Incubatory question

[JDeRosa]

A friend gave me some T's yesterday. The enclosures had mites. I put T's in some small plastic containers with nothing in them to kill off the mites. How long should I wait to rehouse them?

 

[GPulchra]

Try to rehouse them right away. Completely clean the containers and use new soil. Try to kill off any and all mites you see.

 

[JDeRosa]

but then I will be providing moisture to any remaining mites. I want them to die off first.

 

[NikiP]

Buy new soil & bake it Smells, but it'll kill stuff. Just put however much you need on a baking pan, a couple of inches thick.

http://www.gardenscure.com/420/planting-indoors/96363-baking-dirt.html

 

[Stan Schultz]

A friend gave me some T's yesterday. The enclosures had mites. I put T's in some small plastic containers with nothing in them to kill off the mites. How long should I wait to rehouse them?

You will never entirely rid yourself of mites, even with springtails or isopods, because you're constantly reintroducing them every time you feed your tarantulas or even work in the cages. Crickets and cockroaches automatically come with their own compliment of mites or mite eggs, and you'll be freely distributing more mites and mite eggs on your hands and implements as you work in different cages in your collection.

At best you can only reduce their numbers to acceptable limits. If you're caring for tarantulas that have leg spans greater than 1-1/2" to 2" (4 to 5 cm) you can follow the instructions in http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html.

If your tarantulas are younger/smaller than that your best defense is to merely keep a second set of containers ready but completely dry in anticipation. (Mites don't reproduce in completely dry containers.) When you see mites in any spiderling's container you merely add a little water to the substrate in the new/clean container and switch the spiderling into it. Then promptly sanitize the old container (empty, wash with hot soapy water, rinse well) and set it up, ready for the next switch.

Note that, for the exact reasons itemized several paragraphs above, Herculean efforts to sterilize infested cages are a complete waste of time and effort; and often a danger to you, your tarantulas, or your housemates. Good husbandry practices are the key.

Okay, now you've got to tell us what you got and how big they are! And, photos are definitely in order here!