mites in cultures

[sjb123]

i bought two fruit fly cultures and when i bought them i noticed some tiny moving things inside. i put one under a microscope and saw it was a mite. not long after i noticed they had come outside the cultures through the net lidnow they are everywhere. can anyone else see these mites or has this problem? how do you get rid of them?

answers will be appriciated Sam

 

[sjb123]

hi does anyone know i found some mites that had come out of a container on dead flies and then started eating some banana are they fine or parasitic would they harm my mantids even my geckos maybe??

 

[Rick]

You have to get rid of them and start over.

 

[Seattle79]

Use mite paper and set fresh, clean fruit fly cultures on top of them. This will kill any mites trying to get into your cultures. Throw out your infected cultures you have now.

Where did you get your cultures from? I see a bunch of fruit fly cultures in Petco and Petsmart here in the Seattle area. I don't really trust their cultures though. Mites seem to be everywhere now these days.

-Kevin

 

[hibiscusmile]

He is overseas, so not petco! You have to throw out cultures and clean area where they were. They wont really hurt your mantis though. We just don't like them, if you are going to have a lot of mantis nymphs then best to start over.

 

[MantidLord]

Hi, after a long period of luck. My cultures have FINALLY been attacked by mites. they're not parasitic and somehow the fruit flies are still thriving amongst them. So I'm not gonna start over simply because I don't have a "clean" culture, nor do I feel like buying another one yet. But, since I don't like picking up a container that has mites on the lid :blink: , I sprayed the heck of the outside container and placed the culture in a tub of water. Isolated from any other mite trying to get in. Mites inside, lucky. But I don't mind them inside, I just don't like them crawling around, not in my room. :angry:

 

[sjb123]

lol not in yr room. i got mine from a guy on ebay with some of my mantids