Milipedes + Mites

Valael

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
756
Trying t be 200% sure here.

Mites on Milipedes is normal, right? I just bought an African milipede and I noticed little mites running around when I got home. (They put him in a large plastic container, I guess some of the mites got dislodged.)

And if that is indeed normal, are they safe to have around Tarantulas? Or should I worry about them spreading?
 

atavuss

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
1,031
Originally posted by Valael
Trying t be 200% sure here.

Mites on Milipedes is normal, right? I just bought an African milipede and I noticed little mites running around when I got home. (They put him in a large plastic container, I guess some of the mites got dislodged.)

And if that is indeed normal, are they safe to have around Tarantulas? Or should I worry about them spreading?
most people say the mites are harmless and eat leftover foods, but I don't feel comfortable housing my black african milli in my herp/invert room because of the mites on it (I have it in another room with some WC new mexico desert millis).......I rinsed it under the sink with a spray and managed to dislodge a great percentage of them and I have been keeping the milli on dry forest bed to see if the mites will dry out and die off, so far after several weeks there are STILL mites on it but in far fewer numbers.
Ed
 

skinheaddave

SkorpionSkin
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 15, 2002
Messages
4,341
Our millipedes share their enclosure with all sorts of little critters. Tamara (Arachnogirl) challenges you all to take a close look at any house-plant dirt. You are likely to find it swarming with all sorts of little critters of a similar nature. As for spreading to other enclosures, we had our millipedes and first chilean rose in a split enclosure (home-made glass cube with glass divider) for many months and they never appeared in the T's enclosure. Maybe we were lucky, I don't know. Anyhow, the G.rosea is now in a different enclosure in one of our invert racks and the millipedes are still in the glass one waiting to be relocated to a new enclosure in our new reptile room.

Cheers,
Dave
 

Wade

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
2,929
Millipedes are known to have symbiotic mites, and the ones you're seeing are most likley those. However, that doesn't mean they can't also get parasitic mites, I assume they can, although it's questionable weather they would be comunicable to other creatures, most parsitic mites are very host-specific.

I personally don't worry too much about mites going from millipedes to tarantulas. When I do have a mite problem, I purchase predatory mites from biconet.com (Hypoaspis sp.) and treat all my humid enclosures, millipedes included.

Wade
 
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