White millis mites

[Frank]

Hello, I was feeding my millis when I saw one of my 8 AGBs with white mites on it. All my millis avec red (beneficial) ones, but that's the first time I see white mites, are they beneficial ones that recently molted? From the pics of the bad mites I have they are too big to be them, the white ones are about the size of the red (beneficial) ones..


Anyone knows what they could be? Am I only stressing out because they are beneficial ones that has molted?




And I would like to know how big are the bad mites, are they big enough to be seen with the eye?







Thanks, Frank

 

[cerda17]

Wow! I am really concerned about the supplier of your millipedes. Possible harmful mites, missing antennae, missing legs...

 

[Frank]

You got only 2 right?

I have 8, and in that there's a few that are okay, only one is missing 2 antennas, and some are missing parts of legs (not full legs) all have beneficial mites.. and for the white mites, I hope they're only shedding beneficial mites




How are yours going?






Frank

 

[Wade]

Are the white ones moving around like the red ones or are they attached? If the latter, I'd be concerned. Hopefully, they're just freshly molted bennificials.

They could also be scavanger mites, which will feed off of various organic materials. These only become a probem when populations grow out of control.

Wade

 

[Frank]

Are the bad mites always attached to the millis, and never moving? Because the white are moving like the red ones.


It starts to be smelly in the rubbermaid, its time to buy a metal net It smells ammoniac, is it dangerous if it takes a week until I can go buy a metal net? I'll open the rubbermaid a few minutes a day to give them more new air..






Thanks, Frank

 

[Wade]

Smelling of amonia is a bad sign. It sounds like you have some bad conditions in your bin. You want more ventilatin ASAP. The mites are probably scavangers and not parasites, but they're probably irritating the millis at the very least. Getting it dryer will help keep them in check.

Try making more holes in the rubbermaid, or find a screen top that will fit, sooner rather than later.

Wade

 

[Frank]

Ok. Thanks for everything.


There's still white mites, looks like they're not shedded red mites. I'm gonna remove the spagnum moss to keep humidity lower.

The amoniac smelling left after I opened for 10mins the lid, after 24hours without opening it, it doesn't smell amoniac.


One millis looks like he have many mites, many red and many white. I took this one, and I saw something that looked like a big mite at the place where the eyes should be. It was red. And 10secs after (I uncurled him to see how was that mite) he craped on me, that did a weird sound, and it was only liquid, some liquid went over some places in the rubbermaid. I'm getting worried about this millis, as he looks like to have many mites and he looks like he don't want them on him (he was curled and he was acting like he didn't want them on him)..


And almost all millis have white mites on them now.




What should I do? (I removed the spagnum moss)





Thanks, Frank

 

[Wade]

I'd say you're gonna want to do something soon. It sounds like it's gotten pretty bad. You could try one or more of the following:

1: Replace the substrate.

2: Heat the sbstrate buy putting it in a microwave or conventional oven. Obviously, remove the millipedes first! Cook it until it steams, but don't burn it. This should kill off most of the mites. Let cool a long time before returning millis.

3: Use predatory mites (Hypoaspis sp.) to rid your bin of mites. This is a predatory species that eats other mites. I get them from biconet.com, but I'm not sure if they'll ship to Canada. They're sold as a bicontrol method in greenhouses. They will also eat the bennificial mites.

4: Mannually remove the mites. I've never done this myself, but I believe some keepers have briefly rinsed the millipede with lukewarm water and managed to knock off alot of the mites. Repeating this over a period of days may help. Hopefully someone who has actually done this will chime in.

5: Keep the bin dryer. This is probably the root of the problem. I'd reccomend a better ventilated lid. Also, you could mix in some dry substrate with the wet, after you get the mites under control.

Good luck,

Wade

 

[Frank]

Thanks for the infos. The white mites seems to get in bigger numbers, and some millis looks like they have about 5-6mites near their head when they curl up.


I'll dry it up and buy a screen for the lid this weekend. I hope everything will go better soonly...







Thanks, Frank

 

[Professor T]

Originally posted by FrankQC
Thanks for the infos. The white mites seems to get in bigger numbers, and some millis looks like they have about 5-6mites near their head when they curl up.

I'll dry it up and buy a screen for the lid this weekend. I hope everything will go better soonly..

Thanks, Frank

Frank,

The commensal mites can be tan to reddish in color. So, lighter mites can still be OK. Sometimes mites overpopulate if you feed your millipedes stuff mites can eat too...like dog food. Good luck!

 

[Frank]

Hello, what do you mean by commensal? Bad? Good?

I don't give dog food, I'll start as soon as the mite pop is down, for now i'm drying substrate, I bough a net, and I'm gonna work on it this weekend.

And there's about 10 to 15 mites on one millis. do you think that's too much? Red ones are still there, with the white ones.. I tryed to see if I could squeeze some mites, damn they are fast! lol



Frank

 

[Professor T]

Originally posted by FrankQC
Hello, what do you mean by commensal? Bad? Good?

I don't give dog food, I'll start as soon as the mite pop is down, for now i'm drying substrate, I bough a net, and I'm gonna work on it this weekend.

And there's about 10 to 15 mites on one millis. do you think that's too much? Red ones are still there, with the white ones.. I tryed to see if I could squeeze some mites, damn they are fast! lol

Frank

Commensal mites are mites that benefit from living on the millipede, and the millipede is neither helped nor harmed. They are harmless mites to the millipede.

Do not give your millipedes dog food, that was an example of a food that could increase the mite population. Its good you don't feed them dog food, especially if you have a mite overpopulation problem.

There is a chance you are worry about mites whenthey pose no threat. Dry the enclose out a little, keep it cleaner, see if the mite population stabalizes or declines.

 

[Frank]

Thanks, will good mites die if there's not much humidity or will only bad ones (which comes from high humidity)? For now I'm drying it as much as possible



Thanks, Frank