Mites?

[Craig Mackay]

I was just removing an unwanted cricket from one my G.rosea's tanks and I lifted a piece of cork bark to see tiny little bugs running about. It was the same on another piece in the tank. I've seen in other threads that mites slow moving but these things are very fast. They don't jump around either so I don't think they're springtails. They're greyish in colour and have two antennae but thats about all I can make out due to their size. They're not baby crickets are they? I Hope not. Any ideas what they could be?

Cheers

[Peter Roach]

Run fast and have 2 antennae ?

mmmmmmm I think that covers a lot of insects

Insects are a major group of arthropods and the most diverse group of animals on the Earth, with over a million described species more than half of all known living organisms with estimates of undescribed species as high as 30 million, thus potentially representing over 90% of the differing life forms on the plane

But at a guess, yes they probably are micro crix

Another reason why I dont use crickets any more.

[Craig Mackay]

Yeah, I know that was a pretty vague description, lol. Do I need to worry or are they likely to die off?
Cheers

[Peter Roach]

For the crickets to have hatched in the tank the substrate must have been damp. Chiles DO NOT need a damp substrate ...ever.
Take out the water bowl and let the tank dry out for a week or two and the micros will die out. If you are worried about the chile with no access to water just put the water bowl in the tank for an hour or two once or twice a week. Personly I would just take it out and leave it out until the crickets are all dead.

[Craig Mackay]

Thanks Peter.
With the sun and heat that we had up here over the last couple of weeks her tank had dried up completely and the humidity had fallen below 60% so I moved her to a more shaded room and and gave the tank a generous misting and left it to dry up. It's dried up to a more appropriate humidity now and I checked under the cork bark again and the crickets or whatever they are seem to be dying off. There's a lot less of them now so fingers crossed that's the problem coming to an end.

[Peter Roach]

You have a chile rose, so there is NO NEED to mist her or to otherwise introduce any water in any shape or form unless it is in the small water bowl.
The average household has adequate humity for a chile rose, there is no need to adjust it.

[James Box]

mine barely bother with water at all...gotta be one of the easiest species to care for.