NEED HELP!!! definitely some sort of mite ON MY OBT SLING!!!

[Tania Baker]

Ok, I was sent an OBT sling just under 1" LS and it has at least 5 mites ON IT (that I can see.) They appear to be a pale yellowish colour and move aroung my T, on the carapace, up and down the legs, on its eyes. They are roughly the size of a grain of salt/sugar. I don't own a good camera, just have the one on my sony ericsson satio and N96 and neither of those are good at taking very close detailed macro shots so I am afraid atm I can't provide a photo. I have seen scavenger mites and collembola on bolus remains in some of my enclosures before and know it isn't these kinds. I can't see if the mites have suckers on them but 2 of the visible mites stay by the OBT's eyes. I do not know if there are any underneath or how many but as one crawls round and under the OBT another comes up from the leg joints.

So, how can I rid this sling of these mites? I have never had this problem before and am pretty miffed that my first time of this kind of mite is from a T I ordered from a well known online store.

[Stephen jordan]

Hi Tania, I recently had an outbreak of mites and crickets in my H lividum enclosure, with advice taken from here I let the tank dry out a bit and added some woodlice, the woodlice have decimated the mites and I caught the crickets a few at a time and removed them (sling food). My lividum's enclosure is back up to humidity and the mites are all gone I don't know if this will help youre situation but it sorted me out, you can buy a culture of woodlice for a fiver from dartfrog.

[Kurt Baird]

With regards to the woodlice, you can get them from here: http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/livefoods.html

You could try lightly brushing the T (although easier said than done, especially with an OBT ) with a soft brush to try and remove the mites.

[Peter Lacey]

Coincidentally I put a video on YouTube of how to remove these but you will need a little caution with OBT:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_CNOTpSEc"]YouTube- mites ICU P-lugardi[/ame]

Mites can't survive long without moisture and they're likely to die through lack of it or jump off your tarantula once they find a source of food. Dry your enclosure out and place a dead cricket or very limp lettuce in the enclosure, they'll soon move to the food source and you can easily remove. Under a hot lamp you may also find they drop off.
Woodlice and springtails compete with mites for food and its rumoured they eat their eggs, however there's nothing to suggest they'll attack the mites. Drying your enclosure out would kill both the mites and the woodlice!

Mites often come in with your food items and they can multiply in the right conditions at alarming rates. Regular, but simple, maintenance of your enclosures will keep them at bay and for your humid enclosures its worth investing in some tropical woodlice/springtails.

Its worth taking a read of this sticky in RFUK if you want an detailed understanding:

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/spiders-inverts/388524-guide-mites.html

[Tania Baker]

Thankyou Peter for that very informative video. Those are definitely the same mites as are on my OBT. How did you manage to get the Baboon to stay on it's back? I can't even get my OBT to stay still and am a little worried about putting it in the fridge to cool it down for a few minutes as it's so small.

[Tania Baker]

Thankyou once again peter. I used your method but didn't have any vaseline so used the water based coupling gel I have still got from when I needed to use a bone stimulator from my broken leg. (it's the same stuff they use for ultrasound scans). I have rid the OBT of 7 mites so far. I can't see anymore but there may be some underneath. Hope fully if there are anymore they will climb onto the top of the tarantula and I can erradiacte the rest of them. Thankyou again

[Mark Harrison]

hi Tania, The mites are more an annoyance than a life threatening ner-doer (for the T). Although i keep my T's spotless ive recently had a massive outbreak in all but one of my cages , just starting after 2 weeks of drying and chucking and cleaning not noticed as many until theyre appearance in the water dishes again tonight As far as getting the OBT's to stay still good luck, my three are a handful at the best of times.