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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stan Schultz" data-source="post: 144460" data-attributes="member: 28438">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 <a href="http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html" target="_blank">http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/mites07.html</a>. 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.</blockquote>

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