Using Lady Bugs For Mites

Xomb13

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 18, 2021
Messages
38
I have heard that Japanese Beetles and Lady Bugs can be used to control mites? I am making the switch to bioactive enclosures, and I currently have a small to medium sized mite problem here and there in a couple enclosures. We also have Japanese Beetles in our area that the state releases to fend off the Emerald Borer, and I wouldn't mind purchasing some clean captive bred stock to keep in with the Ts and Ss. Is anyone currently keeping lady bugs or japanese beetles in their bioactive enclosures, or is it all just theory? If so, I would love to see pictures.
 

Malum Argenteum

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 16, 2020
Messages
284
Maybe I'm missing something, but the insect that goes by the common name 'Japanese Beetle' (Popillia japonica) is a plant-eater, and a nasty one at that. No one would put it in their viv. Some other Japanese beetle, I'm sure you're talking about.

Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis), perhaps. Also a miserable critter -- if anyone brought them into my house, that person wouldn't be invited back -- but eats small insects.
 

Edan bandoot

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
1,602
I always thought that ladybugs were poisonous because of the smelly orange stuff that they exude from their joints
 

Dorifto

He who moists xD
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
2,681
If you have a mite outbreak, let the substrate dry a bit. They need more moisture than the springtails to survive. You can add isopods to it, which wont destroy you plants and will eat the mite eggs or directly adult ones.

Using springtails and isopods without controlling the main factor (moisture) that helps them to thrive, it is useless. They work to keep them controlled, in balance, not to exterminate them.
 

Xomb13

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 18, 2021
Messages
38
[
[/QUOTE]
I don't do bioactive enclosures but wouldn't predatory mites fit the bill nicely?
Let it dry out. Mites die. Why not do it the easy way?
Just use springtails, they outcompete mites for food.
If you have a mite outbreak, let the substrate dry a bit. They need more moisture than the springtails to survive. You can add isopods to it, which wont destroy you plants and will eat the mite eggs or directly adult ones.

Using springtails and isopods without controlling the main factor (moisture) that helps them to thrive, it is useless. They work to keep them controlled, in balance, not to exterminate them.
Let me first explain what happened and how I got here. First off, pretty big arachnid collection so far. The only thing is, these grain mites (assuming they are grain mites, even if i posted the pics you couldn't be sure) have only affected a couple of my enclosures. Mainly, my P. Imperator and Heterometrus scorpions. When I noticed the outbreak, my Emperor scorpion had a decent sized plume on him. I visually inspect regularly, and run a tight ship besides, I thought. This happened so fast, I have no idea where they even came from. Pet shop crickets? Josh's Frogs cricket food?? Immediately I removed the scorpion from its enclosure, dumped and Iso'd everything, and moved the scorpion to a new enclosure with ONLY paper towels for substrate. I also left a couple "bait stations" a cap of water for the scorpion to drink, a cap of cricket food I am sure is mite free, and a dead cricket. On the third day (end of) I moved the scorpion from the paper towels and back onto his normal substrate, a combo of coir, verm, and sphagnum moss with some sand to hold shape.

So a couple days go by, and they show up again on the P. Imperator and a 3rd instar Heterometrus. So I am back to square one. Springtails and Isopods are a part of a bioactive enclosure, and I will be adding them in about a week. The thing is, that takes MONTHS by all accounts. And besides, if I use predatory mites the predatory mites predate the springtails! So I am going to use predatory mites, yes, and then once they kill each other off, put in some isopods to compete for whatever food is there and then later on maybe some springtails.

They seem very hard to get rid of, and I am not even sure if it will be possible to completely eradicate them now. They aren't hurting anything. I don't think. Just making the scorpions especially onery. I have had no end to troubles lately! Mold, mildew, mites, spider flies, just plain failure to thrive, you name it, but calm seas don't make good sailors. I will certainly be worth my salt as a keeper, thats for sure.

Now I am working with a larger room, one side kept at a constant 80ish% humidity and I keep things like the Asian Forest Scorpions, Pink Toed and Poecilotheria Tarantulas there, and a dry side I get down to around 50ish% for my Brachypelma tarantulas, arizona bark scorpions, and even a lower area I try to keep as low as possible to house my crickets. 70-80F across the board. I only mist the enclosures of slings (hard lessons learned!). Currently, I hand mix substrate for everything. The grain mite problem has, of course, been localized to the "wet side", and this is the side that will have false bottoms, bioactive substrate, and things like that all upgraded over the next week. I do not suspect the mites could thrive in the dry side. Looking at my options it would seem in many bioactive enclosures people have used coccinellidae instead of isopods, and my line of thought is I may in fact prefer their aesthetic over friggin rollie pollies!

Maybe I'm missing something, but the insect that goes by the common name 'Japanese Beetle' (Popillia japonica) is a plant-eater, and a nasty one at that. No one would put it in their viv. Some other Japanese beetle, I'm sure you're talking about.

Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis), perhaps. Also a miserable critter -- if anyone brought them into my house, that person wouldn't be invited back -- but eats small insects.
I mean the coccinellidae, what with me mentioning ladybugs in the same sentence. I guess answers like these are why Latin names are required, and you could say me not posting genus names is just feeding the trolls here at Arachnoboards... and there seem to be a couple every time I post anything. In fact, the state releases these Asian Lady Beetles you speak of, and they have done wonders on the Emerald Ash Borer. They are just a fact of life here, and I regularly employ them on my tomato plants if I can't find a mantis wandering around. But to answer your inquiry YES I mean the coccinellidae NO I do NOT mean I aim to put SCARAB BEETLES in with my tarantulas and scorpions. What I aim to do is put Isopods in there, maybe coccinellidae, so.... yeah thanks for your input! Glad I could clear that up for ya.
 

Dorifto

He who moists xD
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
2,681
Before adding sprintails and isopods, let the enclosure dry. This will kill the major part of them. After that increase the moisture and add cucs.

False bottoms shouldn't be used in this hobby. A way better solution is to use a mix of sand and topsoil. False bottoms catch the excess of water and keep it trapped. This creates an stagnant air pocket, wich leads to mold outbreaks and mites too.
 

Arachnophobphile

Arachnoangel
Active Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
808




Let me first explain what happened and how I got here. First off, pretty big arachnid collection so far. The only thing is, these grain mites (assuming they are grain mites, even if i posted the pics you couldn't be sure) have only affected a couple of my enclosures. Mainly, my P. Imperator and Heterometrus scorpions. When I noticed the outbreak, my Emperor scorpion had a decent sized plume on him. I visually inspect regularly, and run a tight ship besides, I thought. This happened so fast, I have no idea where they even came from. Pet shop crickets? Josh's Frogs cricket food?? Immediately I removed the scorpion from its enclosure, dumped and Iso'd everything, and moved the scorpion to a new enclosure with ONLY paper towels for substrate. I also left a couple "bait stations" a cap of water for the scorpion to drink, a cap of cricket food I am sure is mite free, and a dead cricket. On the third day (end of) I moved the scorpion from the paper towels and back onto his normal substrate, a combo of coir, verm, and sphagnum moss with some sand to hold shape.

So a couple days go by, and they show up again on the P. Imperator and a 3rd instar Heterometrus. So I am back to square one. Springtails and Isopods are a part of a bioactive enclosure, and I will be adding them in about a week. The thing is, that takes MONTHS by all accounts. And besides, if I use predatory mites the predatory mites predate the springtails! So I am going to use predatory mites, yes, and then once they kill each other off, put in some isopods to compete for whatever food is there and then later on maybe some springtails.

They seem very hard to get rid of, and I am not even sure if it will be possible to completely eradicate them now. They aren't hurting anything. I don't think. Just making the scorpions especially onery. I have had no end to troubles lately! Mold, mildew, mites, spider flies, just plain failure to thrive, you name it, but calm seas don't make good sailors. I will certainly be worth my salt as a keeper, thats for sure.

Now I am working with a larger room, one side kept at a constant 80ish% humidity and I keep things like the Asian Forest Scorpions, Pink Toed and Poecilotheria Tarantulas there, and a dry side I get down to around 50ish% for my Brachypelma tarantulas, arizona bark scorpions, and even a lower area I try to keep as low as possible to house my crickets. 70-80F across the board. I only mist the enclosures of slings (hard lessons learned!). Currently, I hand mix substrate for everything. The grain mite problem has, of course, been localized to the "wet side", and this is the side that will have false bottoms, bioactive substrate, and things like that all upgraded over the next week. I do not suspect the mites could thrive in the dry side. Looking at my options it would seem in many bioactive enclosures people have used coccinellidae instead of isopods, and my line of thought is I may in fact prefer their aesthetic over friggin rollie pollies!


I mean the coccinellidae, what with me mentioning ladybugs in the same sentence. I guess answers like these are why Latin names are required, and you could say me not posting genus names is just feeding the trolls here at Arachnoboards... and there seem to be a couple every time I post anything. In fact, the state releases these Asian Lady Beetles you speak of, and they have done wonders on the Emerald Ash Borer. They are just a fact of life here, and I regularly employ them on my tomato plants if I can't find a mantis wandering around. But to answer your inquiry YES I mean the coccinellidae NO I do NOT mean I aim to put SCARAB BEETLES in with my tarantulas and scorpions. What I aim to do is put Isopods in there, maybe coccinellidae, so.... yeah thanks for your input! Glad I could clear that up for ya.
[/QUOTE]

I will tell you this, you don't have mites you have a mite infestation.

It is imperative you find the source of the infestation. Do you keep superworms or any other feeders where you are using oatmeal or bran for substrate for them?

Also it is not always true predatory mites will eventually all die off when they have no mites to eat. You will just be trading one mite type for another.

Mite population can be controlled once you find the source of the alien spawn.
 

Malum Argenteum

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 16, 2020
Messages
284
Won't those pose a threat if they get into the enclosures and the inhabitants attempt to consume them?
Not much will eat them, but they have a few natural predators. Nothing will die from attempting to eat them.

I wasn't recommending using them, just trying to figure out which beetle the OP was referring to.
 

Matts inverts

Arachnoangel
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
866
If they are definitely grain mites, take all the feeders outside, pick out alive ones and blow off old mites, then sterilize and discard old substrate and food and cartons or whatever was in there. Then sanitize tub and fill with new clean, sterile, and most importantly dry substrate. Then dry out area around this. If it is a grain mite, the humidity around the feeder tub can’t get too high. I came home from work and just saw white all over my black shelf and didn’t know what it was. Sometimes if you just dry everything, they go away but this doesn’t work most of the times. I’ve got them 3 times whilst farming various insects. Springtails do help a lot for cleaning everything and outcompeting mites in humid places like tanks you can’t dry out. I definitely don’t recommend isopods for any inverts because they will probably harm the invert at some point. If it’s nonpredatory, I’d just leave the mites because they won’t harm anything. Definitely look on YouTube on how to get rid of them. A mealworm farmer got rid of them and I was watching him but I don’t recommend using Clorox wipes or chemicals. Vasaline I think is fine as long as none gets in the feeders substrate. For tables or walls not around the inverts or animals, wipe with clorox, vacuum, and remove all food from area. For tanks, just wipe out mites with wet paper towels. These methods have worked 3 times. I also recommend moving the freshly cleaned feeder area to be away from original infected area for along time so any mites can’t get back if they made it some how. Can you post a pic of the mites if possible?
 

Jimnopholus

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 28, 2020
Messages
2




Let me first explain what happened and how I got here. First off, pretty big arachnid collection so far. The only thing is, these grain mites (assuming they are grain mites, even if i posted the pics you couldn't be sure) have only affected a couple of my enclosures. Mainly, my P. Imperator and Heterometrus scorpions. When I noticed the outbreak, my Emperor scorpion had a decent sized plume on him. I visually inspect regularly, and run a tight ship besides, I thought. This happened so fast, I have no idea where they even came from. Pet shop crickets? Josh's Frogs cricket food?? Immediately I removed the scorpion from its enclosure, dumped and Iso'd everything, and moved the scorpion to a new enclosure with ONLY paper towels for substrate. I also left a couple "bait stations" a cap of water for the scorpion to drink, a cap of cricket food I am sure is mite free, and a dead cricket. On the third day (end of) I moved the scorpion from the paper towels and back onto his normal substrate, a combo of coir, verm, and sphagnum moss with some sand to hold shape.

So a couple days go by, and they show up again on the P. Imperator and a 3rd instar Heterometrus. So I am back to square one. Springtails and Isopods are a part of a bioactive enclosure, and I will be adding them in about a week. The thing is, that takes MONTHS by all accounts. And besides, if I use predatory mites the predatory mites predate the springtails! So I am going to use predatory mites, yes, and then once they kill each other off, put in some isopods to compete for whatever food is there and then later on maybe some springtails.

They seem very hard to get rid of, and I am not even sure if it will be possible to completely eradicate them now. They aren't hurting anything. I don't think. Just making the scorpions especially onery. I have had no end to troubles lately! Mold, mildew, mites, spider flies, just plain failure to thrive, you name it, but calm seas don't make good sailors. I will certainly be worth my salt as a keeper, thats for sure.

Now I am working with a larger room, one side kept at a constant 80ish% humidity and I keep things like the Asian Forest Scorpions, Pink Toed and Poecilotheria Tarantulas there, and a dry side I get down to around 50ish% for my Brachypelma tarantulas, arizona bark scorpions, and even a lower area I try to keep as low as possible to house my crickets. 70-80F across the board. I only mist the enclosures of slings (hard lessons learned!). Currently, I hand mix substrate for everything. The grain mite problem has, of course, been localized to the "wet side", and this is the side that will have false bottoms, bioactive substrate, and things like that all upgraded over the next week. I do not suspect the mites could thrive in the dry side. Looking at my options it would seem in many bioactive enclosures people have used coccinellidae instead of isopods, and my line of thought is I may in fact prefer their aesthetic over friggin rollie pollies!


I mean the coccinellidae, what with me mentioning ladybugs in the same sentence. I guess answers like these are why Latin names are required, and you could say me not posting genus names is just feeding the trolls here at Arachnoboards... and there seem to be a couple every time I post anything. In fact, the state releases these Asian Lady Beetles you speak of, and they have done wonders on the Emerald Ash Borer. They are just a fact of life here, and I regularly employ them on my tomato plants if I can't find a mantis wandering around. But to answer your inquiry YES I mean the coccinellidae NO I do NOT mean I aim to put SCARAB BEETLES in with my tarantulas and scorpions. What I aim to do is put Isopods in there, maybe coccinellidae, so.... yeah thanks for your input! Glad I could clear that up for ya.
[/QUOTE]

--While species of Coccinellidae are released for control of soft-bodied garden pests, the fact that Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) larvae develop and do their damage beneath the bark of the affected trees, anyone using this method of control would be wasting their money, as the two insects will never meet, except as hard-shelled adult beetles. Systemic insecticides and parasitoid wasps from their native range are used for EAB control--

EDIT: I realize that Coccinellidae larvae do as much (or more?) predatory pest control as the adults. Again, they also have no access to the bark galleries of the larval Buprestidae, and are comparatively sedentary to the flying hard bodied adult EABs. I'll blame this omission on my booster shot lol
 
Last edited:

Xomb13

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 18, 2021
Messages
38
Let me first explain what happened and how I got here. First off, pretty big arachnid collection so far. The only thing is, these grain mites (assuming they are grain mites, even if i posted the pics you couldn't be sure) have only affected a couple of my enclosures. Mainly, my P. Imperator and Heterometrus scorpions. When I noticed the outbreak, my Emperor scorpion had a decent sized plume on him. I visually inspect regularly, and run a tight ship besides, I thought. This happened so fast, I have no idea where they even came from. Pet shop crickets? Josh's Frogs cricket food?? Immediately I removed the scorpion from its enclosure, dumped and Iso'd everything, and moved the scorpion to a new enclosure with ONLY paper towels for substrate. I also left a couple "bait stations" a cap of water for the scorpion to drink, a cap of cricket food I am sure is mite free, and a dead cricket. On the third day (end of) I moved the scorpion from the paper towels and back onto his normal substrate, a combo of coir, verm, and sphagnum moss with some sand to hold shape.

So a couple days go by, and they show up again on the P. Imperator and a 3rd instar Heterometrus. So I am back to square one. Springtails and Isopods are a part of a bioactive enclosure, and I will be adding them in about a week. The thing is, that takes MONTHS by all accounts. And besides, if I use predatory mites the predatory mites predate the springtails! So I am going to use predatory mites, yes, and then once they kill each other off, put in some isopods to compete for whatever food is there and then later on maybe some springtails.

They seem very hard to get rid of, and I am not even sure if it will be possible to completely eradicate them now. They aren't hurting anything. I don't think. Just making the scorpions especially onery. I have had no end to troubles lately! Mold, mildew, mites, spider flies, just plain failure to thrive, you name it, but calm seas don't make good sailors. I will certainly be worth my salt as a keeper, thats for sure.

Now I am working with a larger room, one side kept at a constant 80ish% humidity and I keep things like the Asian Forest Scorpions, Pink Toed and Poecilotheria Tarantulas there, and a dry side I get down to around 50ish% for my Brachypelma tarantulas, arizona bark scorpions, and even a lower area I try to keep as low as possible to house my crickets. 70-80F across the board. I only mist the enclosures of slings (hard lessons learned!). Currently, I hand mix substrate for everything. The grain mite problem has, of course, been localized to the "wet side", and this is the side that will have false bottoms, bioactive substrate, and things like that all upgraded over the next week. I do not suspect the mites could thrive in the dry side. Looking at my options it would seem in many bioactive enclosures people have used coccinellidae instead of isopods, and my line of thought is I may in fact prefer their aesthetic over friggin rollie pollies!


I mean the coccinellidae, what with me mentioning ladybugs in the same sentence. I guess answers like these are why Latin names are required, and you could say me not posting genus names is just feeding the trolls here at Arachnoboards... and there seem to be a couple every time I post anything. In fact, the state releases these Asian Lady Beetles you speak of, and they have done wonders on the Emerald Ash Borer. They are just a fact of life here, and I regularly employ them on my tomato plants if I can't find a mantis wandering around. But to answer your inquiry YES I mean the coccinellidae NO I do NOT mean I aim to put SCARAB BEETLES in with my tarantulas and scorpions. What I aim to do is put Isopods in there, maybe coccinellidae, so.... yeah thanks for your input! Glad I could clear that up for ya.
--While species of Coccinellidae are released for control of soft-bodied garden pests, the fact that Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) larvae develop and do their damage beneath the bark of the affected trees, anyone using this method of control would be wasting their money, as the two insects will never meet, except as hard-shelled adult beetles. Systemic insecticides and parasitoid wasps from their native range are used for EAB control--

EDIT: I realize that Coccinellidae larvae do as much (or more?) predatory pest control as the adults. Again, they also have no access to the bark galleries of the larval Buprestidae, and are comparatively sedentary to the flying hard bodied adult EABs. I'll blame this omission on my booster shot lol
[/QUOTE]
Um... gee, thanks. I will let my state officials know? 🤷‍♂️ Seems to be doing the trick, though. So, it might be hard to bring them around to your way of thinking.

You see, biological pest control, while in its infancy, does usually take a multi-step or multi-pronged attack if you will to control an invasive species, such as the emerald ash borer whose species name you were so kind to google.

While the releasing of Asian lady beetles is one prong, another is the conservation and bolstering of the local woodpecker and nuthatch population, or the release of insect pathogenic fungi, maybe the use of wasps, and other such measures designed to break the life cycle of the insect species in question.

Arthropod predators and bird species predate infant and full grown specimens, wasp larvae predate the borer larvae, and fungi is a biological weapon. All this so we don't soak our urban and farmed ash trees in harmful insecticides.

But what do I know? I am just an armchair expert.
 

Xomb13

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 18, 2021
Messages
38
If they are definitely grain mites, take all the feeders outside, pick out alive ones and blow off old mites, then sterilize and discard old substrate and food and cartons or whatever was in there. Then sanitize tub and fill with new clean, sterile, and most importantly dry substrate. Then dry out area around this. If it is a grain mite, the humidity around the feeder tub can’t get too high. I came home from work and just saw white all over my black shelf and didn’t know what it was. Sometimes if you just dry everything, they go away but this doesn’t work most of the times. I’ve got them 3 times whilst farming various insects. Springtails do help a lot for cleaning everything and outcompeting mites in humid places like tanks you can’t dry out. I definitely don’t recommend isopods for any inverts because they will probably harm the invert at some point. If it’s nonpredatory, I’d just leave the mites because they won’t harm anything. Definitely look on YouTube on how to get rid of them. A mealworm farmer got rid of them and I was watching him but I don’t recommend using Clorox wipes or chemicals. Vasaline I think is fine as long as none gets in the feeders substrate. For tables or walls not around the inverts or animals, wipe with clorox, vacuum, and remove all food from area. For tanks, just wipe out mites with wet paper towels. These methods have worked 3 times. I also recommend moving the freshly cleaned feeder area to be away from original infected area for along time so any mites can’t get back if they made it some how. Can you post a pic of the mites if possible?
I dried everything out that was possible. I used clorox wipes on the entirety of my set up, it could pass clean room standards at some points lol. I rubbed a mix of alcohol and talcum powder over the rim of every enclosure. So far, the mites have been isolated. I have controlled them in the enclosures which I have seen the infestation. So far, so good. The predatory mites, I am about to release on Monday hopefully. The isopods about a week after. And next month sometime the spring tails. Things seem to be moving along smoothly right now.

Picking the mites individually off of that many feeders is not economical or feasible. If it came to that, I would simply have to start over. We are talking thousands here. They could only live inside the roach enclosures, but I feel like the Buffalo beetles might have something to say about that. The biggest problem is young cricket totes, which must stay humid and have no Buffalo beetles. Once the crickets reach maturity, they are moved to a separate area with low humidity to breed and to be fed off, so that naturally takes care of that.

I could post a picture of the mites in question, but it would be very difficult to find and zoom and even then, how could you even tell? Apparently, even experts couldn't tell just see where they are and how they are moving over the scorpion. Maybe a video if I can manage, but I don't see how that would help either? They are brown and they arent biting in, just sort of hanging out and moving around.

A person with far more experience than I has inspected the enclosure and surmised it to be a small plume of grain mites. Thats what I have to assume is going on, and act accordingly. Although, the steps to control the mites would be the same regardless.
 

Frogdaddy

Arachnoprince
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
1,067
Before adding sprintails and isopods, let the enclosure dry. This will kill the major part of them. After that increase the moisture and add cucs.

False bottoms shouldn't be used in this hobby. A way better solution is to use a mix of sand and topsoil. False bottoms catch the excess of water and keep it trapped. This creates an stagnant air pocket, wich leads to mold outbreaks and mites too.
The false bottom created this situation. Totally unnecessary unless keeping dart frogs.
 

Dorifto

He who moists xD
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
2,681
The false bottom created this situation. Totally unnecessary unless keeping dart frogs.
Yep, I don't know why people still use them with Ts.

There are much better methods to drain excess water for brief moments of time, like using a mix of sand and topsoil. It will hold the excess water until the top starts to dry, then the inherent property of the topsoil will spread it evenly across all the subtrate.

Also, using coco fiber makes the things even worse 🤣🤣🤣
 
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