Pet.....Mites??

[Biollantefan54]

Does anyone keep species of mites as pets? The thought just occurred to me lol, people keep everything as 'pets', why not a mite? Are there any larger species of mites people keep? Where would you get mites, what would you feed them? Just a thought lol.

 

[catfishrod69]

Not sure if anyone does or not. But ill pack up every single one i have and ship em to you.

 

[cantthinkofone]

i know some people who keep red velvet mites. they are the largest species of mites. very touchy though.

 

[Biollantefan54]

Red velvet mites? Where can you get those, what do you mean 'touchy'?

 

[JZC]

i know some people who keep red velvet mites. they are the largest species of mites. very touchy though.

They're so pretty! I just googled them.

 

[Ciphor]

I've kept a colony of velvet mites Trombidiidae family (not to be confused with the similar and medically significant family Trombiculidae AKA "Chiggers" which feed on mammals including humans).

The red-velvet mites I caught were very active predators. I used silverfish & isopods as feeders, as they reproduce quite easily and do not require a lot of extra up-keeping on the feeding end of things. The colony was pretty self-sustaining for awhile. They will eat pretty much any small/medium sized invert (probably not anything bigger then a grasshopper)

I do not recommend keeping these if you're a novice on mites. Mites can be tough to keep in captivity, and since they have relatively short lifespans, you would need to get a good colony going to really enjoy them. I used a large water cooler bottle (the huge ones that people fill with pennies) with a narrow opening allowing for minimal issues when providing new food. I cut quarter sized holes for cross ventilation, and hot glued thin nylon to cover it. You gotta make a lot of holes for ventilation, as the nylon restricts the O2 passage a bit.

It was cool to collect them and see the different life-stages; egg hatches and turns into pre-larva, which grows a little then turns full larva and finds a host. After getting its fill on a host it turns into a protnymph, then deutonymph and finally a tritonymph. Eventually they turn adult male or female. In the wild they breed once a year during spring I believe, but in captivity they were breeding a lot more frequently.

Some good pictures and videos here: http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2012/04/giant-red-velvet-mite.html

 

[Biollantefan54]

You catch them in the wild? I want some, I have a few questions lol. Can they climb plastic/glass? Any special substrate? Humid or dry? Water dish? Are they here in North Carolina? What is a 'beginner' mite? Thanks

 

[Ciphor]

You catch them in the wild? I want some, I have a few questions lol. Can they climb plastic/glass? Any special substrate? Humid or dry? Water dish? Are they here in North Carolina? What is a 'beginner' mite? Thanks

Yes they can climb all surfaces, hence why a sealed off enclosure is required with nylon for ventilation.

Around spring time I can go out in the parking garage at work and they are infested everywhere! Some places they are abundant, other places they don't exist. You just gotta go hunting during the spring, early spring/late winter is best I believe. Velvet mites have many species, really as long as it is a velvet mite, the care is the same. A word of caution: In the PNW we do not have the threat of Chiggers (which can look very similar, however are often smaller and do not have the velvet appearance). These guys can cause serious infections, so be careful not to collect them and expose your home to them. ONLY collect what you are 100% certain are velvet mites.

Room temp/humidity is fine for these guys. As for substrate, you really want to taylor this to your choice of feeder. Since I used silver-fish and isopods (I know they ate the silver-fish, not sure about isopods) I used a substrate that worked well for their survival. AKA: I grabbed some dirt from outside lol. Dirt has some parasites already in it, some crawlers in it? Perfect, more food for the mites! They will literally parastize almost any invert. The surviving silver-fish/isopods kept the enclosure clean. A pretty good setup if you do it right. I also added some random sticks, pieces of plastic etc.

---------- Post added 08-05-2013 at 08:33 PM ----------

Oh and FYI, if you are looking to buy, India has some HUGE species which are pretty amazing. Not sure if they get into the trade often, but the common species is Trombidium grandissimum and they look like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPqrvxuJUxY. The species we have in the states are about 1/10th these guys in size, though still very beautiful and bright.

 

[cantthinkofone]

yes the india ones are the ones i speak of. when i say touchy i mean difficult and sensitive

 

[ZergFront]

I haven't kept mites as pets but I have kept a number of really tiny things. I kept pseudoscorpions collected from the compost pile and collembola (springtails) I collected around our pool. Both are very dependent on damp environments. Pseudoscorpions reproduce a lot in the same way as vinegaroons having a clutch of eggs held under the abdomen. Mostly found them inside rinds of rotten fruit or veggies.

The only mite I would really consider keeping would be a red velvet mite as they are the biggest.

 

[The Snark]

Hmm. Somekindofmite x 1,000,000,000 covering the entire ceiling of the carport. Makes a nice killing zone for the smalls that are drawn in by the light in the evening. Dust mites x 5,000,000. Population varies depending how often I vacuum. Somekindofpeoplemuncher mite, several dozen, every time mom in law visits.

 

[i like reptiles]

Red velvet mites? Where can you get those, what do you mean 'touchy'?

Parasites for a stage of their life and then predators, also catching them in the American southwest after rainfall is your best bet

 

[Biollantefan54]

Parasites for a stage of their life and then predators, also catching them in the American southwest after rainfall is your best bet

Thank you for the response to my 9 year old question haha, I didn’t expect to get any more responses in this thread lol! The info is appreciated but I’m not really looking to keep these anymore. I did keep some pseudoscorpions for a while though, which are smaller than these mites are!

 

[i like reptiles]

Thank you for the response to my 9 year old question haha, I didn’t expect to get any more responses in this thread lol! The info is appreciated but I’m not really looking to keep these anymore. I did keep some pseudoscorpions for a while though, which are smaller than these mites are!

Way smaller, giant velvets (largest species) gets around the size of a penny

 

[ThemantismanofPA]

I really want to try keeping Caeculidae sp at some point. Really cool looking mite with spines on its arms to i assume help catch prey

 

[i like reptiles]

I really want to try keeping Caeculidae sp at some point. Really cool looking mite with spines on its arms to i assume help catch prey

I just like my red snout mites, they are lil red dots and I love em

 

[jtktomb]

I really want to try keeping Caeculidae sp at some point. Really cool looking mite with spines on its arms to i assume help catch prey

Yves Coineau is an acarologist that wrote extensively about those and his works includes a lot of informations on husbandry ! All in French tho, but DeepL does wonders and I could help too. I've been very interested in those too recently...