Mites in Fruit Flies from Joshfrogs

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Chungy

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Well , I got 6 hydei cultures from Joshfrogs and they have serious mites issues. :(

Anyone able to get refund from them? Wish i checked the feedback section before ordering from them. I'm probably going to throw them away since I don't want them to infest my other flies cultures that I have.

Do you know anyone that sells mites free hydei culture? Needless to say I'm never buying from Joshfrogs again.

 
You're going to get them regardless, every culture I've seen eventually gets them. I make my own and still get them around the time the culture is expiring.

 
I've never had problems with my own cultures, but I've gotten them from other places with mites a couple of times. You can usually avoid transferring them if you let the flies crawl out into a separate cup, tap that cup vigorously, then let the flies crawl out again this time into the new culture. I can understand though if you have a lot of cultures running at once not wanting to risk the transference.

 
LAME said:
You're going to get them regardless, every culture I've seen eventually gets them. I make my own and still get them around the time the culture is expiring.
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Right, but there are ALOT of mites in there, there were more mites than I can see larvaes of the flies, these are the "producing" cultures.

Krissim Klaw said:
I've never had problems with my own cultures, but I've gotten them from other places with mites a couple of times. You can usually avoid transferring them if you let the flies crawl out into a separate cup, tap that cup vigorously, then let the flies crawl out again this time into the new culture. I can understand though if you have a lot of cultures running at once not wanting to risk the transference.
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I have some Melanogaster cultures that I started from flies that I bought from Petco (I picked the healthiest looking one from the bunch, they were surprisingly pretty good), they have been producing nicely and have no mites problem in there and I don't want to risk having them contaminated, even that 1 culture from Petco was free of mites.

I also got a couple "started" culture of Hydei from Joshsfrogs, they don't seems to have mites in there yet, but I bet they will eventually. I just transferred what I could have gotten out of those cultures into a cup, going to let them sit for a while and then start a few batches with my own media. I also wiped everything down with alcohol just in case (a bit OCD i guess :lol: ).

Cross fingers they will be mites free.

 
If you decide to make your own ff cultures from joshes frogs. I was told that you can take two plastic or glass cups. Line the top with a thin layer of olive oil. Slowly let the ff drop into the second cup. The oil catches the mites. Then when you put them into the new culture do the same. Slowly let the ff drop into the culture. I know for a fact that it cuts way down on mites. Its surprising how many mites you'll see caught in the olive oil. You can also use a thin layer of Vaseline but I prefer the olive oil, its more natural. I also do that before feeding the mantis. It keeps the ff in the cup cause they can't go past it. I learned this trick from Kevin Young.

 
Rick said:
Never had a problem with http://www.buyfruitflies.com/
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Thanks! Will look into that.

idologrl said:
If you decide to make your own ff cultures from joshes frogs. I was told that you can take two plastic or glass cups. Line the top with a thin layer of olive oil. Slowly let the ff drop into the second cup. The oil catches the mites. Then when you put them into the new culture do the same. Slowly let the ff drop into the culture. I know for a fact that it cuts way down on mites. Its surprising how many mites you'll see caught in the olive oil. You can also use a thin layer of Vaseline but I prefer the olive oil, its more natural. I also do that before feeding the mantis. It keeps the ff in the cup cause they can't go past it. I learned this trick from Kevin Young.
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Awesome tips, thank you!

 
I almost always have mites no matter where I get the flies from. I transfer the flies into a container with a lid treated with benzyl benzoate and just turn them upside down and knock everything to the bottom to make sure most mites and flies land on the treated lid.  Then I leave the container upside down on a desk for a 5-10 minutes before using the flies to make a new culture.  I treat the lids of my cultures as well as the paper my cultures are set on with benzyl benzoate to prevent new mites from getting to the cultures.

Mites are everywhere and pretty unavoidable.  For everyone's sanity I won't go into details about where you will find them, but trust me... they are probably in your kitchen right now.  I don't really try to completely get rid of them as they aren't a problem unless they are the predatory mites (very rare), or their numbers get out of control.  They don't hurt the mantids either.  My biggest reason for not liking them is they are simply unsightly and it drives me up the wall just knowing they are there!

 
Starving Always said:
what do mites even look like? ive always wondered and i dont seem to find any pics on here. 
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It looks like dust, but it moves. There are lots of photos on the forum, and I'll list some and their links (I myself made a video of them too below).

Here is a photo from member dmina of her mite infestation...

IMG_4009.jpg

Here is some also in a Melanogaster fly culture I purchased (it was the only thing alive in it, thankfully I got a refund though) - it is the patches of white dust on the sides...

View attachment 7142

Here are some close-ups of a mite I took with my USB microscope, you can view a video of several mites moving too below, and in my original thread here...

mites.jpg






 
Starving Always said:
WOW!!! that is so cool!! thanks for sharing. i definitely have more knowledge in how to identify them now. 
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Your welcome. Indeed you know what to look for now. :)

They typically start off as small patches of dust, but can quickly cover everything like the first photo of dmina's. Also like the larger one in the Stagmomantis ooth, they can be of various sizes and colors (as there are many kinds of mites - with the white variety the more common, especially with cultures).

 
That is cool pics, thanks for sharing. Saying that, I never have mites in my cultures! Thank God for that, as I make around 25  every other week or more often. The 

reason I believe is the excelsior used in the cups. I use cardboard and never have issues with them. Josh, God love him has the biggest mites in the world! I could not believe

the size of them. 

 
Making cultures more often is the best way to prevent or keep mite populations down.  I never see mites in my cultures when I make new ones regularly.  I sometimes see them on the older cultures just before I am done with them, but I do not use flies from older cultures to produce new ones.  I freeze my excelsior and media for at least 24 hours before using in new cultures to make sure any mites that may have gotten on them are dead.  Fruit flies tend to produce faster than the mites, so using fresh cultures and disposing of older cultures before they start to crash really helps.

I too was surprised when I got my cultures from Josh's Frogs and saw mites.  At the stage of the cultures (relatively new), a decent amount of mites had to have been transferred when the culture was made.  It was pretty upsetting as I was using the cultures for new stock (my other cultures started to produce flying fruit flies).  Not a HUGE deal, but still rather annoying.  Even though I know the mites won't have enough time to reproduce in my new cultures, they are still very unsightly.

 
hibiscusmile said:
That is cool pics, thanks for sharing. Saying that, I never have mites in my cultures! Thank God for that, as I make around 25  every other week or more often. The 

reason I believe is the excelsior used in the cups. I use cardboard and never have issues with them. Josh, God love him has the biggest mites in the world! I could not believe

the size of them. 
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Thanks. Glad to hear you have been mite free, seems to be a near impossible task for very long.

Indeed, that fly culture in the photo I shared was one I got from Josh. I was hoping there were some fly larvae at least, but just the mites. He did give a complete refund though so I never bothered to share it, as the mites are a common problem everyone is already aware of. ;)

hibiscusmile said:
ps, just played the video, yuck!
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Yeah there are quite a few mites to be seen, especially at the beginning. :) Believe it or not though I had about 40 nymphs hatch from that ooth too.

 

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