Mites!

[xCzD]

I recently purchased an H. Lividum, which promptly molted (two days later.) I went to feed it 4 days later, and it ate, then last night (the same day it ate) I noticed little white dots (MITES!) on a piece of wood that I had as a hide until my T decided to burrow (still hasn't :?) so I semi-freaked out and initiated extraction of my poor spider 10 minutes of chasing it around with a catchy cup, I figured hell, if I get bit, oh well, and let it crawl onto my arm. I put my arm to a Tupperware with ventilation holes poked in it, and there it still sits.
I'm going to boil the wood since it's small enough, and change all of the substrate (eco-earth,) but I was wondering if anybody could point me in the direction of how to NOT get mites (I still think they're from the crickets.) I've heard of using isopods, which I probably will end up doing, but do they really work that well? Since H. Lividums need moist and humid environments, I don't want to dry out the cage, but is there any other viable way to permanently(or close to it,) rid my T cage of this scourge known as mites?

Thanks!

 

[Terry D]

xCcD, Welcome aboard. From your description of little "white" things it sounds much like your infesteation could be springtails or scavenger mites. I get these from time to time in my enclosures and they don't seem to bother the t's at all. I merely let things dry up a bit and they go away. Not saying for certain that is what you have, though. Run a search on mites and you'll find quite a few threads that would likely help.

Cheers,

Terry

 

[xCzD]

Thank you for the feedback. I don't think they're springtails, since, well, they don't have a tail :}, and my brother thinks they might actually be from the wood, since I got it from a local park. I did rinse and bake it, but maybe something could have lived. Like I said, I'm going to boil it and stuff, so hopefully they don't come back, because I don't like chasing that particular T around it's tank and stressing it out because it tends to be a meany

 

[Terry D]

Meany!? Naah..... Never heard of this in reference to H lividum

Good luck with it!

Terry

 

[xCzD]

Thank you!

 

[Motorkar]

If you want to run cleanup, Empty everything, then wash the enclosure with warm water. Though you can't get rid of mites once you have them. Just dry up the enclosure if you don't want to clean it. Also I dobt it would come from the wood since you baked it. They are most probabbly becouse of dead cricket remains. Turn off the lights and light up your flash light to see how many buggers you have in there.

 

[Lisa Gayle 713]

@ Motorkar,
I'm sorry for the ignorance, but how does a flashlight particularly help you find mites? Do they appear blue or something?

 

[Motorkar]

You see them more easly with flash light than with normal light.

 

[xCzD]

Thank you Motor.
I have since cleaned out the tank completely and boiled the wood again (since that's where they were chilling,) and I'm about to mix some dry coco fiber with eco earth, and tomorrow I'll go out and get some Isopods
I understand that I need to keep the tank a little drier, but how low can the humidity get before my H. Lividum is in danger? Feedback would be greatly appreciated

 

[xCzD]

Well, I mixed about 4 inches of dry substrate with 3 inches of moist. The humidity in the cage is at 62% and rising. Speedy, (My girlfriend's name for my H. Lividum) is happily resting in the catchy cup with the lid off, all he has to do is wander into his newly refurbished home! I boiled the hide for an hour, and went and bought new substrate, so hopefully those damn mites stay AWAY. I'm going to get some isopods tomorrow, and then hope for the best. I really hope the mites will stop appearing in the T cage, because of all the cages they could be in, it HAD to be the Lividum. :evil: I'll keep everybody updated!


P.S. I've narrowed the way the mites got in to two ways; Crickets or the hide!
I doubt they would be there by crawling in, because I've only had this enclosure for a week, with only one feeding. The hide could be the culprit, but I'm leaning more toward the crickets since a friend of mine that works at pet supermarket, (where I get my free crickets ,) told me today that they have been finding mites in their reptile and arachnid cages. Does anybody know a way to clean crickets before feeding? or should I just use another type of food? If so, what's safer as far as mites go?

 

[Stan Schultz]

One and All -

A lot of your questions might be answered at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

 

[xCzD]

Thanks for the feedback, Pikaia. So far, no mites!