Mites? babay crickets?

Cringles

Arachnopeon
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Apr 26, 2007
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Ive just looked into my H. Lividum tank, and notice tiny white things crawling on its hide. Im not looking forward to moving the H. Lividum out of its tank. then i looked into my b. Smithi tanks, and notice small black things crawling about the place, i think there tiny crickets, but cant be sure.


Edit: im pretty sure there baby crickets now, would these cause any harm at all, or should i try and catch them and use them for my slings?
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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Even at that size if you take a pen or something and try and touch them if they are crickets they will jump. So try that and we can go from there.
 

Cringles

Arachnopeon
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Apr 26, 2007
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Definalty crickets in the B. Smithi tanks, thanks for that tip. Cobablt tank, im pretty sure its mites, to the humen eye, well, my eyes, there look kinda brownish/white, white like part at the back, brown up front.
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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They might be freshly hatched baby crickets that are just starting to darken........ Mites don’t move all that fast so there should be a noticeable difference between the speed of a mite and the speed of a cricket.

If you find them to be mites, make sure the water dish says full and is changed regularly and allow the substrate to dry out. That should take care of them, that or you can do a super clean and dump it all out and start over depending on how long its been since the last time you did that, it might be a good idea. But if the setups are fairly new then drying out the tank will kill the mites and keeping the water dish fill will kill the crickets.
 

JMoran1097

Arachnoangel
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usually if there are baby crickets in my enclosure, they just jump into the water dish and drown. then i just empty the water and refill it.
 

Cringles

Arachnopeon
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Thanks for the replies, is it odd that the 'mites' are only onto of the spiders hide? i cant find them anywere else in the tank, im trying to get my cobalt out in the open so i can see if there on her.
 

JMoran1097

Arachnoangel
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Thanks for the replies, is it odd that the 'mites' are only onto of the spiders hide? i cant find them anywere else in the tank, im trying to get my cobalt out in the open so i can see if there on her.
well it might be a bit warmer for them since the heat rises in a tank. it's the next best place for them to congregate other than the substrate. i'm sure there are other ones on the substrate though, you'd probably just hafta dig around a bit.
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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Maybe she is hiding her food remains and they are having a population explosion and coming out of there now in search of more food. Bit extreme but a possibility.
 

neanyoe

Arachnosquire
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May 17, 2007
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I've seen the white ones. they are small and barely move but you can tell its them compared to the substate.

I see them after i throw a cricket in there. I assume they pop out of the cricket.. so it must be babies. because of that I just leave them in there.

no harm yet :/
 

Talkenlate04

ArachnoGod
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Cricket babies dont pop out of the mothers, they have to be laid in the substrate before the T eats the cricket. So the things you are seeing are really mites feeding on the remains of crickets after she is done feeding.
They people that get cricket eggs and babies the most are people that might throw in 4 crickets at a time and one goes un touched for a few days and it wanders through the tank laying the eggs that will hatch at around the same time a few weeks later sometimes less.
 

neanyoe

Arachnosquire
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i dont know where those mites would come from. i feed once or twice a week, depending. and i watch the crickets get eaten the second they get dropped into the enclosure. none of which are left around roaming long enough to lay eggs. nor are the remains left around for mites to form. i only have a few Ts so i have the time to watch them closely and see each one eat.. i highly doubt they are mites. more so baby crickets.

i have yet to test that theory of touching them and seeing if they jump. next on my list of observation.
 

† [sandi] †

Arachnoknight
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Apr 10, 2006
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how long is that you have that substrate in the tank? maybe you should replace it with new one.

regards

sandi
 

Cringles

Arachnopeon
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Apr 26, 2007
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Sorry i didnt reply with what i did, ive only had the H. Lividum for a few months, i did replace the substrate, and everything looks fine now, though my Cobalt doesnt seem to like the flower pot hide, hope it digs its own burrow!
 

JMoran1097

Arachnoangel
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Sorry i didnt reply with what i did, ive only had the H. Lividum for a few months, i did replace the substrate, and everything looks fine now, though my Cobalt doesnt seem to like the flower pot hide, hope it digs its own burrow!
ditch the flower pot hide. it's completely useless since she won't hide in there, but burrow like hell. maybe find a soft fake jungle plant to place in her enclosure that way if she does want to make a mad dash somehow, it's under the protection of a leaf or something.
 

Cringles

Arachnopeon
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Apr 26, 2007
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Thanks JMoran, ive just taken out the slower pot, and put in a few fake leaves and a bit of moss, almost got bit!
 
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