Mites...

[B8709]

What exactly do mites do to a tarantula? I see small white moving bugs near my haplopelma. I really don't want to rehome it because I already have a couple times and it just now is getting settled...plus...I'm a little frightened to mess with it. It's moody lately...
Anyways...Will it kill my spider?

 

[jbm150]

Might not even be mites, could be springtails. I have a few in my regalis enclosure. They come out of the enclosure sometimes onto the counter, I try to crush 'em and they flip away. They don't harm anything though I suppose it means I'm missing some food boluses when I clean...

There are all kinds of mites as well, some harmful, most not. Some ride on the T, jumping off when there is food/moisture around. If you see them around the joints and soft parts of the T's exo, they could be parasitic mites. Those you have to watch out for.

 

[AudreyElizabeth]

A great way to tell which is which.

One of the things that occurs to me is that a lot of "mites" that people come here freaking out about probably aren't even mites at all, but rather some species of spring tail. There are literally 1000s of species of Collembola and to the (untrained) naked eye many are going to be indistinguishable.

Since they also can feed on prey remains, are attracted to moisture, multiply quickly, and can be seen as small critters swarming over the cage and sometimes even the larger invert, I just wonder how many people work themselves up over a perfectly harmless scavenger?

Do this check, approach the little things with a paint brush or something. Did it hop away? You've got some sort of collembola insect and eradicating it isn't going to accomplish anything. A springtail colony in your cage is just like maintaining isopods - it's a harmless insect which will actually compete with any actual mites.