Mites?

[Andrew Murdoch]

Whilst putting fresh water in the little bowls I have in my various tanks I noticed that there were small white critters crawling around near to and under the water bowel! I dont think that they are mites (I might be wrong) they are about 1/2 a mill long, white and quite narrow. It took a few moments to get my 'eye' in but they were there for sure. I checked with the other tanks and they are there too.
*Is this a major problem?
*Should I do something about this?
*If I leave them will they do what they do without causing my T's any damage?
*Would wood-lice cure this problem by munching them all up?
*Where on earth do these wee buggers come from?
*My girl friend thinks they may have come in with their food source, could this be right?

The species that I have the problem with are Mex Red Rump; Sri-Lankan Ornimentals; Salmon Pink Bird eater.
I am aware that 'they' could be 'dried out' and may perrish, but as you guys are well aware the T's need humidity and water.
Any suggestions, I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

*Another thing: my salmon pink has stopped eating, I think it appears darker, I assume it will be in pre-molt. i have checked where it hangs out the most, under a cork bark, it is a narrow space, I am worried that if it molts there it will not have enough room! Are Tarantulas spacially aware and if so will it come to the surface to molt?

[James Box]

to be honest, from everything i've heard, the mites dessicate alot faster than tarantula's do...the para's and the smithi especially, depending on if they're adults, should be fine... and i think the ornamentals could do with dry spells.

woodlice would help, evidently... they eat the eggs.

mites may not be the evil they're claimed to be, but too many might be a problem, so good to be careful

[Mark Pajak]

If they are longer than they are wide then they are probably springtails (collembola) and do not pose a threat.

They do however thrive in the same conditions that mites do and so you may have mites too.

The white collembola can reproduce asexually so it only takes one to spawn a whole population in a short time.

I would say change the substrate just to be on the safe side. Although having said that they thrive in my naturalistic planted vivarium, and I think they eat mould and other nasties so they could even be beneficial.

[Peter Lacey]

Springtails are good, they do a similar job as the woodlice - similar shape to a grain of rice but smaller and jump like fleas.
Mites are bad in big numbers - little round beaties.
Drying out the substrate will kill off both.

Personally I'd remove mites as its easy to do so when they're restricted to the water bowl. However we've recently been told they're not the threat we've been led to believe, as long as its not in huge numbers.

[Chris Golen]

The way I always look at it is, if there is nothing on the T itself, you should be fine.
If it does worry you, you can dry out the cage, but as others have already mentioned, if you only see a few, I wouldn't worry about it.

[jan soetaert]

the only only thing you have to make sure they do not become an infestation and change the substrate a bit more often. the mites can cause really nasty allergic reactions to some individuals. better to avoid than to cure!

jan

[Viki Clark]

Hi Andrew,

I am a complete novice myself but I had a similar query a couple of weeks ago, I found tiny white things that looked like mini grains of rice near and in the water bowl, when I posted in the forum I was advised to check if Mildred had anything on her, which she didn't and that it was probably nothing to worry about but to be on the safe side and dry the tank out a bit and clean and change the water, which I did and they do seem to have gone.
Hope you solve your problem!