i'm new with tarantulas and i need some input, please. (help!)

aliciaph

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Aug 31, 2005
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around a week after i got my red knee tarantula, i noticed a couple of mites on my arms after taking her out of her tank. later on i transfered her into a bigger tank and these mites multiplied. i asked someone at the pet store and they told me to take her to a vet right away. when i got home i put her back into the smaller, clean tank and changed the soil from dirt to sand and she started eating again and i haven't seen the mites since. it's been a couple of weeks now, and she seems fine. but i am wondering if these mites are parasites or just scavengers. the ones i found look like fleas only smaller. if i need to take her to the vet i don't want them to tell me that there is nothing wrong and pay $54 bucks. i just moved out so i'm struggling with money not to mention my hours at work have been cut in half. after telling a veterinarian my situation, he told me it's up to me. can anyone give me some input, please? can i put the vet appointment off a couple more weeks or should i take her in right away? thank you.
 

becca81

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Honestly, after having owned a tarantula for a few weeks you probably know more than your vet does about them. ;) Don't waste your money.

The people at the petstore are about on the same level - they have no idea what they're talking about and will come up with anything to keep from looking stupid.

It sounds to me like it's fine now, so as long as it has a hide, good substrate (*not* sand - just get some peat moss from Wal-Mart and mix it up with some vermaculite (I do 50/50)- it's cheap and works very well), and an open water dish (no sponge), it should be fine.

If you were just using dirt from outside, then it's no surprise that there were mites or any other bugs.

Set-up for B. smithi (Mexican Red Knee)


 
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Windchaser

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I would add to this to keep the substrate more on the dry side. Wet or moist substrate promotes investations of molds, fungus and mites.
 

ilovebugs

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As always, I'm backing Becca, she's never let me down.

She's right, most vet's know very little if anything about T's. I'm sure you will find more help here than any vet could give you.

just keep your eyes peeled for the little buggers.
 

WhyTeDraGon

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clean the tank thoroughly, remove the sand, replace it with peat moss, and keep it dry. That's all there is to it :) And you'll rarely find someone willing to take a tarantula to the vet anyhow, lol.

She'll be just fine :) And welcome to the boards!
 

M.F.Bagaturov

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Hello!

It is nothing to bored a much as all said.
Do not overmoisten the substratum cos B. smithi do not need the high humidity as mentioned above.
As for different mites and tarantulas You can find some interesting reading in www as well. The brief info also located on my site here: http://tarantulas.tropica.ru/english/index2.php?link=reproduction.htm
Just click "Enemies and "roommates" link...
Hope this also helps.
 

greenbay1

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Welcome to the hobby aliciaph. You've come to the right place for advice. There are great folks here with a lot of experience. I second the "no" vote on the vet. Those involved in the hobby know more about Ts than almost all vets. Good luck on your B. smithi . They are wonderful, beautiful Ts.
 

Randy

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becca81 said:
Honestly, after having owned a tarantula for a few weeks you probably know more than your vet does about them. ;) Don't waste you ......
Geez!! your Smithi set up is exactly the same as mine.. the only difference is the water dish LOL
 

Cirith Ungol

Ministry of Fluffy Bunnies
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Mites don't nessesarily are a bad thing. If you start finding pockets of mites sitting motionless on your tarantula, then it's a bit of a problem. If you see the occasional mite wandering across her body there's normally no problem, because then you most certainly have a type of mite that prefers to check for food in and on the ground rather than on a T.

But if you were to find those said pockets you could always ask on the boards if someone had a few Hypoaspis miles (or other predatory mites) to sell or you could get links to companies who sell those. Predatory mites will when introduced slowly kill off the "bad mite" offspring, that way eradicating the bad mite infestation.
 

bonesmama

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Hello and welcome! I just wanted to add that you should by the Tarantula Keeper's Guide by Schultz and Schultz--the Arachnophile's Bible!
 

AfterTheAsylum

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I have heard of people using pill bugs to eat mites. Is this an option? (I have never done this, so seek someone who has the knowledge of the cause/effect sequence).
 

galeogirl

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If the t is heavily infested, you can move it to an ICU setup (plastic container line with paper toweling) and try to brush off the mites with a clean, damp paintbrush.
 

Beccas_824

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And keeping your enclosure super-dry will help also. the mites will eventually dry out and die. you could also try the paintbrush thing if its really bad. And I would change the substrate ASAP to get rid of any mites that are in the enclosure.
 

lta3398

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I keep my Ts on peat moss, nothing mixed in it, and dry, except for an occasional overfilling of the water dish for humidity's sake. I have never had a mite problem, and I have been keeping Ts for 12 years. It sounds as though you got rid of them, although your T shouldn't be on sand. You will hear many different types of substrate used by everyone here on the boards, so find out what is best for you. But no sand!:embarrassed:
 

Valael

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B. Smithi doesn't need much moisture at all.

Keep it dry, even paper towels will work for the time being.


Keep a water dish in there and replace it fairly often. If the water dish is the only moisture in the cage, the mites will start to appear in the dish. They'll drown in the dish.

I had the same problem (bought a B. Smithi from a petstore). It took a few weeks (maybe even over a month), but eventually the mites went away.


Bone dry with a water dish being the only source of water. If/when you feed it, remove the bolus right away. A bolus would be a great source of food for a mite.
 

Cirith Ungol

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Soulsick said:
I have heard of people using pill bugs to eat mites. Is this an option? (I have never done this, so seek someone who has the knowledge of the cause/effect sequence).
Not so much to eat mites, but to eat what mites eat. They "might" eat mites but it's very hard to be sure about that.

------------

I leave my substrate bonedry and instead give my T well fed and hydrated feeder insects. I've not had any moulting problems and obviously no mites. Even my blondi fares well under those conditions and has moulted twice now and come out perfect like a perl.
 

Vanisher

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Or just peatmoss! I havent understood that vermiculit thing.! Peat moss holds humidety well, and i think vermiculite looks unnaturel. I use pure peatemoss for all my spiders, or a mix of peat and barkchips. Vermiculite seems popular in the states, but i have never liked it Becca! CHEERS!!!///Johan
 

BooyaTarantula

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Yeah all good advice, keep your smithi dry and warm and she'll be happy. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend universally dry habitats for ALL T's due to the extreme humidity dependency of certain species (blondi, rhobustum, etc) that would end up giving you at the very least a tempermental T. I would say that creating the correct habitat (humidity included) is more important than totally eliminating fungus/mite risk, particularly because most fungi and mites are NOT detrimental to the health of the T. That's just my two cents, but I'd say all the information posted so far is relevant and accurate to solve your specific problem! Welcome to the hobby!
 

RickysReptiles

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If/when you feed it, remove the bolus right away. A bolus would be a great source of food for a mite.
How? My T takes her cricket into her hide to eat, the only way for me to get in there would be to demolish all her hard work.
 

cold blood

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How? My T takes her cricket into her hide to eat, the only way for me to get in there would be to demolish all her hard work.
I rarely remove them right away for many species. For some of my more aggressive t's or heavier webbers, I wait till they are pre-molt and locked into a specific place. If I just tried to remove them from say, my chaco or my P. nigricolor, it would really be a pain because their prey drive is insane and they just attack the tweezers, so I leave them for a while more often than not. If I had any kind of a mite issue, it would be different, but truth is, I haven't seen a mite in over a decade (in my enclosures). The ones that hide in holes or are less aggressive, they typically get removed promptly.

Webbers will often pitch them out of their hides eventually, get em then, no need to dig up a bolus IMO.
 
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