Great...mites. Not only that, eggs in poo. You know you're curious

OK...so I now am experiencing my first battle with actual parasitic mites (I made myself look like an idiot earlier this year when I announced that my hissers had an inch of parasitic mites on the bottom of their enclosure. Oops. )

However, these mites are cream colored, slow moving and very much attatched to the pedes.

However, I have also found what look to be eggs in the fecal matter of one pede.

I examined a turd it left in my bathtub while I was changing substrate.

Do mites lay eggs internally, or does anyone here think I am at the beginning of a nematode problem?

The source of the mites has been nailed down. I've traced it back to pet store crix. I routinely buy crix from four different stores in my area, so which one has the bad crix is impossible to nail down.

This begs the question: How do I feed my bugs. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Crix have always been made to be the safest of the four main feeder items I always see in pet stores (crix, mealworms, waxworms, superworms).

My lobster colony is nowhere near up to speed...I'm looking at another six months minimum before i can think of feeding from the colony.

Are there alternative foods I can feed (like beef or ham)?

I know how to sterilize the substrate, so that isn't a problem...just bake it at 350* for 4 hours if I remember right.

The part that worries me is how to clean the mites off the pedes. The largest Q tips I can find are about 2 inches long. My smallest pede that is for sure infected is 4 inches long, the biggest (not sure this one is affected) is twice that. I'm willing to get tagged once or twice, because nothing says love like digging up your favorite pet and poking it with a stick till it bites you .

Off to rally the troops...wish me luck

Pics soon...hopefully.

Wait...are u talking about millipedes or centipedes. Basing on the part where you said that one of your pedes might tag you aka bite you...I'm guessing centipede. A method I used for cleaning millipedes before was putting them in flower and dusting them with a brush, let them swim in it for a bit, and later getting a bit of alcohol mix with water, I'd take a q tip and put a bit on the spots with the mites. However, centipedes, never had that problem.

Honestly, there are no real safe bugs except maybe prekilled bugs in a can or something. Its really hard, in fact, what I think is that almost every one of the feeder insects and stuff that we get have some bits of mites on them and given the right climate and stuff, thats when they bloom on you like a bunch of weeds. In a way, its like they are already in your tank at most of the time, they're just waiting.

Parasitic mites are YUCK and a completely pill. That method that I said up there, I got from the internet. It got a lot of them, but they never really went away, and I never was able to really play with my pedes much because of it. It was just too...gross...thinking that after you play with them there might be something crawling on you and 'potentially' feeding off of you. AHHHHH!

And do post pics....I'm pretty anxious to see some. I'd definately search here and outside of here...like google/ask.com etc. However, considering they are centipedes...makes your job a lot more hellish. RIght now I'd cross my fingers in hopes that the little critters don't spread and contaminate your other tanks. That...will be the start...of the end.

GL....and have fun. ;P

A very good method that I heard...btw...is purchasing predatory mites that eat other mites.

predatory mites are hugely expensive.. if i recall one small pill container with them in it was $1200 canadian.. not that you would need that many but i dont know if you could get small quantities

I thought twice about posting this strat because some might whine about it. The choice is yours. But here's what I do if the mites get real bad. I'm not necessarily recommending this. You can't completely get rid of them this way because you will always miss some. It's been my experience that pedes can stay under water for several hours and come out OK. So I put badly infested pedes in a jar of water until they go limp. I've seen it take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 mins for them to go limp. Sometimes they only look limp so be careful. I'd put the pede on something flat and not hold it if you do this. I take it out and scrape the mites off with a small knife. I've done it a few times so far. The pedes recover slowly in a few minutes or depending on how long they have been under. I've had pedes die from mites in the past. Now I have another sp of mite that seems to keep them in check. But the faster mites can't get in between the tight spots where the vamps are, between the tergites. But that's good enough for me and the pede. I've only done this with S. h. castaneiceps. Air can be transferred through the spiracles allot faster that I thought. They can sink fast. But if a spiracle touches the surface, the pede immediately expands, floats and touches other spiracles to the surface. They like to be around bodies of water and dry creeks. I think it's how they handle flash floods. Because of a couple of accidents I've had over the past, I've seen pedes come out OK after being limp and under water for many hours. But I don't know about Subspinipes. I have a Cherry-Red but it's never had mites. The locals are big and interesting so I haven't messed with many exotics over the years. I'm not going to comment on any complaints. I'm 43 and I've been playing with these for years but I know there are allot of younger people that use this forum so I was unsure about posting this...I will leave that up to the mods. I think the white stuff in the poo is normal. I'm thinking it might be urinary waste in solid form... uric acid, like the way reptiles a birds get rid of uric acid. But....just more speculation.

Aw man don't be so nervous if people start getting u for it I'll back you up. I think its nice people are thinking up stuff and having the guts to put it on. Forum people sure do get a person paranoid though. I don't know about that idea though because it sounds sort of risky, but it sounds interesting.

The mites are 20 dollars American and can be bought through the mail.
Bicontrol network
http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html
the smallest container is $29.50
Use it and see.
I have for years, it works.

J Morningstar said:

The mites are 20 dollars American and can be bought through the mail.
Bicontrol network
http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html
the smallest container is $29.50
Use it and see.
I have for years, it works.

Click to expand...

I like your idea better MS. You've mentioned them before along with some other people. I need to quit being so lazy and order those. Thanks for the link! I've been wanting to give them a try ever since I read about them. I'm wondering if I already have them:? , you know these other mites. ..only one way to find out. I'm going to order!

I just did it. Came out to $37 and some change with shipping. The picture of the mite sure looks like the ones I have that I thought were good but now I won't have to wonder about it and I'll know I've done what I could. Cool, I finally ordered those things! By the way, when I put the pedes in water, If a bubble on a spiracle about the size of a BB is stuck to it, it will dissappear in a split second and reappear when the pede did short, fast contractions. Allot more air volume behind the spiracle than I had assumed. I've seen them twitch their body like that when I find them under rocks. I'm thinking they are just breathing cuz they're fired up. I've been wondering why they do that but...more speculation:? . Good luck EC and I'll try to post how it goes with these killer mites I bought. Like I said, I think I have them already but now I'll know. Thanks for the slack Twilight .

DANG! Son of a diddly they just jacked up my cost to $50 because of shipping circumstances! And I'm thinking I already have the mite sp. ...oh well.... I've got to know.

Galapoheros said:

I like your idea better MS. You've mentioned them before along with some other people. I need to quit being so lazy and order those. Thanks for the link! I've been wanting to give them a try ever since I read about them. I'm wondering if I already have them:? , you know these other mites. ..only one way to find out. I'm going to order!

I just did it. Came out to $37 and some change with shipping. The picture of the mite sure looks like the ones I have that I thought were good but now I won't have to wonder about it and I'll know I've done what I could. Cool, I finally ordered those things! By the way, when I put the pedes in water, If a bubble on a spiracle about the size of a BB is stuck to it, it will dissappear in a split second and reappear when the pede did short, fast contractions. Allot more air volume behind the spiracle than I had assumed. I've seen them twitch their body like that when I find them under rocks. I'm thinking they are just breathing cuz they're fired up. I've been wondering why they do that but...more speculation:? . Good luck EC and I'll try to post how it goes with these killer mites I bought. Like I said, I think I have them already but now I'll know. Thanks for the slack Twilight .

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Galapoheros...you rock, man. I'm going to try the water thing now.

The good news is that the big one isn't affected, so I now have a source of semi-safe crix because I've only had one batch of crix since I've had him from a small, local store.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Oh and let us know about those mites, will you?

I'm interested in knowing how you keep them.

i'm working on blends of household items or maybe making tinctures to paint the vamps with to kill them.

i'll be sure to let everyone know if i come up with anything that seems to work well

I received my 1/2 liter of Hypoaspis mites today but I do not see any in the container. I would be able to see them. I think they got too hot an died in shipping. I'm trying to work something out if possible. It ended up to be a $50 purchase. Maybe I should start raising those!

I still haven't heard from the company I ordered Hypoaspis mites from. But they would prob just now be reading my emails since I tried to contact them over the weekend. I'm afraid they are going to assume I just can't see the mites. But there just aren't any in the container. On the insert, it said there is a smaller white mite included with the hypoaspis that were intended to be food for the Hypoaspis. I can see those. They look very much like the mites I'm trying to get rid of. Very slow moving and not baby Hypoaspis like some people mite think. I put a leg from a baby cricket on the sub to attract any Hypoaspis and the other white mites attached to the leg. Not very happy right now . I'm sure they just made a mistake or the Hypoaspis couldn't take the shipping heat and the others mites could. The package was pretty warm when I got it, including the refrigeration pack. ..Don't know.

Tought to say. When I last got H. miles I looked and couldnt see any. (They are brown in color, so I figured they blended well and just too small)
Put it in all my cages, and mite problem cleared up after a a week...
But since you said it was warm, I am thinking they may indeed have died, but its odd that all the eggs got wasted too, they are usually more resilient..

Well, I know Hypoaspis are light shy. But my eyes are good. I searched and searched. Like I said before, I think I have Hypoaspis mites already in other containers. Here's a pic I took of mites I already have. I was hoping to compare them to the shipment of mites I got in. Here's the pic of the ones I have that I was hoping were Hypoaspis on a small cricket. Pic isn't great but anybody have an opinion? Best to ID with good opt equipment but this is all I have, I know it would be just an opinion. Still no co news.

This just gave me an idea for raising H. miles. I have a couple spare tupperware containers that I could raise the bad mites in, and I could just keep a couple of smaller vials with the H. miles in there.

How often would one have to feed them?

I'm going to be working on this, and I will keep everyone posted.

I've been busy, but that should clear up this week so I can hopefully get the pictures of the anesthesizing posted. I'll keep everyone up to date.

Well I don't know if what I have are Hypoaspis you see in the pic. Still working on a pos ID. In the mean time, I'm raising them and they do get the bad mites off the pedes. Takes a few weeks though. All you have to do to raise them is throw in a pre killed cricket every 3 or 4 days.

I'm mailing the container with all the sub that company sent me and left them a note asking them to "look for themselves...". I don't expect to hear from them.

Yea it does look like the hy.Mites in the pic. Did you think they were big? There should have been hundreds crawling about. They are a little hard to see and they certianly don't move about as fast as millipede mites. (the good ones)
I usually just spoon in a bunch of tablespoons into the tank, no food for at least a week, and some fresh water. You do have to shake up the medium to see them sometime.
Also I have NEVER had a problem with Biocontrol network. I would be surprised if they were responsible for any error. A UPS guy leaving your package on the front seat in the sun or cooking it by accident/purpose perhaps.

J Morningstar said:

Yea it does look like the hy.Mites in the pic. Did you think they were big? There should have been hundreds crawling about. They are a little hard to see and they certianly don't move about as fast as millipede mites. (the good ones)
I usually just spoon in a bunch of tablespoons into the tank, no food for at least a week, and some fresh water. You do have to shake up the medium to see them sometime.

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Hello Morningstar,
No, no I've always known they were not big. The reddish ones you see in the pic are the species that I've seen for several years that keep turning up in substrate that I have my pedes in. These are the mites I've been thinking were Hypoaspis but wasn't sure. These aren't the mites that were shipped from Biocontrol. Biocontrol sent me no mites except for feeder mites for the Hypoaspis to eat that are white....but there were no Hypoaspis. I sent the sub back to Biocontrol today so they can see for themselves. But I'm not expecting to hear from them. I will keep this thread updated. I believe in the company. I just think they made a mistake or the Hypoaspis died from heat. It could be me but I trust my eyes. I saw the smaller white feeder mites but no Hypoaspis. I spread the sub on newspaper and saw nothing except an occasional small white feeder mite. The dead cricket show mites that WERE NOT sent by Biocontrol. I already had them and just hoping they were Hypoaspis. So you think they are? That makes me feel allot better dude! Just more encouragement. But I was hoping to compare to Biocontrol's mites to make sure.

Too Strange I have gotten them in the dead of winter and mid summer and always they have been fine. I am sure it is a mistake.

The weird thing is that they delayed my order for about 3 or 4 days. That made me suspicious right from the start. Made me think, "they weren't ready". And on average, you have some older person sprinkling this mite infested sub on their soil that is growing their vegetables to eat the "black fly eggs" in the soil They underestimate people and think they can't see the mites so they think people are going to just trust and say, "Ahh, the mites are there, blablabla...hey my tomatoes look great now!" Placebo. I'm slightly conspiracy theory oriented or maybe just paranoid ....or both. But I felt a problem right when I heard of the delay.