Mite problem, help needed

ScorpSarah

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Messages
50
So with my Heterometrus scorpion, I've been having a bit of a mite problem. I have a humidifier and heat lamp for her so I know that encourages the development of mites. When she feeds I take a flashlight and scan the entire cage for cricket parts but I can never find any, but it never fails that a week or so later I pick up her hide and there are mites under there WITH HER! There is never an abundance of them but they are there and it makes me so upset I have to do an emergency tank cleaning every 2 weeks... And it keeps happening. Is there any way to prevent this or at least decrease the frequency of it happening?
 

Christianb96

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 7, 2017
Messages
284
first pictures always help. second you should change your substrate. and allow it to dry up a bit, just make sure your scorpion has water. if you continue to have issues with mites, you can buy predatory mites that will kill the others and theu shouldnt take over the tank. something that helps me is having a clean up crew that will get the small bits of leftovers inside burrows.
 

ArachnoDrew

Arachnoprince
Joined
Feb 1, 2017
Messages
1,585
Dry out the sub to reduce them. Remove as many as you can yourself. Like christian said. Pics of the enclosure helps. Chances are theyre too much moisture in the enclosure and you may be keeping it too damp
 

Alexw

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
16
I had some mites in my humid vinegaroon tank after only a week. Your mites are either surviving the cleaning or coming in on the new crickets. I would get new decorations and hide and clean them with soap and water or a diluted bleach solution before putting them in. I also would buy new substrate. I used a combination of eco-earth and sand substrate and baked it along with my cork bark at 250F for an hour to make sure everything that could be in it was dead. Microwaving it is also an option. Do you buy crickets from a local shop? If so, switch to a different shop and see if the mites come back. All of this may be overkill, but it's what I did and the mites never came back.

The young mites are microscopic. If you see a few adult mites there could be many practically invisible babies that can hide anywhere.

As a last note, if the mites decide they no longer like your tank they could attach themselves to your scorpion and hope to hitch a ride to greener pastures. Get rid of them before they get to this stage because it can be dangerous to try to remove them from the scorpion.
 
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