Mite problem... a big one too

[Eclipse]

So I never had a might problem before so I really never read the "HELP!!! MITES OMGGG!!!!" threads. One day I decided to feed a dead cricket to my isopod colony. I noticed a few mites the next day, but they always decline somehow so I never bother with them. After a few weeks I went on with life until today when I got home from school. I see my containers, tanks, and drawer covered in a sh**load of white dots. There were so many of them it looked like waves in motion. I threw the container they were origination from which was the isopods. There were seriously so many of them that you couldn't barely see through the container anymore :barf:

There are still a lot left but wiped the drawer with a napkin soaked with rubbing alcohol. A lot of them have moved on to my mealworm colony and a little are crawling over my T's enclosure.

You see them between the lines I made? Just imagine a group of that swallowing the whole container until you can't see through it anymore. That's how it was like on my isopods container.

You can literally see them. They're the little white dots

I'm just worried about them getting my T's. I'm getting itchy all over just by writing this thread.

 

[Crysta]

well I would say keep the subtrate dry for a few days...
and...
get some petrolium jelly, and a little container. I guess you can stick it around the top so meal worms don't get in it. Then you put the jelly inside, then a dead cricket inside...and mites go eat some dinner and get stuck to the jelly and die. put a few of these around your enclosure...see what happens.
also check this out
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/spiders-inverts/388524-guide-mites.html

ops forgot to put, not my idea......i can't find the original poster of it though. haha!

 

[bankrobber89]

you need to take everything out of every enclosure you've got and clean clean clean. get new substrate and sterilise everything with boiling water just to play it safe. Hope this helped

 

[Stylopidae]

Those are grain mites, and chances are they're actually coming from the mealworms.

Immediately sift your mealworms, set the adults and larvae aside and then discard the substrate. Replace with substrate that's been baked.

There's not a whole lot you can do, unfortunately. Grain mites are ubiquitous...they were in the substrate in low numbers when you brought it in. They multiplied until they reached plague proportions and now here you are.

 

[Eclipse]

Threw out the isopods completely and looks like the mealworms are little too late to save... Workin to save my T's now. I cleaned the containers, put in new substrate, and wiped off the table some more. No matter how hard I try I always find little specks of them. There are a couple on my T's too. I don't care if it's just 3 mites. I want them all gone. Been going back and forth with these guys. This means war.

 

[bankrobber89]

I hope you get rid of all the little buggers

 

[Stylopidae]

They're probably not going to hurt anything. Just hit everything with windex every few days, remove all carbohydrates (dog food included) and you'll eventually stop seeing them.

 

[ZephAmp]

Decrease your humidity.
I had a big problem with these before I started keeping my mealworms in open containers; now I haven't seen them in a good year or two.