add the remaining contents to all of the enclosures over the next 7-10 days.

If your Tarantula/scorpion/reptile has a good infestation, use more liberal dosages of the predatory mites. Keep some reserve for the following week to follow up on any stragglers or missed eggs. If you can actually see mites on your animal you will see a signifcant reduction in less than 24 hours with complete eradication of visual parasitic mites in 48 hours. This is from experience using them with bearded dragons.

I plan on doing this at least once a year now for my T's and roach colonies. I also dump in any remaining mites into my household plants.

heres a few pics:






these are the mites that I used Hypoaspis on the first time with bearded dragons. Wiped them out in 2 days and NEVER saw them again. I also didnt even do a substrate or cage furniture cleaning. I used an entire liter in one sitting for this. I wanted to make sure they were gone!
 

Sathane

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
2,327
I used these recently, also with no real mite infestation, and they are ridiculously easy to deploy.

I'm planning on doing a treatment of these every 6 months or so as a preventative measure.
 

arrowhd

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
656
I used this company/product last year with great results. No more mites. :)
 

Theneil

Arachnoprince
Joined
Oct 18, 2017
Messages
1,292
You say this could help with fly infestations? You have my attention!

What is the smallest sized invert i can 'treat' with these and not cause harm? (will they kill the new born nymphs?) Do they die off after a short while or do they sustain a noticeable population? My dubia colony has been completely decimated by flies and i cant quite be completely rid of them. However, even if mites aren't the monsters they are made out to be, i would prefer that they don't last because i would like to sell some of my roaches and i think having mites would make them undesirable...

Apparently i am resurecting the dead. Not sure how i even got to such an old thread though..... :banghead:
 
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1Lord Of Ants1

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
310
You say this could help with fly infestations? You have my attention!

What is the smallest sized invert i can 'treat' with these and not cause harm? (will they kill the new born nymphs?) Do they die off after a short while or do they sustain a noticeable population? My dubia colony has been completely decimated by flies and i cant quite be completely rid of them. However, even if mites aren't the monsters they are made out to be, i would prefer that they don't last because i would like to sell some of my roaches and i think having mites would make them undesirable...

Apparently i am resurecting the dead. Not sure how i even got to such an old thread though..... :banghead:
I’m not sure if I have the exact species, but I’ve had an active and predatory one show up in my collection years ago. They definitely keep mite (and springtail) populations low. They’re all over my roach cultures, and while I have seen them eat phorid fly eggs, they don’t seem to do enough. The inclusion of dermestid beetles has just above cured the phorid fly infestations I was dealing with for months.
 
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