mite help....

[Laemia]

Hello all, I have mites for the first time. I searched the site and found people were using mite paper so I bought some. I just received it today and I have one cabinet that I keep all my feeders in. I keep 2 differnet kinds of fruit flys, crickets, lobster roaches, house flys and blue bottle flys. The mite paper says it kills roaches, ants and silverfish. Does anyone know if the feeders will be okay in the containers I keep them in without dirrect contact with the paper? And will it still kill the mites or did I get the wrong paper. It's called "Bug Kill" shelf paper made by "Pretty Please". Thanks

 

[Rick]

I have used mite paper the one and only time I had mites. It will not harm what is in the containers. You need to disinfect and throw out all infected containers though if you really want to get rid of them.

 

[Laemia]

I have used mite paper the one and only time I had mites. It will not harm what is in the containers. You need to disinfect and throw out all infected containers though if you really want to get rid of them.

It seems like they are on two of the containers and not the others but I may be wrong. Like I said this was my first time and I bought 2 containers from Josh's Frogs, a fresh started and producing, of D. Melanogasters. And those seem to be the only two but one seems to have tons on it. It seems like they hang out on the outside of the container but who knows. Will I pretty much have to destroy what I have as far as the flys go? Becuase if I try and start a new cultrue will they just move to it? Not that I'm saying they all came from Josh's Frogs though.

 

[Rick]

Destroy and disinfect all containers/cultures that have mites in them now. I would take them outside and get them away from your other containers. Put everything down on mite paper to try and keep them from spreading.

 

[Katnapper]

What do the mites look like, and how can you tell if your cultures are infested with them? Does anyone have a picture? Thank you.

 

[Rick]

What do the mites look like, and how can you tell if your cultures are infested with them? Does anyone have a picture? Thank you.

If you have them you will know. The ones I had were very tiny and white. You can see them crawling around. They won't hurt anything though.

 

[Katnapper]

If you have them you will know. The ones I had were very tiny and white. You can see them crawling around. They won't hurt anything though.

Ok... thank you. I wasn't sure if they would be obvious, or something you'd have to carefully look for to find or see.

 

[kamakiri]

Ok... thank you. I wasn't sure if they would be obvious, or something you'd have to carefully look for to find or see.

I'm near-sighted so they are fairly easy to see. I think they are whitish when engorged with a light colored media and quite visible when well fed. A densely infected culture can have a good 'dusting' of them where they are visible in clusters. Like this, they seem to be more of a pinkish-brown. If left completely unattended they can collect on the flies en masse and completely cover the joints of the flies to a point which they cannot clean.

I use the 'transfer' method to help 'clean' the flies from an infested population or in general when starting new cultures.

By transferring flies to clean, empty container(s), the flies have a chance to clean off some of the mites from their exoskeleton, wings, and joints. When or if mites are observed on the container, transfer to another clean and empty container and observe. Repeat until there are no visible mites being cleaned from the flies. I usually hold them in such a container for feeding the flies or to age the flies for my experiments.

My melanogaster population appears to be 100% free of mites...but still not with all of my hydei cultures, unfortunately. I use mite paper to prevent culture to culture spread, and that seems to be working so far.

 

[kamakiri]

What do the mites look like, and how can you tell if your cultures are infested with them? Does anyone have a picture? Thank you.

These are engorged samples...

Next to melano pupa for scale:

Clicky for larger

Clicky for larger

 

[Katnapper]

These are engorged samples...Next to melano pupa for scale:

Thank you, Kamakiri, for the pics! Gives me some idea at least.

 

[kamakiri]

Thank you, Kamakiri, for the pics! Gives me some idea at least.

You're welcome...I still want to take some of the other conditions I mentioned above. Dead or infested cultures go outside for cleaning or disposal, so I have samples of heavy infestation available.