P. Irminia white spots

[keveneleven]

I got my p. Irminia sling 2 weeks ago and noticed some white spots around the carapace. Now they’re on its abdomen. What are those? Some kind of fungus and are they dangerous? Help!

 

[yetkin]

.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Those are indeed mites. Like ticks on your spider. I've been fortunate enough to have never had to deal with them. Search the boards for advice. Good luck.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

They're most likely grain mites hitching a ride on your tarantula due to a lack of available food, they're not parasitic (unless you regularly buy WC tarantulas then you'll likely never encounter the parasitic mites that everyone cacks themselves over) and they're not harming your tarantula, don't try to forcibly remove them as you'll probably do more harm than good.

Read the following thread for advice.

All you need to know about mites

Mites are one of the big topics that turn up over and over again. I can't count how often I've posted about them and tried to put a rational view on some rather phobic reactions. So, here is a consolidated post with everything about mites that I (and others) can link back to: Mites are harmless...

arachnoboards.com

 

[DomGom TheFather]

They look rather large to be grain mites.
I have no idea if they're feeding on the spider but damn they're unsightly. I wouldn't want any growth in population.

 

[keveneleven]

They're most likely grain mites hitching a ride on your tarantula due to a lack of available food, they're not parasitic (unless you regularly buy WC tarantulas then you'll likely never encounter the parasitic mites that everyone cacks themselves over) and they're not harming your tarantula, don't try to forcibly remove them as you'll probably do more harm than good.

Read the following thread for advice.

All you need to know about mites

Mites are one of the big topics that turn up over and over again. I can't count how often I've posted about them and tried to put a rational view on some rather phobic reactions. So, here is a consolidated post with everything about mites that I (and others) can link back to: Mites are harmless...

arachnoboards.com

Thank you for the info! I really do hope they won’t harm my tarantula and spread to other enclosures. Never had to deal with mites in my 2 yrs of keeping. I changed it with bone dry substrate hope they’ll come off

 

[sasker]

I have never seen mites that big on a tarantula. Keep an eye on it, and prevent spreading to other enclosures. I can't tell if these are the harmful or the harmless type. You could contact the seller to ask if he has wild-caught specimen in his collection, and if he noticed any mites on them. Just to be sure.

 

[Smotzer]

They look

I have never seen mites that big on a tarantula. Keep an eye on it, and prevent spreading to other enclosures. I can't tell if these are the harmful or the harmless type. You could contact the seller to ask if he has wild-caught specimen in his collection, and if he noticed any mites on them. Just to be sure.

I think it’s perspective? The spider might be pretty small so the mites look much bigger than they would normally maybe?

@keveneleven how big is the tarantula?

 

[sasker]

I think it’s perspective? The spider might be pretty small so the mites look much bigger than they would normally maybe?

Fair point. I can't say for sure they are harmless, but the mites I sometimes have are specks of dust, even on a tiny sling.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I have never seen mites that big on a tarantula.

I think it’s perspective? The spider might be pretty small so the mites look much bigger than they would normally maybe?

It's a sling (probably 1-2cm as that's what's most commonly available) so adult mites are gonna look pretty big

 

[Smotzer]

It's a sling (probably 1-2cm as that's what's most commonly available) so adult mites are gonna look pretty big

Yeah thats exactly whhat I was thhinking!!

 

[yetkin]

They are blood sucking mites chance enclouser with one with a good air flow and dry substrate just put a water cup some people say you can clean them with vinegar but ıdk if its harmful for t or not probably there would be better advises ı hope your t survives

Well like ı said better advises had come sorry for wrong info

 

[Poonjab]

Well like ı said better advises had come sorry for wrong info

I wouldn’t worry about it. However I’m not convinced those are grain mites. I’ve had grain mites, they are annoying. If those things are grain mites, they are the biggest ones I’ve ever seen, even for scale on a small T. In my experience, grain mites would hang out around the mouth. These are in the joints. However... I don’t think they are harmful. As my understanding is that only wild caught T’s can get parasitic mites. But I’m not a mite expert, only know what I’ve dealt with. I got grain mites from contaminated feeders. Nasty lil buggers.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

In my experience, grain mites would hang out around the mouth.

Not necessarily, it's easier for them to get a free meal if they can attach themselves around the mouth/chelicerae but if that isn't feasible (e.g. on a small sling where there isn't much surface area to clamp onto) then they'll just clamp on anywhere and go dormant until they're taken somewhere more hospitable.

These are in the joints.

None of them are actually situated on joints (the one on the knee is on the opposite side to the softer joint and the ones on the abdomen/carapace aren't attached to the pedicel), if they were parasitic they'd go exclusively for the softer joints, not just clamp on haphazardly.

 

[viper69]

I got my p. Irminia sling 2 weeks ago and noticed some white spots around the carapace. Now they’re on its abdomen. What are those? Some kind of fungus and are they dangerous? Help!

Those look just like ticks, same body shape. And they are NOT grain mites. I've dealt with grain mites more than I care to think about. Grain mites are about 0.5-1mm in size, and white. To the naked eye at night, grain mites look like dust as they are so small. Get those off now. They remind me of ticks on ball pythons, also not good.

If those were grain mites, you could barely take a pic of them. I've tried.

@The Grym Reaper see above.

 

[keveneleven]

I have never seen mites that big on a tarantula. Keep an eye on it, and prevent spreading to other enclosures. I can't tell if these are the harmful or the harmless type. You could contact the seller to ask if he has wild-caught specimen in his collection, and if he noticed any mites on them. Just to be sure.

Thanks! How do you suggest I keep the mites from spreading?

They look rather large to be grain mites.
I have no idea if they're feeding on the spider but damn they're unsightly. I wouldn't want any growth in population.

How do you suggest i keep it from spreading?

They look

I think it’s perspective? The spider might be pretty small so the mites look much bigger than they would normally maybe?

@keveneleven how big is the tarantula?

A little over an inch

 

[sasker]

To keep them from spreading to other enclosures, I would put it in another room. Just keep an eye on the development of your current mite population (are they growing in numbers?). If they are your regular harmless mites, they will scavenge food leftovers. If your tarantula eats something, the mites will congregate on the leftovers. Just take this boluses out, with the mites on them. They also require water, so you may find a lot of mites in and around the water bowl. Just regularly wash the water bowl should keep your mite population under control. If none of the above applies (no mites on leftovers, nor on the water bowl) it could mean that you could have a parasitic species of mite.

 

[keveneleven]

To keep them from spreading to other enclosures, I would put it in another room. Just keep an eye on the development of your current mite population (are they growing in numbers?). If they are your regular harmless mites, they will scavenge food leftovers. If your tarantula eats something, the mites will congregate on the leftovers. Just take this boluses out, with the mites on them. They also require water, so you may find a lot of mites in and around the water bowl. Just regularly wash the water bowl should keep your mite population under control. If none of the above applies (no mites on leftovers, nor on the water bowl) it could mean that you could have a parasitic species of mite.

I’m really convinced that they are parasitic mites. They are latched on the tarantula since i got it.

 

[sasker]

I never dealt with those before, but I would suggest that you move your tarantula out of its enclosure, and thoroughly clean the enclosure to ensure none are left in there. I think you will have to remove the mites manually from your T. Maybe you could put some Vaseline on the mites so they suffocate. Luckily, there are not so many mites on your T.