Mites

[BigJohn97]

I keep finding these little brown mites in my tarantulas' enclosures. I usually find them floating in a small bunch in the water dish, but I see them all over the place in the enclosures as well. They are very tiny, almost impossible to see with the naked eye. What should I do? Are they harmful? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[ilovebrachys]

Are any of your tarantulas wild caught? I only ask as they are a likely source of bring in mites?
Sometimes mites also originate from feeder colonies (harvest mites) but I can't tell what kind of mites they are?
If you've got a bad infestation I'd recommend changing the substrate out on your enclosures and giving the enclosures themselves a very good wash out - once you've done this and you've set your tarantulas back up you can place a piece of carrot in with your tarantulas to attract and mites still present and change this regularly to help eliminate them, I would imagine that the do irritate the tarantulas and in excessive amounts mites can be a real problem for them so the sooner you can help them the better

 

[Oursapoil]

I have white little mites as well, very tiny and jumpy. They usually end up on the top layer of the water dish. They also feed on leftovers from the spiders (this is why it is important to remove everything uneaten as soon as possible). They seem to be sensitive to humidity, so for my Ts who allow it, keeping the enclosure dryer help reducing their population. I am not worried about it though as I have never seen any on the Ts. Changing the water very frequently helps a lot too as it is where they end up most of the time. Not sure which ones you have as mine are definitely white. My two cents

 

[ilovebrachys]

I have white little mites as well, very tiny and jumpy. They usually end up on the top layer of the water dish. They also feed on leftovers from the spiders (this is why it is important to remove everything uneaten as soon as possible). They seem to be sensitive to humidity, so for my Ts who allow it, keeping the enclosure dryer help reducing their population. I am not worried about it though as I have never seen any on the Ts. Changing the water very frequently helps a lot too as it is where they end up most of the time. Not sure which ones you have as mine are definitely white. My two cents

The white ones you have are 'springtails' and like you mentioned they are excellent clean up crew.. They are harmless to the Ts the OPs mites are not so harmless I cannot tell exactly what kind they are from the picture

 

[Oursapoil]

Not 100% mine are springtails. I have a springtails culture as well (for cleanup purpose as you mentioned) and they are quite different in shape and size. Of course there are I am sure many species of springtails of all shapes and sizes but what I was referring to are microscopic and round. The only way to see them without a magnifier is when there is a dead insect in the tank for too long and a lot of them are on it or when they make a small cluster on top of the water dish. Do you think those are springtails too?

The white ones you have are 'springtails' and like you mentioned they are excellent clean up crew.. They are harmless to the Ts the OPs mites are not so harmless I cannot tell exactly what kind they are from the picture

 

[ilovebrachys]

Not 100% mine are springtails. I have a springtails culture as well (for cleanup purpose as you mentioned) and they are quite different in shape and size. Of course there are I am sure many species of springtails of all shapes and sizes but what I was referring to are microscopic and round. The only way to see them without a magnifier is when there is a dead insect in the tank for too long and a lot of them are on it or when they make a small cluster on top of the water dish. Do you think those are springtails too?

It's hard to tell without looking at them under a microscope - but I'm no expert as far as mites and springtails go
As far as I'm aware springtails alway have a longer body than the mites which usually look more '' rounded " in appearance?

 

[Oursapoil]

It's hard to tell without looking at them under a microscope - but I'm no expert as far as mites and springtails go
As far as I'm aware springtails alway have a longer body than the mites which usually look more '' rounded " in appearance?

This was my thought as well. My assassin bugs tank has a lot more as they are constantly killing to feed and leaving the insect intact after sucking it dry, the white “mites” are often on the carcasses. I’ll try to get a picture with a closeup lens to show you

 

[ilovebrachys]

This was my thought as well. My assassin bugs tank has a lot more as they are constantly killing to feed and leaving the insect intact after sucking it dry, the white “mites” are often on the carcasses. I’ll try to get a picture with a closeup lens to show you

I have seen what are known as preditory mites used to great extent in killing off unwanted mites in such set ups such as assassin bugs - in the UK they are sold under the name of 'Taurus' I'm not sure if you can get them in the US? It's simply a tub of powder like substance that contains thousands of preditory mites and these are absolutely harmless to your invertibrates in turn they kill off all the bad mites - once you think they have done there job you can simply replace the substrate in your enclosure - it's pretty clever how one mite can iradicate the other in such an effective way

 

[Stan Schultz]

Mite infestations are an ever present hazard when keeping tarantulas, especially if you insist on misting (read Misty-Eyed Misting) or keeping your tarantulas in damp cages (read Relative Humidity). Read Mighty Mites for a discussion and suggested means of controlling them.

Best of luck.

 

[craggiegeeve]

My name is Gajni. I am new in this forum. I have some questions about this forum. These questions are shown below:

https://tarantulaforum.com/threads/entomological-humor-thread.31952/

If anyone has information about my question. Please give me answer below. I am very confused about this .

 

[MBullock]

you get most mites from your feeders.

If culturing your own feeders, use dried fruit (dried prunes are fantastic) and slice the pieces open.

This will enable you to provide moisture without causing mite explosions.