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I have little white bugs in my tank and on my emp?? I just changed the substrate too... What are they. I know from research there are "good" mites and bad ones... they're the bad arent they?
Little white bugs on my Emp?
- Thread starter vtecgsr
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I dont think there baby cricks...
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well if they are whitish and walking around ON your emp then they likely arent bad ones.. are there alot or just a couple? I would take ur emp and put it in a separate container and remove any mites you see with a brush if its really bothering you. but if it is just a few whitish ones walking around they arent gonna bother your emp. its the little scale like ones that cluster around the joints of the claws and fleshy partys of your pet that will be the bad ones. at least as far as I know. but if Im wrong someone will correct me Im sure 
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I had mites attach to an emperor of mine some time ago, and I caught it too late, but you are right 'Arachnophilist' the ones that stick to and cluster on the scorp are bad. The ones on my emperor were brownish/tanish looked like sand and I couldn't really scrape them off too well.
There are carrion mites that eat dead stuff in the tank. I've had these too, and don't like them much, they are deep into the substrate, I would dig out the mites and there would still be more deeper down.
If you want them gone you'll need to do a complete substrate change, either bake the current soil at around 400° for a couple of hours or put new stuff in, always bake your decorations too (if they could be baked) like stones and logs etc. cleanse the tank before you reintroduce anything back into it first.
And to avoid new out breaks, make sure to keep the tank clean of dead stuff, cricket parts, scorp poo etc.
There are carrion mites that eat dead stuff in the tank. I've had these too, and don't like them much, they are deep into the substrate, I would dig out the mites and there would still be more deeper down.
If you want them gone you'll need to do a complete substrate change, either bake the current soil at around 400° for a couple of hours or put new stuff in, always bake your decorations too (if they could be baked) like stones and logs etc. cleanse the tank before you reintroduce anything back into it first.
And to avoid new out breaks, make sure to keep the tank clean of dead stuff, cricket parts, scorp poo etc.
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Any one that has emps will realize that if they look close enough they'll find these mites. They are impossible to avoid and i usually kill them when i can but for the most part they'll always be there.
I've had spring tails, never mites in any of my tanks though. You should try to get some isopods see if they will do good, but if they are attached to the scorpion you should try to swab them a tad with a q-tip. There is also a chemical that Eric has found is somewhat useful in the removal of mites.. If you search for "Mite Removal" or "Mite Removal Solution" or something of the like you may find it... it was most likely posted by Eric, "Ythier", so you maybe able to narrow it down through advanced search.
Ed
Ed
Tarangela
Arachnobaron
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I had this problem with my Emp. I did a substrate change, and that seemed to help. It worried me though. But if they are normal for Emps, should I be concerned?
Evil Juggalo
Arachnopeon
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Before i stopped feeding my emps crickettes, I bought this butane power long neck blow torch thing to kill the crix and mites.. Takes about 15 seconds to do a sweep over a 15 gal tank, kills the surface ones, didnt seem to negatively affect my scorps.. the torch is meant for lighting deep down candles or something.. they are like 5$ at WalGreens
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Sounds like these to me. I grabbed this out of the T section.
ALLOT of info on the mites if you do get around to doing a search on this site. They are most likely grain mites you have but I don't know for sure. They tend to be the ones that are giving us the most problems. I believe the reason they keep popping up in cages when they appear to be gone is because of a stage called the hypopus stage. They attach themselves to arthropods when food runs out. I guess nature's idea is that the animal will take them to a food source eventually since they can't move very far or fast on their own. There's a good chance that the animal the mites are on will eat the same thing the mites will, so it's a good bet for the mites when it comes to being carried to food and water. The mites in the hypopus stage can stay on your animal for MONTHS, even when you keep the animal in very dry conditions. So the mites just migrate off the animal and back on the sub that is nice and clean and start reproducing again, esp. when leftovers are there for the gain mites to eat. I know that the mite infestations I have gotten came from the store bought crickets and mealworms. The food the crickets and mealworms are fed contain grain mites. I don't see an end to the problem if you buy store bought feeder animals from stores (crickets mealworms). I think "control" may be the best approach. I've been keeping the mites under control with smaller predatory arthropods. I had two Ts for 2 years that I never kept on any sub, ...plastic only. They had mites from the crickets they were fed. I acquired them as slings. I hate mites! Here's a site but there are allot of others about the mites.
http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/fa...lour_mites.htm
ALLOT of info on the mites if you do get around to doing a search on this site. They are most likely grain mites you have but I don't know for sure. They tend to be the ones that are giving us the most problems. I believe the reason they keep popping up in cages when they appear to be gone is because of a stage called the hypopus stage. They attach themselves to arthropods when food runs out. I guess nature's idea is that the animal will take them to a food source eventually since they can't move very far or fast on their own. There's a good chance that the animal the mites are on will eat the same thing the mites will, so it's a good bet for the mites when it comes to being carried to food and water. The mites in the hypopus stage can stay on your animal for MONTHS, even when you keep the animal in very dry conditions. So the mites just migrate off the animal and back on the sub that is nice and clean and start reproducing again, esp. when leftovers are there for the gain mites to eat. I know that the mite infestations I have gotten came from the store bought crickets and mealworms. The food the crickets and mealworms are fed contain grain mites. I don't see an end to the problem if you buy store bought feeder animals from stores (crickets mealworms). I think "control" may be the best approach. I've been keeping the mites under control with smaller predatory arthropods. I had two Ts for 2 years that I never kept on any sub, ...plastic only. They had mites from the crickets they were fed. I acquired them as slings. I hate mites! Here's a site but there are allot of others about the mites.
http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/fa...lour_mites.htm