Help! Mites!

[TheFlash]

Those white things. They're moving! Theyre mostly where I keep my roaches..
But they were on my T enclosure too. Are they dangerous? How do I stop them from. Going everywhere? What do I do to exterminate them but not my T? I'm. Assuming bug spray won't help. If they're normal... Can I limit them to my T cage? Not all over my house? Sorry I know I've had lots of posts but I'm a relatively new handler so your expertise is appreciated!

 

[KhoanScart]

Whatever you do, do NOT use any sort of pesticide to kill them. There isn't anything that will kill them but won't kill your T. Best thing to do for now is get a new, clean enclosure, with new substrate, and move your T to that. Completely discard the old substrate and thoroughly clean any infested enclosures. Soap and water should do. You don't need to go overboard and use bleach or anything to clean it.

 

[TheFlash]

Are they harmful that's the pressing question

 

[TheFlash]

My seller said if I rehouse they'll come
Back

 

[KhoanScart]

Are they harmful that's the pressing question

Depends on what kind they are, but either way you don't want them in your enclosure. If they're on the wood, then they're wood mites and much easier to deal with. If they're on your tarantula, then they are dangerous. If they're on her, you'll need to get her into a new enclosure asap and keep her away from the area where you found them. After that, we'll have to wait for a more experienced keeper's advice as I'm still a novice myself, but rehousing her and cleaning the infested enclosures is the best you can do for now. Pretty soon experienced keepers will be on and can help you further.

 

[TheFlash]

I've checked her and they aren't on her. Actually there were few on her but mostly they coming from the roaches enclosure. Which was on top but in her enclosure looks like some on the soil... And a different kind that are jumping a bit. And a bit bigger. Nothing on her though

 

[TheFlash]

@Enn49 @WolfSpider

 

[Enn49]

Often if you can dry the substrate that will get rid of them.

 

[InEx Situ]

Depending on the sp. of tarantula, you can introduce micro and meso fauna (isopods and springtails) into your enclosure. The competition can generally prevent an abundance of mites.

 

[KezyGLA]

Best way to deal with them is to let the enclosure dry out or rehouse to a dry enclosure and dump the old one.

Mites thrive in moisture and will die off in a dry environment.

90% of mites are a harmless and are fairly beneficial as a cleanup crew

 

[TheFlash]

Depending on the sp. of tarantula, you can introduce micro and meso fauna (isopods and springtails) into your enclosure. The competition can generally prevent an abundance of mites.

I have both

 

[Dave Jay]

I've just had an explosion of mites, all coming from my Dermestid beetle tub, yesterday they were over the outside of a heap of my enclosures, today they are gone. The population explosion was because I put too much meat in for the beetles, once it was gone so were the mites.
As already stated, most mites are harmless. In rare cases they can become a problem because when numbers are very high they can swarm the mouthparts or book lungs of an invert seeking moisture. You can just brush them off with a paint brush, preferably out of the enclosure.
Once the food for them is exhausted the population will go down and they won't be noticeable. I would guess you had roaches die off or fed them too much of a meaty food so the mite population boomed, it will soon go back to normal.
There's a saying regarding mites on an invertebrate "if it moves around it's harmless, if it stays still it's a parasite". Most are just harmless mites hitching a ride or exploring, parasitic mites will attach themselves to feed on "blood" or other fluids so they stay still.

 

[Stan Schultz]

Those white things. They're moving! Theyre mostly where I keep my roaches..

That's because roaches need a damp environment. It's also Heaven for mites!

Besides, it's that time of year. Mites "bloom" most commonly as soon as our daylight hours begin to lengthen, i.e., right after deepest, darkest Winter.

But they were on my T enclosure too.

Because you're probably also keeping your tarantula cages too damp.

Are they dangerous?

Yup!

How do I stop them from. Going everywhere? What do I do to exterminate them but not my T? I'm. Assuming bug spray won't help. If they're normal...

Normal is a relative thing. What's normal from a mite's perspective is living, breathing Hell from both your perspective and your tarantulas'.

Can I limit them to my T cage? Not all over my house?

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! You don't want to limit them to your tarantulas' cages! You want them OUT OF your tarantulas' cages! Who cares if they escape into your house? What are they going to do? Kill the desk lamp or refrigerator?

If you leave them in your tarantulas' cages they're going to kill your spiders. Not only are you going to lose your investment in tarantulas, but you're going to lose some really phenomenal pets in a particularly gruesome way!

Besides, most of your house is far too dry and food far to scarce to support these mites. Once they get lost in your house their hours are numbered anyway.

Read Mighty Mites at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html. I wrote it EXACTLY for you!

Wherever "crickets" are mentioned, substitute "roaches." Fundamentally, there's not a huge difference between them. (If you don't believe me, compare a dead cricket to a dead roach with a thorough inspection under a magnifying glass or dissecting microscope.)

You'll probably have to get rid of the roach colony entirely, now that you've had a rampant mite infestation. If so, switch to commercially purchased crickets. Buy only what you can use in a week. Then thoroughly clean the cricket container (do you have an automatic dish washer?) before getting more crickets for the next week. You'll have to do this for at least the next three or four months, maybe a year.

Since the mites have now probably spread to every cage, and even to nearly every surface in the room where you're keeping your tarantulas, you should probably go on a rampage, sanitizing or washing everything.

Sorry I know I've had lots of posts but I'm a relatively new handler so your expertise is appreciated!

We don't mind lots of posts and even retarded questions at all. In fact we encourage them. Retarded questions are a lot easier to deal with than retarded mistakes. You're probably about to find that out first hand.

Keep us posted. Best of luck.

 

[TheFlash]

That's because roaches need a damp environment. It's also Heaven for mites!

Besides, it's that time of year. Mites "bloom" most commonly as soon as our daylight hours begin to lengthen, i.e., right after deepest, darkest Winter.

We don't have winter here, and we do not have days that get longer or shorter. Our days tend to stay the same as do our heat levels which is weird that I have mites

My Roach enclosure isnt really damp and I only have about 4 left in there anyways. I usually buy enough for a month or two but yea thinking of ditchin the Rest.
I put vaseline on the bases of the Roach enclosure and that seems to have killed many of them

 

[Dave Jay]

That's because roaches need a damp environment. It's also Heaven for mites!

Besides, it's that time of year. Mites "bloom" most commonly as soon as our daylight hours begin to lengthen, i.e., right after deepest, darkest Winter.



Because you're probably also keeping your tarantula cages too damp.



Yup!



Normal is a relative thing. What's normal from a mite's perspective is living, breathing Hell from both your perspective and your tarantulas'.



NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! You don't want to limit them to your tarantulas' cages! You want them OUT OF your tarantulas' cages! Who cares if they escape into your house? What are they going to do? Kill the desk lamp or refrigerator?

If you leave them in your tarantulas' cages they're going to kill your spiders. Not only are you going to lose your investment in tarantulas, but you're going to lose some really phenomenal pets in a particularly gruesome way!

Besides, most of your house is far too dry and food far to scarce to support these mites. Once they get lost in your house their hours are numbered anyway.

Read Mighty Mites at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html. I wrote it EXACTLY for you!

Wherever "crickets" are mentioned, substitute "roaches." Fundamentally, there's not a huge difference between them. (If you don't believe me, compare a dead cricket to a dead roach with a thorough inspection under a magnifying glass or dissecting microscope.)

You'll probably have to get rid of the roach colony entirely, now that you've had a rampant mite infestation. If so, switch to commercially purchased crickets. Buy only what you can use in a week. Then thoroughly clean the cricket container (do you have an automatic dish washer?) before getting more crickets for the next week. You'll have to do this for at least the next three or four months, maybe a year.

Since the mites have now probably spread to every cage, and even to nearly every surface in the room where you're keeping your tarantulas, you should probably go on a rampage, sanitizing or washing everything.



We don't mind lots of posts and even retarded questions at all. In fact we encourage them. Retarded questions are a lot easier to deal with than retarded mistakes. You're probably about to find that out first hand.

Keep us posted. Best of luck.

Personally I think your take on mites is a bit alarmist and outdated but it's no doubt based on personal experience, I won't say that you're not entitled to it or that following your advice would be harmful in any way. I merely want to point out that a very simple way to rid an item of chlorine bleach is after rinsing thoroughly soak it in a bucket of water treated with a high dose of aquarium dechlorinator, then you can be sure that all traces of chlorine will be neutralised even within the "pores" of an item.

 

[InEx Situ]

Personally I think your take on mites is a bit alarmist and outdated but it's no doubt based on personal experience, I won't say that you're not entitled to it or that following your advice would be harmful in any way. I merely want to point out that a very simple way to rid an item of chlorine bleach is after rinsing thoroughly soak it in a bucket of water treated with a high dose of aquarium dechlorinator, then you can be sure that all traces of chlorine will be neutralised even within the "pores" of an item.

I concur @Dave Jay and also, keep in mind that there are roughly 45,000 species of mites and not all are harmful. Most are beneficial.

 

[Dave Jay]

I concur @Dave Jay and also, keep in mind that there are roughly 45,000 species of mites and not all are harmful. Most are beneficial.

To be fair though, I don't have enough personal experience specifically related to tarantulas to say he's wrong, it may be that tarantulas are much more sensitive than other animals to "harmless" mites, but years of experience keeping other animals tells me that they generally aren't much of a problem. My veiw is that most are actually beneficial because they do multiply so quickly and clean up a mess, then just as quickly they die off again.
Mind you, I did take some action last night, I put some steak offcuts on top of a couple of enclosures, now there are none to be seen inside or outside of the enclosures. I had an explosion of mites because I fed too much meat to my Dermestid beetle colony which sits on top of a stack of enclosures and the mites were roaming around on the outside of the enclosures and starting to make their way in to a couple, meat bait did the trick though.

 

[Stan Schultz]

We don't have winter here, ..

I had to sit back and look at this for few seconds. When I looked up your profile I find that you live in Indonesia! I spent several months there in the mid 1970s; mostly Surabaya, a few days in Denpasar, and one day down the island chain in a place called Sumbawa. I liked Indonesia. The people were very friendly and I enjoyed the culture. Where, may I ask, do you live?

... and we do not have days that get longer or shorter. Our days tend to stay the same as do our heat levels which is weird that I have mites.

Not at all! With the tropical heat and humidity, you're living in a virtual mite incubator. And one important reason that you aren't ordinarily overrun with mites is that it's also a virtual mite-predator-incubator! Plus, humans ordinarily perform periodic housekeeping to remove most food sources as well as mite population explosions before they become a problem. Lastly, a little bit of drying out once in a while does wonders for killing mites. They have virtually no defense against mummification! And Indonesians seem to do a pretty good job of keeping dry in spite of the torrential rains and high humidity.

The fact that your climate conditions are nearly constant year round only means that the mites are not constrained by seasonal changes in temperature and humidity.

My Roach enclosure isnt really damp ...

It doesn't have to be. The reason that mites become a problem in a damp cage is that the dampness raises the humidity to a uniformly high level, thus preventing the mites' desiccation and death. In Indonesia, the humidity is almost always high. The only key issue is the timing. The humidity has to reach about 100% at the same time that the mites are ready to go on a reproductive rampage. A plentiful food source is also important.

Such reproductive rampages are often called "blooms," and there's a whole sub-branch of ecology and population studies that concerns itself with how blooms come about and how to control them.

... and I only have about 4 left in there anyways. I usually buy enough for a month or two but yea thinking of ditchin the Rest.

If that's the case, go ahead and do it. Wash the empty roach cage thoroughly with soap water and rinse well to remove all traces of soap. Adding a little chlorine laundry bleach is just added insurance.

... I put vaseline on the bases of the Roach enclosure and that seems to have killed many of them

But I would be afraid that those "many" might only be the tip of the iceberg. It's almost impossible to assess just how many mites are hiding in crevices in the container's construction and the substrate, even on the roaches themselves.

Lastly, if you buy new roaches about once a month, you should be prepared to do such a thorough cleaning every time or every second time your roach population drops to zero as a preemptive means of control.

Cheers,

 

[InEx Situ]

@TheFlash and @Dave Jay
http://arachnoboards.com/threads/all-you-need-to-know-about-mites.309211/

 

[TheFlash]

@Stan Schultz cool
Yea. I lived in Jakarta for 2 years. Before moving to Bandung which is 3 hours outside of Jakarta. I've spent a lot of time in Bali too. I'd be interested to hear what it was like in the 70s. Now it's overrun by young aussy's partying drinking and wondering why the Balinese don't bend to their will.

I'm. Canadian. Before here I taught in Japan.