Massive Mite Infestations: A Must Read Thread

[Stylopidae]

I have a massive mite infestation in my roach colony. It's almost impossible to describe in words and pictures, but here goes:

The pics are kind of bad, but you get the gist of it. The third is a picture of a 10+square foot patch of ground that is covered in mites. Each little ball you see in the pic probably consists of at least five hundred of the buggers.

I'm planning on contacting RIESM in the next 24 hours so they can experiment with them, but I also plan on experimenting with my own cures.

So, if you have an idea of a cheap way of controlling mites that you'd like to see tested, just post it and I'll see what I can do.

I'm talking college-student-going-through-a-bitter-custody-battle-who-just-bought-three-plane-tickets-to-Texas-for-arachnocon cheap.

I'm going to isolate the roaches in the container and quarrantine them next week.

So...enjoy my misfortune and check back often

<edit> apparrently, they're harmless grain mites.

Who cares? I'm still gonna kill them. ;P

 

[Stylopidae]

The first thing I plan to try is tobacco. Nicotine is a potent insecticide and chewing tobacco is well capable of killing friut flies within minutes.

I plan on putting some sort of attractant (dead mealies most likely) in a deli cup sitting on a dish full of pipe tobacco to see if any make it up there. They got in the roach container by climbing the wall of the plastic, so a 1 inch high deli cup should be no problem.

Check back next week when I begin the experiment.

 

[swatc1h]

DAMMM. I see that those brown ones arent harmful but should considered that white ones are. That second reflection pix no i mean colony of mites is crazy

 

[Stylopidae]

They're the brown mites, but they're directly responsible for the death of two hissers. Not an opponent to take lightly.

The ones in my colony had the desency to dye themselves orange.

I'm guessing the same things kill them...so hopefully I can help a few folks out

 

[stonemantis]

I use denatured alcohol and a Q-tip to remove and kill my problematic mites. This works for a few months and then I have to repeat.

 

[Stylopidae]

I think we're waaaaay past the Q-tip, my mantodean friend

 

[stonemantis]

I think we're waaaaay past the Q-tip, my mantodean friend

LOL,

New Battle Plan:
I would put the denatured alcohol in an empty Windex spray bottle and spray the infected area and wipe it clean with a paper towel and discard or burn the paper towel. I know it's alot of work but, the above method works for me.

 

[OldHag]

OOOOO I got those in my mealworm cage once!!! I put in a little tupperwear with some fruit in it and they swarmed into it.. there were BILLIONS AND BILLIONS!!!! I finally had to take each worm, beetle and pupae out and rinse them off and start over with a new cage. I dont let it get as moist and now theyre all gone.
It was insane!!!
I also put the cage in the tub with about 2 inches of water. The mites, or whatever they are, swarmed out to get to the water. Waves of brown things everywhere... Maybe they wernt the same things...

 

[BigBryan]

gasoline and a match this goes for any infestation... a little something i learned back in elementry school

 

[Arlius]

Try various predators while your at it too. I dunno what you can collect around there, but maybe try some pill bugs and see what they do? Then maybe pseudo-scorps? Whatever you can find....

 

[rag]

transfer each and every roach in the collony to a clean habitat, and cleans the habitat... but this could take ages if you havea huge collony

i dont know if its of use but when i find a bunch of ants and silverfish in my house i spray a 1/2veggiewash and 1/2water mix on them and they die within seconds.

im a noob, but im trying my best to help with my 0.02

 

[PINK1081]

Have you tried soapy water. I use that on box elder bugs on my building in the fall when the are clustered. They are dead in less than a minute with just a squirt of dish soap in 1 gal of water. Mites are a different type bug but may be worth a try.

Jim

 

[Wikkids_Wench]

Hypoaspis Miles are a predatory mite that can be bought cheaply - we pay £10 for enough mites to cover several acres and certainly enough to protect 70 or so tanks against infestation by white mites!

If you can't get hold of any, take out the roaches, clean as many mites off them as you can, and put them on dry substrate (e.g. newspaper), in as dry an enclosure as possible. Clean the tank with a mild bleach solution, then leave it to stand in the sun - most mites despise sunlight. Then clean the glass over with a flat razor blade to remove eggs. Keep the tank at least a week or two before re-using it (mites have a short breeding/hatching cycle), and keep an eye out for more hatchlings. They hate salt water as well, so if the bleach solution doesn't zap them, try letting some strong salt water stand in the tank for a while before rinsing and drying it thoroughly.

 

[springhalen]

You might want to introduce buffalo worms (Alphitobius diaperinus) in your future roach colony. They will eat the same food stuffs as the roaches, without harming the roaches and they will eat the mites.
Last but not least: they are an excellent food item.
Interesting point about the predatory mites, what happens when they have annihilated the white mites? Will they become a nuisance looking for food or will they just die down?
Best
Flemming Andersen

 

[Normski2020uk]

An infestation that large there is only one option, complete eradication of everything, and unfortunatly that probably means your hissers. I had 3 hissers delived to me with mites, 4 attempts to clean them up, 4 complete clean outs, and destruction of my other feeders colonys, and they were still there. Eventualy it called for drastic measurs to prevent infection of my Scorps, spiders, and mantis. Boiling water, lots of it, bleach, and left to dry naturally. They havent been back since. I do swear by Hyapsis miles, but in this case the infection was to progressed and they couldent cope. Better to loss 3 hissers and a bunch of crickets that were doomed to be food anyway, than a collony of scorps.

 

[ScorpDude]

I'd be inclined to completely start again if I was you.

If you don't want to do that, use the h.miles mites, keep the enclosure competely dry, then in another month or 2 use them again to make sure the mites are completely gone.

 

[Scolopendra55]

Thats crazy!! I've yet to see a single mite in any of my 20 T's cages

 

[Wikkids_Wench]

Interesting point about the predatory mites, what happens when they have annihilated the white mites? Will they become a nuisance looking for food or will they just die down?
Best
Flemming Andersen

They die off once they have exhausted their food source (the white mites and any other mite or fly eggs or larvae in the tank).

 

[Stylopidae]

I washed out the roach colony, sprinkled a pack of ciggarettes across the rest of the mites and quarranteened the roach colony without food or water.

Then, I disposed of the mealworm colony where I thought the mites were breeding.

I was feeling pretty good about my impending victory over my foes, until I started to clean my house.

I went into my downstairs bathroom, which I never used and almost immediately started yelling curse words.

The mirror was covered in white dots. Moving white dots.

I'VE BEEN COMPROMISED!

I took out the trash and windexed the mirror, but I think they're on the floor.

This gets better and better.

 

[aveul]

Sorry for restarting this thread but...

My 3000+ dubia colony was full of brown mites in 2-3 days!!!

The new enclosure where I have moved them was not ventilated and all at room temp 26 celsius...

In 2 days I have had 20-30 fatalities... all dead roaches full of brown little things eating them...

Now I have moved all roaches in another container, spray all roaches with BETADINE - antiseptic and I have made a huge ventilation and not giving them fruits for some days to see if the mites ar apering again. In 2 days where huge colonies on the floor...

The bad thing is that all my T`s terrariums ar infected now with some white mites...

Wish me luck and give me some ideeas!