Mites stressing out African Giant Millipede? Advice please!

[maysisbugs]

My beautiful AGB has what I believe are the common brown mites pedes get. The ones claimed to be beneficial. However they really seem to populate fast and they stress her out. She spends a lot of her time “flicking” them off, trying to bite them, and she pushes them away from her face with her antennae and front feet. How can I help remove them? I’ve heard cornstarch or flour, predatory mites, possibly isopods? Please help, she’s the best girl ever and doesn’t deserve to be pestered. Thank you!

 

[Liquifin]

Where are the mites? Any pictures of the mites would help. Usually when people mention mites, it's usually a really bad infestation of them in an enclosure. So pictures of them would help a ton.

 

[HooahArmy]

Oh no! Not mites! Here's a post I made not too long ago about a remedy I learned that helped my own family buddies with an ungodly mite infestation:

"In order to get rid of the mites in entirety, you're going to need a lot of patience and some extra containers and substrate. It took me about 2 months to get a millipede family of 6 to be mite-free, but I am more than happy to share my technique. NMTs is absolutely right about the fruit trick. I wrote down everything I did in case I needed to do it again.
Day 1: Add slices of apple, cucumber, and some banana into main enclosure to draw away mites.
Day 3: Moved millies into a quarantine enclosure and deep-cleaned old enclosure. Added same fruits and veggies to quarantine enclosure.
Day 5: Moved millies again to quarantine enclosure 2 and deep cleaned 1st quarantine enclosure. Added same fruits and veggies to enclosure 2.
Day 8: Significantly less mites on the millies. Moved millies back to 1st quarantine enclosure and began to replace fruits and veggies daily.
Day 11 to Day 21: Continued to move millies every 3-5 days between quarantine enclosures and replaced fruits/ vegs daily. The millies were pissed, but I loved them too much to see mites on their bodies.
1 Month: No longer saw mites on the millipedes but continued the fruit and veggie change daily and moved the millies between the quarantine enclosures every 5 to 7 days.
1 month and 3 weeks: No more mites on the millipedes or on the fruits. Mite-free until today (4 years)!
The process is a headache and does stress the critters, hence I moved slowly with a little scoop to allow the millies to move themselves without needing to usher and scare them. The payoff was worth it, since every mite was guaranteed gone by the end of the process. Once free of mites, quite a few of them molted very quickly and the slim ones fattened. In totality, all my cost was that of one block of coconut coir, a share of my own fruits and veggies, and 2 bottles of enclosure cleaner from my local pet store. The relief for the millipedes was priceless.
I hope this helps you too!"

Here too is a link to the original thread and post: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/centipede-has-mites-can’t-get-rid-of-them.356410/#post-3295423

 

[maysisbugs]

I couldn’t get a good image of her currently. There’s probably 30ish of them total? They gather around and under her head mostly.

 

[maysisbugs]

Where are the mites? Any pictures of the mites would help. Usually when people mention mites, it's usually a really bad infestation of them in an enclosure. So pictures of them would help a ton.

I added a photo below! There’s no mites in the enclosure itself.

 

[maysisbugs]

Oh no! Not mites! Here's a post I made not too long ago about a remedy I learned that helped my own family buddies with an ungodly mite infestation:

"In order to get rid of the mites in entirety, you're going to need a lot of patience and some extra containers and substrate. It took me about 2 months to get a millipede family of 6 to be mite-free, but I am more than happy to share my technique. NMTs is absolutely right about the fruit trick. I wrote down everything I did in case I needed to do it again.
Day 1: Add slices of apple, cucumber, and some banana into main enclosure to draw away mites.
Day 3: Moved millies into a quarantine enclosure and deep-cleaned old enclosure. Added same fruits and veggies to quarantine enclosure.
Day 5: Moved millies again to quarantine enclosure 2 and deep cleaned 1st quarantine enclosure. Added same fruits and veggies to enclosure 2.
Day 8: Significantly less mites on the millies. Moved millies back to 1st quarantine enclosure and began to replace fruits and veggies daily.
Day 11 to Day 21: Continued to move millies every 3-5 days between quarantine enclosures and replaced fruits/ vegs daily. The millies were pissed, but I loved them too much to see mites on their bodies.
1 Month: No longer saw mites on the millipedes but continued the fruit and veggie change daily and moved the millies between the quarantine enclosures every 5 to 7 days.
1 month and 3 weeks: No more mites on the millipedes or on the fruits. Mite-free until today (4 years)!
The process is a headache and does stress the critters, hence I moved slowly with a little scoop to allow the millies to move themselves without needing to usher and scare them. The payoff was worth it, since every mite was guaranteed gone by the end of the process. Once free of mites, quite a few of them molted very quickly and the slim ones fattened. In totality, all my cost was that of one block of coconut coir, a share of my own fruits and veggies, and 2 bottles of enclosure cleaner from my local pet store. The relief for the millipedes was priceless.
I hope this helps you too!"

Here too is a link to the original thread and post: https://arachnoboards.com/threads/centipede-has-mites-can’t-get-rid-of-them.356410/#post-3295423

Thank you that was very helpful!! Were the mites you struggled with a different type or the same? I’m wondering that this method might not work, only because I believe they’re mites that live strictly on her. I can’t find them anywhere else in the enclosure and I tried feeding fruits for a few days and the mites weren’t interested. Hmm…

 

[The Snark]

Look like red spider mites. Harmless to animals. They hitch hike looking for suitable vegetation.

 

[HooahArmy]

Thank you that was very helpful!! Were the mites you struggled with a different type or the same? I’m wondering that this method might not work, only because I believe they’re mites that live strictly on her. I can’t find them anywhere else in the enclosure and I tried feeding fruits for a few days and the mites weren’t interested. Hmm…

The mites we had created an horrendous mite-party and were both red and white. I noticed on your pic that your pal had the red sort and I do also believe that they're the ones called Red Spider Mites. Odd thing is that those guys are vegetation feeders. You mentioned fruits, which we used too, but have you also tried veggies? The millipede breeder who sold us our millies recommended fruits AND veggies which we used at the same time, so perhaps some mites are more attracted to some food sources than another? I've never thought that deep into the details! I hope veggies too might work for you if you try them and wish the best for your poor girl.
The veggies we used were: spinach, strawberry stems and tops, melon leaves, fresh corn husks, fresh green beans, cucumber stems and peels, and lettuce.
We were pretty desperate; our millipede enclosure looked like salads every day.

 

[maysisbugs]

Look like red spider mites. Harmless to animals. They hitch hike looking for suitable vegetation.

Unfortunately they’re a different species. I’m not sure exactly which. I wish they were red mites, I love those bright colored little guys.

 

[The Snark]

Unfortunately they’re a different species. I’m not sure exactly which.

Let us know if you find out. Using magnification, can you see if they have that parasite style mouth parts? Sort or an elongated triangular harpoon like thing. Should be clearly visible from above with them on a contrasting color surface.

 

[Dry Desert]

Unfortunately they’re a different species. I’m not sure exactly which. I wish they were red mites, I love those bright colored little guys.

They are not red spider mites, they are the beneficial mites that live on AGB millipedes, and every AGB will be come in with them.
The only time they leave is if the host dies.
Mine always had some running around on them, don't mistake the continuous cleaning for the millipede being stressed, they are very clean creatures and spend a lot of time grooming.

If you have quite a few just take a small fairly stiff brush and flick them down the sink.

As mentioned, they are the beneficial mites that all Gigas carry. The mites don't seem to live on any other species.

I think this is the reason that USA and Canada banned the import of these because some authority though the mites would desimate your crops ??.

Anyway just flick off surplus and leave a few, they won't be a problem for the millipede.

 

[The Snark]

@maysisbugs Most common parasitic red mite: dermanyssids.

 

[maysisbugs]

They are not red spider mites, they are the beneficial mites that live on AGB millipedes, and every AGB will be come in with them.
The only time they leave is if the host dies.
Mine always had some running around on them, don't mistake the continuous cleaning for the millipede being stressed, they are very clean creatures and spend a lot of time grooming.

If you have quite a few just take a small fairly stiff brush and flick them down the sink.

As mentioned, they are the beneficial mites that all Gigas carry. The mites don't seem to live on any other species.

I think this is the reason that USA and Canada banned the import of these because some authority though the mites would desimate your crops ??.

Anyway just flick off surplus and leave a few, they won't be a problem for the millipede.

This was very reassuring and informative thank you so much!