Roach Mites?

[DerekG4]

Lately I’ve been starting up a colony of Banana roaches (Panchlora nivea) and now that I see the nymphs turning into adults, I took a few pics with my macro lens and I just noticed that one adult in particular had these white bits on on his wings. I wanted to ask if these would be mites. They definitely seem to be parasitic. How do I get rid of them?

 

[justanotherTkeeper]

Pretty sure this is what I had in my roach bin

grain mites. Not a health threat per se but can be annoying with a population explosion like this. Wet food and wet cardboard are what let them get out of hand like this. Thoroughly clean and dry out the enclosure completely and their population should get back to a reasonable level (you'll never get rid of all of them).

Cleaning and drying the bin worked for me

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Parasitic mites tend to concentrate at joints, not on wings. Agree these look like grain mites. Annoying, but not an immediate health risk.

 

[DerekG4]

If they’re grain mites, I’m relieved then. I just got worried because they were actually stuck to the roach. I’m used to seeing them just crawl around the substrate (I have other tarantulas that do have grain mites), first time I actually see it stuck on them.

 

[FrogMantid]

I had grain mites bad in my mealworm colony. I did the research and found out they are pretty much in all grain and we eat millions of them without even realizing it, so it's pointless to try to "eradicate" them. I just reduced the humidity, cleaned the containers and replaced the bedding. I started feeding them less moist food than they could consume in a day and the problem never came back.

 

[FrogMantid]

What brought me to this thread is my search for banana roaches. Capecodraoches has been out of stock for quite a while and roachcrossing is not responding to order requests. Where did you get yours?

 

[The Snark]

I just got worried because they were actually stuck to the roach

8 highly adapted clawed feet. Trivia, they don't immediately have these claws after birth so they can disburse easily in a wind.

https://www.gipsa.usda.gov/VRI/Images/Insects/IN-FLOUR-MITE.jpg