Mites on my AGB (Pics)

[verry_sweet]

I need ideas here. They mites seemed to have appeared over night. The smaller of the two has been buried for a couple days now. This morning she was out but thrashing about a bit and that’s when I noticed the mites. I put both of my millipede girls on dry paper towels out of my spider room but I’m not sure if that will do the trick. Also I’m in the process of completely drying out the tank but suggestions on how to properly handle that are welcome as well. Any and all help would be extremely appreciated.

Thanx
Steph

 

[beetleman]

wow that's alot mites,and they are not the ones that live on millies that we see all the time,dry papertowel is a good idea i know it works great on centipedes(ive had that issue before,worked everytime) i'm sure it will work for the millies aswell,just make sure there is a small waterdish for them,it may take acouple of weeks to dry the mites up completely (it did for the centies)or maybe sooner,good luck

 

[P. Novak]

Dang Stephanie that sure is alot of mites. I'm pretty sure AGBs are prone for getting mites so hopefully it'll be ok. You're doing everything right so far just make sure it has a waterdish in there so it doesn't dehydrate like the little pesky mites. Good luck! Those are great pictures btw!

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Those don't look like normal commensal mites, and what a TON of them! I hear if you are VERY careful not to clog the breathing pores, you can use a dampened Q-tip to carefully swipe them away. This would be my suggestion. Commensal mites look more like the pic below, are very mobile, and quite large... plus they're normally in reasonable numbers.

 

[verry_sweet]

Yeah it is a ton of mites. That’s why I’m so concerned I have no idea where they came from either. My tanks are always kept clean. I keep pill bugs in there and I check on everybody at least once a day :?

I tried wiping them off with a wet paper towel, which didn’t do much, but I will definitely try the q-tip idea. After doing some reading on here apparently these mites go dormant when they are kept dry so it doesn’t help much. Also they do not harm the millipede they just hitch a ride on it. That’s of course all speculation since I don’t know what kind of mites they are.

Thanx for all your suggestions. Hopefully someone who has experience with something similar can chime in.

 

[verry_sweet]

In an attempt to get rid of these I tried running water, wiping them off, brushing them off with an old toothbrush but nothing worked.

So I decided to take an old washcloth and purposely agitate her until she secreted cyanide, which I wiped all over her. It seemed to have worked she is still lightly covered but not nearly as badly.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

The secretion technique is an interesting one -- it's supposed to be a pest-repellant, so I'm surprised no one else thought of it! (Lemurs will do the same thing to get rid of mosquitos and such by rubbing an angry millipede all over them.)

By the way, millipedes in the Spirostrepsida* order don't secrete cyanide. These guys are armed with benzoquinone, a powerful oxidizer -- that's why it turns your skin brown. If you know much organic chemistry, it's a phenol ring with two ketone groups at either carbons 1 and 3 or 1 and 4.

*I have no idea if that's the proper spelling, but it's close.

 

[verry_sweet]

Thank you for the correction IHeartMantids. I am still fairly new to keeping millipedes and trying to get all the info I can get my hands on so it’s appreciated

 

[millipeter]

The defensive secret of the most millipedes (Julida, Spirostreptida, Spirobolida) have a base mixture of 2-methyl-chinon and 2-methyl-3-methoxy-chinon and several precursors. Only the flat millipedes (order Polydesmida) secrete cyanide. You can recognise it by the almond like smell.

@very-sweet: Very interesting that it worked with brushing with the defensive secret. But you have to be careful cause the millipedes can toxicate themselves at higher doses near the trachae. Maybe you can brush just one part of the millipede and not the whole one at one day.

 

[verry_sweet]

Here are some pictures I took today. These are the best out of about 500 I took. At this size it was very difficult to get a clear pic.

Upside down

 

[verry_sweet]

I started looking on line and found this site. They look very similar to me and I’m wondering if they could be the culprits from improperly treated leaf and wood litter I put in the tank.

Fourth picture on the page.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/soil_mite.htm

 

[Mr. Mordax]

They do look similar, but I wouldn't think those are the guys you found on your millipede based on the website's description. Yours behave more like a parasitic species of mite than a soil mite.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of different mites out there. 45,000 described species according to Wikipedia, anyway.

 

[sidguppy]

Dunno how it is in the US, but over here you can get predatory mites. mite-killing mites!

they're bred and used for growing vegetables without having to use pesticides. there are dozens of companies breeding all kinds of predatory critters. little igneumon wasps to get at lice, caterpillars, bugs etc, predatory mites, some species of small beetles; you name it.
it's called "biological agriculture".

there's a species of mite that's also sold to destroy bloodmites in reptile-cages and on reptiles. very popular in the community of Bearded Dragon keepers.

I once had a huge uncontrollable mite infestation in all my terrariums; the beetle-cages, the milli cage, the stick-insect cage, my tarantula's......
I ordered a load of predatory mites and they wiped the critter mites right off everything! even crawled all over the tarantula's to kill and eat the mites hiding on the mandibles

works like a charm.

so maybe they have a company in the Us that breeds these mites as well? it's a pet-safe solution for mites.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

There is indeed such a company, but I can't remember for the life of me what it's called -- and there's posters for them in almost every room where I work! They even sell (I think) the beloved Hypoapsis mites that I seem to have picked up naturally in most of my invert tanks.

I should be doing some weekend work today so I'll try to remember the company name.

As a side note, the wild predatory mites are kind of cool to watch (through a microscope, anyway). I watched one run around until it found a plant-feeding mite to eat and just sucked it dry. I saw another one snacking on a fallen comrade.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Well, I didn't get into the lab yesterday, but I'm there now.

The company is Koppert Biological Systems, and their US home-gardener website (www.koppertonline.com/home.asp) has two species of predatory mites available. Unfortunately, neither is the hypoapsis mite everyone keeps talking about -- that one I could only find on their commercial / lab-type website.

Anywho, here's the two links: Phytoseiulus persimilis and Amblyseius cucumeris. They're not too spendy, but it lists the first as being effective only on spider mites.

Regarding the second (which FunnyLori reccomends),
"Targets various thrips species, preying on hatching eggs and larvae. Predatory mites also eat spider mites (f.e. strawberry mite, broad mite), several other mites, honeydew and pollen. THRIPEX-PLUS is packaged in sachets that can be hung directly on plants." (Koppert)

Those are a little more expensive but one order is 25,000 mites. If more than one person wants those someone (FunnyLori in background, 'cause she wants somes ) could arrange a group-order type thingy where everyone splits the cost.

 

[Staley]

pedes can secrete cyanide???????????? Is it enough to kill a human? please someone tell me more or post a link lol

 

[Mr. Mordax]

That's only mildly unrelated, so I'll go ahead and answer you.

Millipedes in the plate millipede family, such as the little black guys with yellow spots native to the Pacific Northwest, can secrete a cyanide compound as a means of self-defense (all millipedes secrete something -- it varies from order to order -- but AGBs secrete benzoquinones, powerful oxidizing chemicals). If you threaten one and smell almonds on it, that means it has secreted some amount of cyanide.

Basically, just wash your hands after handling a millipede and don't eat them. Or sniff them too vigorously.

I'm not positive, but I doubt one millipede has enough to kill a human. I wouldn't advise trying to find out yourself.

 

[Staley]

Gonna have to try on my aunt (whom I happen to dislike )

 

[dtknow]

Gonna bring this one up but which is a more toxic chemical to us? I know benzoquinones can cause all the manner of health problems from constant exposure(such as from lesser mealworms infesting poultry farms), and are a possible carcinogen. But cyanide don't sound pretty either.