Springtails? Mites?

[maddanie19]

Hey guys,

I was going around filling up all my waterdishes in my sling/juvie enclosures and noticed that there was something weird floating in one of the dishes. From first glance it looked like poop from the way it was clumped together. However, after giving a little swirl, I noticed that it was actually a bunch of some kind of small white bug moving around on the surface.

From what I've read about this, it could possibly be a springtail colony popping up??? I definitely have never intentionally added any to my enclosures, and I do not have any bioactive setups. I checked every spiders waterdish, it seems to be isolated to that one case.

Anyone have any experience with this? I am attaching a picture of the waterdish after I swirled it around. For reference the the dish is about the size of a Gatorade cap.

 

[Pyroxian]

Looks like springtails to me, but hard to see them clearly on my phone.

I haven't had a spontaneous colony develop, but we did add them to several enclosures and they do exactly that - cluster on the surface of the water dish.

 

[maddanie19]

Looks like springtails to me, but hard to see them clearly on my phone.

This is about as close as I can get. I see little antennae like people say. But have no experience with springtails so I didn't want to make that call by myself hahahah

 

[Pyroxian]

This is about as close as I can get. I see little antennae like people say. But have no experience with springtails so I didn't want to make that call by myself hahahah

Perfectly understandable. I'm not an expert or anything but from what I can see on my phone, I'm 95+% sure that's what they are. I am, however, 100% sure that within the next 8 hours you'll get feedback from others with more experience than I have. And I'm 100% certain that even if they aren't springtails, they won't cause any issues in that 8 hours, so I would just let it be until you get further confirmation.

 

[dangerforceidle]

Yes, definitely springtails.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Yes, definitely springtails.

What confirms that they are springtails and not baby crickets to you? All I see in the pictures are a bunch of blurry specs with antennae.

 

[PidderPeets]

To me, those don't resemble springtails enough to confirm that's what they are. I also think they look way too short to be springtails. Springtails are usually much more oblong in shape. To me, they almost look more like baby crickets. Is there any chance you've ever put an adult female cricket in that enclosure? How is the substrate kept (dry/moist)?

 

[Entomologist210]

They look like Isotomid springtails. I deal with mites every day (<-- acarologist) and they don't look like mites. That's just based on what I can see in the picture though. The fact that they have antennae at all means they can't be mites. Even the bigger prostigmatid mites that hold their front legs out don't do it like the critters in the image (including the ones with odd thumb/claw processes on the palps).

 

[dangerforceidle]

What confirms that they are springtails and not baby crickets to you? All I see in the pictures are a bunch of blurry specs with antennae.

Yes, fair. I'll change my answer to "almost certainly not mites."

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Basically the answer to any "What's this weird stuff in my T's water dish" thread is either shit or springtails, it's not the former so it stands to reason that it's the latter.

 

[maddanie19]

To me, those don't resemble springtails enough to confirm that's what they are. I also think they look way too short to be springtails. Springtails are usually much more oblong in shape. To me, they almost look more like baby crickets. Is there any chance you've ever put an adult female cricket in that enclosure? How is the substrate kept (dry/moist)?

Nope! This little guy is less than 2" so there has never been any large cricket or roach in there. Also, this enclosure is kept super dry since it's a moisture hating Grammastola. That's why I thought it was weird. I even went to check on my more moisture dependent species after that, and nothing, no sign of little bugs. It's just in my one enclosure.