What else besides mites infest roach bins?

Buspirone

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I had a grain mite problem but got it under control. Now I have noticed alot of tiny insects that move pretty quickly and have a longer oblong shaped body(a distictive section between the head and body) that are light tan colored. They don't appear to be bothering my roaches or the hundred or so nymphs that have been birthed recently. I don't see them in the dry food dish but they are abundant in the peat substrate. I'm more concerned with spreading these to my T enclosures when I start feeding the roaches to my tarantulas. Anybody care guess what these things are??

EDIT: I made the color sound darker than it is...I originally meant darker than the grain mites. Sorry.
 
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Code Monkey

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I've got a few billion rice flour beetles in my roach bins. The buggers hollow out the dead roaches in a matter of days. They are shaped like a minature mealworm beetle, about 2-3 mm long, and a light to medium reddish/rust brown color. This sounds about like what you've got.

I'll see about posting a pic tonight, there's no shortage of them in my apartment.
 

metallica

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Hi Code, i know all about them! a real pest to get rid off!
 

Buspirone

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My camera can't take pics of anything as small as these but in this pic I cirlcled some of the bugs on the side of the tub. The holes I have covered with tape were drilled with a 1/8" bit so they are tiny. I think rice bettels are a bit larger from the pics I got off of google image search.
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by metallica
Hi Code, i know all about them! a real pest to get rid off!
You can get rid of them? I've learned to live with them, I can't even imagine how I would go about getting rid of them at this point. I used to have a small population that bred in the ferret and dog food that got drug into strange places by my ferrets. Then I got the roaches and their population went through the roof since they've got an ideal place to breed and no real way to control them that I can think of.

I am open to anything that actually works, though.
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Buspirone
I think rice bettels are a bit larger from the pics I got off of google image search.
I think you may be misjudging those pics. Here's one of my evil bastiches next to a quarter for scale (it's a bit over exposed but you'll get the idea).
 

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Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Buspirone
I don't think so, the picture I had found was by someone selling rice beetle cultures and the rice beetle is on a penny.
Well, that leaves some sort of collemboid insect (springtail). Springtails are completely harmless and would actually go away if you let things dry out.

If I'm wrong on that guess, I have no more ideas since the little brown blobs in your photo could be just about anything.
 

Buspirone

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The substrate is dry....I just removed the waterdish and the food dishes. I'll put the dry food back in once a week over night to let them eat and see if I can get rid of the little buggers. Orange heads are known to eat other bugs so I wonder if the small nymphs will eat the pests once they realize the food and water is gone before they start eating each other :? .
 
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