Parasite

[AlainL]

You're welcome. I know that Mr. Schultz is very knowlegable and everything, but that post was very condescending, especially since it's clear he didn't read your posts. Glad to hear that the treatment is working! I'll have to remember that paper towel trick in the future.

PS, I've had mites in completely dry conditions also.

Hi Laura!

Honestly, I don't realy care about people like mr Schultz, if I would of known that he would talk to me that way I would of not buy is book

I normaly buy all my spiders from Martin and they are always in perfect health but I got this one on a trade, it's wc and come from a reptile store and was already infected when I got her.

Yes, the paper towel trick seem to work great and I didn't have to spend 200$ to buy new coco fiber to change all my substrat

 

[Galapoheros]

Hello everybody. I rarely go to the tarantula section, don't really know why, I have some T's. I've had mite problems for 20 years as I went in and out of the hobby. I didn't know what was going on until I found this site. I'm not sure the mites you have there are grain mites but that would sure be my bet. I first saw them years ago when I'd buy meal worms. Meal worms and store bought crickets, that's how my animals would get the mites. The mite's love the meal worm food that's in the containers. I saw 1000's of them slowly crawling on a glass table I put the meal worm container on. After taking macro shots of store bought crickets, I could see the mite's on them also. The mites probably feed on the food the cricket suppliers feed them. As an animal molts, the mites will walk around looking for the new exoskel to get on before they are through molting. I've watched them, mostly on centipedes because that's what I have the most of. I had 2 P. murinus for 2 years I acquired as CB slings. They where never on substrate of any kind. About a year later, I noticed they had mites in the hypopus stage mostly attached on soft tissue just like in your pic. Almost surely got them from store bought crickets. I thought they were parasitic for years. I isolated an infested centipede on nothing but plastic for 2 months. Didn't help at all. That's when I read that the grain mites can survive 7 to 8 months in the hypopus stage ..in dry conditions. Here are a couple of links and one is where I got the quote. I'm not saying they are grain mites, but it's a good bet. I've got pred mites in my cages now so it's not prob for me anymore. Allot more info on this if you do a search. good luck.

http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th7g.htm

http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/flour_mites.htm

At some time during the juvenile period, grain mites may change into a stage known as the hypopus. During this unique stage, the body wall hardens and suckers appear on the underside. These suckers allow the mite to attach to insects and other animals for dispersal. The eggs and especially the hypopuses appear to be more tolerant of insecticides than other juveniles or adults; and they may be the primary stage responsible for resurgences in mite populations after chemical control appeared to have been successful.