Mites infestation!!!

[Andrew Oels-Wallis]

I have 12 T's, and a cricket 'hotel' in my collection, and over night, the area where I keep them all has been over run with tiny mites.

These mites are very tiny and white. They are more like grains of sawdust than anything else.

There are hardly any in the vivariums (for now), but absolutely thousands on everything around where I keep the crickets. Suffice to say, I have thrown the hotel outside, and will clean that as soon as I can, but how can I get rid of the rest of them?

I have used a bleach spray on a tissue to wipe off the excess, but it looks like it hasn't made a huge amount of difference.

Is there a spray or solution I could use to kill them off and prevent them from returning, as I'll have to get a professional in to kill them off otherwise, but I don't want to harm the girls?

Please can someone help?!

[Colin D Wilson]

They sound like the little mites you get in with some boxes of crickets (some call them grain mites), they'll explode in population when there's moisture and food available, I've noticed these occur if there's dead crickets in the tub and/or spider tank also.

Looking at your collection you dont have any "humidity dependent" spiders/slings, and what you have will be able to suffer a temporary dry spell so let the spider tubs dry out naturally (no spraying for a while) add water bowls to the spiders in your collection that do better with a little drinking water and you'll hopefully notice the mites collecting on the surface, change this daily.

Throw the crickets out and clean their tub well, then restock with clean substrate and fresh crickets.
There's not really a spray that would kill the mites yet leave the spiders unharmed if you go the route of insectacide, just wipe surfaces daily as you have been and eventually they'll die off.

[Peter Lacey]

Colin has covered this well, they're fairly easy to deal with but alarming to see in such large numbers. They tend to hitchhike on the crickets so its quite easy to reintroduce them.
As Colin says you shouldn't get them with the species you have if you keep them dry, mites can't survive long without moisture. Getting them in your cricket hotel suggests there's enough food and moisture to keep them alive. This could be dead crickets or the food you're feeding to the feeder insects eg. lettuce, or perhaps the hotel doesn't have enough ventilation, and therefore moisture is forming. I find I have to remove salad after a short space of time but you can feed your crickets on fish flakes to help avoid the reoccurrence of mites.

[Paolo Trabucco]

I agree! I had the same problem a few weeks, ago, and i've actually got rid off the crickets, and washed inside out all the usefull box, and the all sourroundings, with reptile clean up spray, and rinse out with water, and it was all ok after, obviously dont put back the old crickets though...lol buy a new lot!

[Andrew Oels-Wallis]

Thank you for the advice, and I will do what I can, but the darn things are everywhere! On the merchants chest the vivariums are on, collecting on a radiator and anything else they've since found, as I wasn't aware they were there.

If there is a bug spray, or something I could put on those surfaces to kill them off, otherwise I'm clearing as many away every day, as the populations just recover so quickly.

It's really rather horrible!

[R Thomas]

It never fails to amaze me that the items you try to get to multiply wont and the items that you dont want to multiply do!!

Still waiting for my roaches to multiply but looking in the tub it seems to have become a haven for 1 or 2 other things to breed instead lol

Trying to get the conditions right for something to multiply always seems to be perfect for something else doesnt it? lol

Well time to capture my roaches and do a cleanup / egg sack transfer - the joys of keeping feeder roaches!

[Christian Elowsky]

Unless they are ON the tarantula, they're only a visual annoyance. Allow things to dry out a bit will drop the numbers. If they're driving you nutters, you can purchase (at least in the US) predatory mites which will eat them non-stop, putting a dent in the numbers. Hypoaspis miles is the preferred species (although I think it's been renamed). But to be honest, it's a waste of time, when you have a biological system, it's not going to be sterile. I guess the point is, relax.

[Christopher Smallman]

Going to have to stop reading this thread as it does make me itch

Andrew if you have the same cricket hotel as me (on AP) I discarded the lid to my 24 litre tub as with even the whole lid covered in air holes it was to humid and at first I lost a good preportion of my crickets due to it being to stuffy (humid) so used a piece of net curtain held in place with some elastic (as in knicker lol). Colin said these things thrive in humid conditions maybe that would help with them not reappearing again.

Hope you find a solution to ridding yourself of them seems you have some good answers above.

Chris.

[Michael Olsinia]

I've had a similar problem before with mites, but I now keep my cricket tubs on anti mite paper. Since I started doing this (I've also got some of my more humid species on mite paper) I haven't seen a single mite.

[Andrew Oels-Wallis]

I've had a similar problem before with mites, but I now keep my cricket tubs on anti mite paper. Since I started doing this (I've also got some of my more humid species on mite paper) I haven't seen a single mite.

Oh, that anti-mite paper sounds good. Where can I get that from? I assume it's sold in the UK?

I will be changing the lid of the hotel for some net curtain, but I may just keep them in a large Kricket Keeper kind of thing, as they are much better for ventilation and access.

The numbers have subsided since I have wiped the surfaces off each day, but they do come back after a few days.

Thank you for the replies. Most appreciated.

[Michael Olsinia]

http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/equipment/fertiliser.html

[Andrew Oels-Wallis]

http://www.dartfrog.co.uk/equipment/fertiliser.html

Excellent. Ordered.

Thing is, they've all disappeared now. Maybe they knew something was up!