mites ?????

[Arachnokid 93]

ok I have a giant african millipede and it has things crawling on it at first i though they where mites but other pepole say that they clean the millipede . Are they harmful to my millipede and if they are not are they harmful to my tarantulas i have a lot of them .

please get back to me

thanks Arachnokid 93

 

[Arachnophilist]

it sounds like they are mites.. but I dont know if they are harmful or not.. IME the little ones that just crawl around the cage dont seem to bother the inverts. can you get a picture?

 

[Wade]

African giant millipedes typically have commesual mites. These are mites that live on the millipede and feed on fungus and other organic material that may become attached to the millipede. Many hobbyists feel that these are bennificial and leave them be, while other hobbyists don't like to see any mites anywhere anytime, and try to get rid of them. I belong to the first group and leave them alone.

Although it's possible that your millipede has picked up some kind of bad mite, most likely the above sceanario is correct. The comensuals are usually fairly large (by mite standards), reddish brown, and fast moving. On my millis they seem to spend most of their time near the legs, but periodically can be seen moving all over the millipede. These mites pose no threat to your tarantulas, as they are generally unwilling to even move to different species of millipedes, let alone an unrelated arthropod. Pest mites are usually either sessile or very slow moving.

Wade

 

[Arachnokid 93]

Thank you soooooooooooooo much thats exactly what I have i have put the millipedes in diffrent rooms because i did not want my colecttion infected . But now I can move them back. darn it I have sold millipedes because I though that they had mites but then all of them had them I started to think that something was not right.

Thanks agian Arachnokid 93