good mite vs bad mite..pic!

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Jul 4, 2005
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OK, those that knew, really did know. I can be a little thick-headed sometimes. Sorry, I am beginning to be a believer, finally. So anyway, I have many centipedes. Not very many sp though. I have one S. h. heros that came down with bad vamp mites really fast. I know how that happened. I pinpointed the source. So it is under control. My strat was to isolate the pede and keep it on thin dry substrate with a cap of water. I tried this once with this sp of mite and after two months the pede still had mites. Not as many but it still had them. I finally mailed that centipede to someone that knew it had mites. It seemed to be working though...the dry sub strat. I had some old containers that used to have centipedes in them with old substrate sitting around. A couple of them have hundreds or maybe thousands of the fast moving mites that I was hoping were the predatory mites. I noticed the infested pede's container was sterile of the fast moving mites before I isolated it a few weeks ago. So I decided to put the infested pede in a container that had all the fast mites moving around in it just a while ago. Well within seconds, the bigger faster mites were running all over the pede and attacking the smaller vamp mites between the tergites. Either that or they are attacking the centipede...naaaaaa. I will keep you updated as I'm sure some of you out there have had the same prob. Here's a pic seconds after I put the pede in the container with the bigger faster predatory mites. Looks to me that they are attacking the smaller, bad mites. Man, I sure hope so. I know some might be thinking that they are just bigger bad mites but that's not what I'm thinking. If they are, I will just have to isolate it and forget about it. Wish the dude luck!

 
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MEXICOYA415

Arachnobaron
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Mar 23, 2006
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Keep us posted. If it works out you should try to breed them for sale.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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MEXICOYA415 said:
Keep us posted. If it works out you should try to breed them for sale.
I would like to breed these. I have 3 of them so I'm really trying to get this mite situation under control. It took me a long time to find them so I don't want to lose any. The sub in the pic isn't as moist as it looks. The flash makes it look that way. But I don't like to give the centipedes bone dry substrate. It's not good if you want to get eggs either. Maybe this will work:) .
 

bistrobob85

Arachnoprince
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May 21, 2005
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Good initiative to biologically experiment on different mites... Really admirable choice :). I hope you discover something that helps us all with inverts that have mites... Good job!!!!

phil.
 

MEXICOYA415

Arachnobaron
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Mar 23, 2006
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I meant you should try to breed the mites if indeed they are beneficial.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Oh,:? , yea, thought about that too ....if it works. You can already buy the predatory mites. But I never have, and I don't know what species I have here. It might be the same sp that people buy for this kind of thing. I just don't know.
 
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konrad16660

Arachnosquire
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Jun 30, 2006
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MEXICOYA415 said:
I meant you should try to breed the mites if indeed they are beneficial.
hehe that is when you know we have gone to far with our addiction!:}
 
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