Mite Eggs on Millipede?

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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I know that Millipedes have mites that live on them. However today when I took out Sylvia I noticed that in addition to the her normal mites she had what looked like "eggs" all over her- especially down by her legs and around her "bum". They are basically little brown hard dots and there are ALOT of them. They are stuck onto her fairly well. I am so grossed out by them that I gently scrapped some off with my finger nail and a toothbrush. I left some..cause I know mites are good- but this many if they all hatch..she will be downright infested.

So are they mite eggs? Is it because I keep her enclosure too damp perhaps?

She is kept in a 10 gallon tank with about 5 inches of peatmoss substrate that she spends most of her time burrowed in. Once a week I dump some new water in there to keep it damp and mixt the soil around. I mist the top lightly every second day or so.

I have some wood in there for her to climb on/hide under- I am waiting on spring to come around so I can get some oak wood and leaves.

Any suggestions/ideas on what I should do, if anything are greatly welcome.

In the mean time I am going to shower....I feel like I have the little buggers crawling on me now!
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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Mites enter a hypopus phase which is common for different types of mites. They aren't eggs, they are thick shelled mites with suckers on the underside. If you use a 10X loop you would see they're still somewhat mobile. This only occurs late in the oubreak when the food begins to run out.
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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i made a toxic tincture that seems to be fairly efficacious against the hypopus phase mites i had on my centipedes... but i forgot the recipe

i am pretty sure it was water, 1-3% rubbing alcohol, 3-5% lemon juice, and a dash of dish washer detergent (to depolarize the water or whatever it does to break the tension problems water has). obviously when going the poison path you need to be aware that anythign that can kill mites could kill your pets. i applied using a paintbrush and probably used 2-3 drops of the tinc per application and applied like once a week for a month or so.

i wouldn't suggest even attempting my tinc until i find the recipe i used.
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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i made a toxic tincture that seems to be fairly efficacious against the hypopus phase mites i had on my centipedes... but i forgot the recipe

i am pretty sure it was water, 1-3% rubbing alcohol, 3-5% lemon juice, and a dash of dish washer detergent (to depolarize the water or whatever it does to break the tension problems water has). obviously when going the poison path you need to be aware that anythign that can kill mites could kill your pets. i applied using a paintbrush and probably used 2-3 drops of the tinc per application and applied like once a week for a month or so.

i wouldn't suggest even attempting my tinc until i find the recipe i used.
Let me know when/if you find it. Id be interestedin giving it a go...I want these guys gone!
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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blast.

the most recent recipe i can find is 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts water. i am almost positive i did one similar to what i mentioned in my first post, though.
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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You should replace the substrate and you can clean most of the mites off the animals but the only solution is not overfeeding (a less realistic solution is to use 100% sterile materials -which is not easy- and keep the cage on mite paper and start with grain-mite-free animals). Be careful cleaning mites off the animals since what doesn't kill the millipede can still damage it greatly and shorten its life.
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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blast.

the most recent recipe i can find is 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts water. i am almost positive i did one similar to what i mentioned in my first post, though.
How did you find that worked for you?

Elytra and Antenna- Thanks for your help :) I'll clean out her enclosure tonight when I get home from school. I have a few pieces of wood in there- will tossing them in the oven for a while kill the mites? Or am I better off just throwing out the wood?
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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well, i had a tiger centipede female that had laid eggs for me. i noticed after she was done brooding the babies that she had the hypopus phase mites along the borders of her tergites that were closest to her head and those hard to mouth groom. i painted the a weaker lemon juice solution (something like 10%) on a couple times and so no improvement over the weeks so i started using the stronger solution. i used it a couple times and then decided to wait and see what happened.

when i looked at the mites a couple months later there appeared to be no change, no worsening no improvment... but i kind of thought the mite bodies might be stuck on.

now that it has been many months later there are no mites in evidence.

i am guessing the centipede shed off the old skin and the mites were either killed by the poison or died from lack of food. since i had never starved off those mites before and seen them come back after centipedes molted i think maybe the poison had something to do with it. who knows though, it's not really a very well arranged experiment
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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I have a few pieces of wood in there- will tossing them in the oven for a while kill the mites? Or am I better off just throwing out the wood?
Sorry for the slow response. You could let the wood dry out for a few weeks or cook it for a while at a low temp. You'd usually want to do that with wood from outdoors anyway.
 
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