Scorpion Talk :D

[MassExodus]

Nice! Thanks Ok, I've been gathering wild caught scorpions (C vittatus) from around my house and the hospital I work at. I ranged a little farther out a few nights ago, and every specimen I found had orange mites. Some had just a few. Some were covered in them. I threw the cups away after releasing them. I then went home and checked the fifteen or so that I've gathered, and thankfully found none. I researched what info I could find, and discovered that you can buy H miles predatory mites that will kill them, you can try to remove them yourself, or desiccate the scorp, which btw has one of the best water retention cuticles of all inverts. Has anyone had experience with these orange mites? And what did you do? Apparently they're quite common on wc scorpions..in certain areas. all the other areas I catch them, near buildings and such, are completely clean of these little red orange parasites. Oh, I saw a thread about drowning the scorpion to kill the mites, but the scorpion doesn't die? I'll be reading further about that. Sounds crazy..

 

[Hisserdude]

Oh, those sound like they are parasitic mites in the genus Leptus, (see here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/91277), that suck the blood from your scorpions, they are found on a variety of arachnids.
I assume they look much like this?

The predatory mites may help, but those themselves stress out certain invertebrates, and they'll decimate your springtail populations, if you have any. Still, gotta be better than having bloodsucking parasites all over you...
Hope you can get rid of them, never had the displeasure of seeing these mites in person, but they sound awful.

 

[MassExodus]

Well mine are clean. I think. I read that you can't see the little ones. I looked at all of mine with a scope, as best as I could. But the ones I found in the brush looked just like your picture. I'm just concerned that there could be a few little ones lurking in my colony. I'm going to have to dry them out, for awhile. I was hoping someone who's dealt with them would chime in. I found very few actual discussions about them when I searched. I remember a more detailed thread I saw a long time ago and can't find it again..maybe I'll try again. I could have been having a brainfart when I searched I suppose Either way, all will be fed well and then deprived of water completely and then rationed out on food. I figure 3 weeks, then two weeks no food at all. Its a good plan, I think. Screw that old thread

 

[MassExodus]

And of course, I'll keep the enclosure clean.

 

[Hisserdude]

Well with these guys, feeding the scorpions less will do nothing, seeing as they feed on the scorpion's blood rather than leftover food like grain mites. Drying them out may help, but you would think they would get all the moisture they need from the scorpion's blood. Truly I think you would need to manually smash and remove any of the mites you see.

 

[MassExodus]

Damn. You're right they're parasitic..damn.

 

[MassExodus]

Well hope for the best I suppose. I hate having to tail scorpions. Some dont take kindly to it @Kymura I just wanted to be sure before sending them to you. I wouldn't appreciate being sent scorpions with little bloodsuckers on them..like I said though, I don't see any on mine, and they're all fat and healthy looking.
I'll post pics when I get somewhere with a signal. I'm certain I have 3 gravid females. I candled the biggest girl and could see the shapes Wait til you see the pics

 

[Kymura]

They are staying in the living room so no danger of crossing over to the T's even if they have a couple, I think I'm fairly certain you wouldn't deliberately send them full of mites

 

[MassExodus]

Of course not I've just never run into them before. One that I found had them all around his mouth parts. Its kind of disturbing to find one like that. Just made me a little concerned about them.

 

[MassExodus]

The female on the right looking more bloated than the others is about to pop out some babies Theres two males in this pic, both have big females laying on top of them. Lol. I guess it's a dominance thing?

 

[Master Odin]

Nice! Thanks Ok, I've been gathering wild caught scorpions (C vittatus) from around my house and the hospital I work at. I ranged a little farther out a few nights ago, and every specimen I found had orange mites. Some had just a few. Some were covered in them. I threw the cups away after releasing them. I then went home and checked the fifteen or so that I've gathered, and thankfully found none. I researched what info I could find, and discovered that you can buy H miles predatory mites that will kill them, you can try to remove them yourself, or desiccate the scorp, which btw has one of the best water retention cuticles of all inverts. Has anyone had experience with these orange mites? And what did you do? Apparently they're quite common on wc scorpions..in certain areas. all the other areas I catch them, near buildings and such, are completely clean of these little red orange parasites. Oh, I saw a thread about drowning the scorpion to kill the mites, but the scorpion doesn't die? I'll be reading further about that. Sounds crazy..

I cant even find scorpions where im at in florida