mites

whittleman

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
1
hi guys and gals,
just found a few of these little critters in my slings tub, always clean out after hes finished destroying his locust. so just wondering if theres any other reason why these little fellas are house crashing.

cheers
 

Andrea82

Arachnoemperor
Joined
Jan 12, 2016
Messages
3,686
hi guys and gals,
just found a few of these little critters in my slings tub, always clean out after hes finished destroying his locust. so just wondering if theres any other reason why these little fellas are house crashing.

cheers
It helps to post a picture of enclosure/spider and the critters that are possibly mites.
What's their shape like? Round, or grain-of-rice shape?
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
Active Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
5,893
hi guys and gals,
just found a few of these little critters in my slings tub, always clean out after hes finished destroying his locust. so just wondering if theres any other reason why these little fellas are house crashing.

cheers
Where there is moisture mites can appear from what seems like thin air.
 

Bugmom

Arachnolord
Joined
May 28, 2012
Messages
646
What substrate are you using? They're probably soil mites.
 

whittleman

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
1
It helps to post a picture of enclosure/spider and the critters that are possibly mites.
What's their shape like? Round, or grain-of-rice shape?
they where
It helps to post a picture of enclosure/spider and the critters that are possibly mites.
What's their shape like? Round, or grain-of-rice shape?
they where round little white specs sort of greyish i did a full soil change so hopefully they wont come back
 

boina

Lady of the mites
Active Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2015
Messages
2,217
and here we go again... I really don't know why this strange acariphopia (mite-phobia) continues to persit. Here: http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/spiders-inverts/388524-guide-mites.html is a very good article about mites written by a biologist.
Main facts: 1. They live in any soil there is, exept extremely dry one
2. They are completely harmless, even beneficial
I'll just put the first paragraph from the link directly here since I couldn't say it any better:

"The hysteria about mites all seems to stem from Stanley Schultz (The Tarantula Keeper's Guide) and has just been repeated; how/why he formed such a alarmist view I've no idea. A lot probably has to do with their rapid appearance on the corpse of a dead T; but, they are like vultures, literally smelling death and within hours appearing out of nowhere (dormant eggs and individuals hatch/emerge) in their masses to scavenge/feed on the corpse.
The vast majority of mites you will come across will be detritivores/scavengers or predators and should be encouraged, if you're very lucky you'll get some parasitic ones (marvel at, and observe them!!!). An overabundance of one particular type just indicates that something has caused the population to get out of balance; just try and correct it; dry the soil out a bit, remove dead feeders, etc. DO NOT PANIC!!! Don't replace the substrate (maybe scoop-out any particularly large concentrations), don't try to remove mites from your T; such actions are FAR more stressful/damaging to your T than any minor irritation a few thousand mites may cause."
 

Arachnomaniac19

Arachnolord
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
652
You could put in a few dead crickets and let the mites attach to it. Once they've done that, toss the crickets out.
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
Active Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
5,893
My Megaphobema Mesomelas enclosure is saturated. However she's got a load of springtails in with her. No mold or mites.

My Scolopendra Hardwickei enclosure is damp. Again no mold or mites but loads of springtails. They really are fantastic little things.
 

whittleman

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 21, 2016
Messages
1
Soil mites. Beneficial. Congrats, free clean-up crew!


I don't know what tarantula soil substrate is. Coco fibre?
no just soil thats been cleaned supposedly, hes all good now just in the middle of moulting
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,223
Last year I found mites in many of my enclosures in a room containing hundreds of individuals....guess how many homes were switched out......Ok, I will just tell you...hehe...exactly zero (except for the roach bin).

Its really as simple as drying things out and cleaning any boli that may have been missed. Its very easy to make an enclosure quickly inhospitable to mites.

Not only are they in the soil, they are in dust and living with just about any feeder you might offer your t. Introduction is inevitable...keeping enclosures clean, well ventilated and not so damp that it takes forever to dry out makes controlling populations pretty easy.

See mites, just dry the enclosure out...so simple many people never see it.
 
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