Unidentified mites update

As I promised Ellen, I'm starting this thread to keep anyone who is interested posted on the saga of the unidentified white mites that recently infected 8 of our enclosures. The back story in short order goes like this...

Nine days ago while feeding and doing maintenance, we discovered that our juvie P. regalis had something white all over her mouth. In an effort to determine if it was poop or a more serious problem, we tried to wash it off with a q tip and water. We had no luck with removal and on closer inspection of tarantula and water dish, discovered little wiggling white creatures, which we believe to be mites of some kind. We did some research here on AB and decided to try a dry ICU, a clean, empty, highly ventilated enclosure with only a dry paper towel and a small water dish. The ICU was then placed into a 29 gallon tank separated from all other enclosures as a quarantine. We also ordered some H. miles (predatory mites) as we read them suggested multiple times. Over the next six days the total of eight enclosures were discovered where either the tarantula or the water dish was infested with the mites. Two days after the regalis was placed into quarantine, we began to see dead mites on the bottom of the ICU and no creepy white stuff on her mouth. Yesterday our order of H. miles arrived and we introduced them to all enclosures, whether effected or not.

As of yesterday the originally effected regalis showed no sign of mites, either on the tarantula or in the enclosure. Tonight we will be rehousing her into a regular enclosure and if all goes well, she will be removed from quarantine in the next couple of days. I'll keep everyone updated with our progress.

We have good news to share with everyone! Tonight we completed rehouses on four of the eight effected tarantulas and they have been released from quarantine. We ended up waiting a little longer than originally planned, but we wanted a full three days without a mite sighting before we started removing tarantulas from quarantine. Our 5" P. vittata, 2" P. regalis, 1.5" P. cancerides, and 1" P. fasciata are all safe and sound. No mites on spiders or in water dishes, and the only things located in the substrate were the H. miles that we introduced four days ago. All four new enclosures had H. miles added to them as well, just to make sure that our little problem bugs are gone. Still in quarantine for the moment are our 3" Pamphobeteus sp. Santo Domingo who is in heavy premolt, 2 more 1" P. fasciatas, and an H. maculata sling of less than 1" (size being tough to determine with a tarantula that you only see once a month if you're lucky). Tomorrow evening we will check back on all eight tarantulas and their enclosures. Hopefully within the next day or two the other four containers will be deemed clear to be removed from quarantine.

We are still at zero losses from this entire disaster!

I'm glad everything turned out fine and that your Ts are safe

I am so happy you were successful! Mites! (shudder) Continued good luck and thanks for sharing how you handled this situation with the rest of us.

The final update:

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this thread. We have exciting news to share. All of our enclosures are mite free and not a single spider was lost to the infestation! I can't say enough about H. miles. Within a week of putting them into the enclosures there wasn't any sign of evil little white mites or obnoxious fruit fly looking creatures. We have continued to run all of our tools and water bowls through the dishwasher after any maintenance just in case, but we are happy to say that we won.

Sana said:

The final update:

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this thread. We have exciting news to share. All of our enclosures are mite free and not a single spider was lost to the infestation! I can't say enough about H. miles. Within a week of putting them into the enclosures there wasn't any sign of evil little white mites or obnoxious fruit fly looking creatures. We have continued to run all of our tools and water bowls through the dishwasher after any maintenance just in case, but we are happy to say that we won.

Click to expand...

Wow I am so happy for you guys! I understand how much work must have been involved -- nasty business mites -- but you can be so proud you tackled the problem head on. I hope you never have another mite!
Success!!!!

Do you have any good pics of the mites you detected?

Sadly no. We didn't even think about taking pictures of them and I don't have a good enough macro setup to have gotten anything more clear than a white speck. They were small, white, and vaguely resembled worms.