Snails with mites!!

[Jesse Phillips]

Last night I happened to see a tiny white circular mite crawling across one of my land snails. My heart dropped, and when I looked closer I saw a few crawling around on every one of them (5 snails in that enclosure, although I also have 2 tiger snails and 2 Cuban brown snails in separate tanks).
I was trying to find information on these and I am almost certain they are Riccardoella limacum, or slug mites which would thankfully only effect my snails; but they feed off of the snails and make them inactive, leading to death. The only treatment that tends to wipe them out completely is the predatory mite Hypoaspis miles which eat the slug mite, but in the US you can only find them sold in massive amounts for high prices which I don’t think is a good idea (if you know of any sellers please tell me!). So, for right now I will have to rip apart my vivarium, take out all of the Helix aspersa/Cornu aspersum, give them a quick dunk into clean water & let them soak in shallow water for a while, sanitize the tank (throw out the dirt and boil decor), keep them in a minimal and clean setup of paper towel AWAY from my other snail tanks, and repeat this process daily.
PLEASE if you have any other suggestions at all tell me. My helix aspersa are especially special to me and now that I’ve noticed I can see that they’re suffering. Thank you

 

[zagrooo]

Hi Jesse,
I'm having this exact same problem for my snails but see that you've already made this post asking about it and talking about your plan. I'm really curious if you've found a solution to the mites? Would super appreciate any advice.

 

[The Snark]

Identify the mites. They may be harmless. Best and cheapest way to do that is find a college with an entomology oriented bio department. Supply the specimens and they will often ID them for free. Some vets also provide the service for a nominal fee.
As for the snails. Mucus membranes. Again, you need bio science experts, gastropod oriented. Mucus membranes are self healing organs. They may not need any attention even with predator venomous miles.

 

[A cave cricket]

Most likely a harmless mite.

 

[zagrooo]

I did do as much research I could, and identified the mites as Riccardoella limacum with I would say 90% confidence based on what I could see of size, shape, behavior, and climate. This species is known as snail mite, so really they are known for how they specifically harm snails, and according to my research I had to work very quickly to prevent them from laying eggs in the lungs of any snail, so I was really frantic and posting on different boards like this one to try and figure it out. I did my best to wash the snails gently, quarantine them separately, and wash their enclosure and dirt in boiling water, which got rid of the mites for the time being. I know it will probably happen again though, so I'm always wanting to be prepared for what I should try to do next. I do think the idea to give mite samples to a lab would be a good one, especially since I'm in college and live on a big campus, but at the time this happened I was away from campus and I didn't have one close by. Hopefully I can try that next time because it would honestly be very interesting to learn more about the mites, but it would also be interesting to learn from more perspectives on this site.

 

[The Snark]

Or Riccardoella oudemansi. Looks like a pretty common mite. There is no treatment. Of somewhat greater concern is mite infected snails are commonly hosts of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Use of gloves, face mask, and isolation protocols advised. The pseudomonas family of bacteria, gram negative, aerobic, is resistant to nearly all antibiotics and a significant hazard to humans. It is one of the common infections burn patients contract.

 

[zagrooo]

Or Riccardoella oudemansi. Looks like a pretty common mite. There is no treatment. Of somewhat greater concern is mite infected snails are commonly hosts of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Use of gloves, face mask, and isolation protocols advised. The pseudomonas family of bacteria, gram negative, aerobic, is resistant to nearly all antibiotics and a significant hazard to humans. It is one of the common infections burn patients contract.

Oh jeez. For real? In my research I didn't see anything about these mites causing harm to humans, but I suppose a misidentification is possible. So far, washing everything in boiling water seemed to get rid of them, and the snails haven't acted in any way that indicates that they have become hosts, but I suppose that's hard to tell. I wonder how those slug mites, rather than snail mites, would coincidentally find their way to my snails? My only idea is through food that isn't washed well enough since everything else is sanitary/not from outside. I'm also wondering about the lifespan and reproductive cycle of either type of mite, so that I might be able to tell were something to hatch based on the timing.

 

[The Snark]

Lots of very valid questions but few answers.

I'm also wondering about the lifespan and reproductive cycle of either type of mite,

This is one thing predictable with most mites. Various genera are the ultimate opportunists. Wherever they have a host there is a continuous swarm of mites around it reinfesting the host any any opportunity hosts whether these hosts can be fed from or just offer the mites a ride.
For example, various species of pyemotes. Their native habitat is oak trees where they feed on the maggots of the flies that cause oak galls. The tree they are in is often covered in young mites swarming, looking for hosts. They will infest birds or rodents and continue the swarming cycle wherever transient hosts make their nests. In turn these swarmings will infest any other animals that enter the area - including humans. So it's a continuing cycle. Only cold weather reduces the populations and freezing temperatures kills them off. But thanks to transient host nests they get a leg up for a whole new cycle every spring.
So with snail and slug mites they will follow a similar pattern which varies depending on what transient animals will host them.

 

[zagrooo]

Only cold weather reduces the populations and freezing temperatures kills them off.

Before I washed everything in boiling water, I actually freezed the whole terrarium because I read that it would at least be a good idea. And I wrapped everything up really tightly in plastic with the hopes of perhaps suffocating the mites, since I didn't know yet how they would be affected by anoxic conditions. Maybe the freezing is what helped more than the boiling. Honestly, I felt really bad about having to kill them since I try to be a pacifist, but it didn't seem pacifist to let all my snails die. A lot of the images I've found online of snail mites and slug mites do show them exhibiting that swarming behavior on hosts, and fortunately I never saw it to that level when I saw the mites, only one or two mites on one snail. I'm trying to stay hopeful that the snails aren't hosting anything right now! This is also my first time having snails overall, I got them early April.