MITES!

[Ellithain]

Okay so today I noticed that all of my mantis enclosures had mites. I checked my substrate rubbermaid and it too had them, as did my mealworms (larve and pupae), and finally my dubias had it the worst. None of the mites seemed to be ON the mantises but all over the sides. I'm suspecting grain mites as I feed the mealworms and dubias grains. My springtails and isopods seem fine as do my snakes and monitor. I literally can't afford to toss out all of my dubias and mealworms the little guy will have nothing to eat til next friday except egg which is crazy fatty. Please help! I'm almost in tears after rehousing everyone, cleaning everything. ?? Is there anyway to get rid of them? I've heard some mixed things on whether they are harmful or not. 



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[Synapze]

Unfortunately, you're going to need to take it all apart and clean with alcohol.

How close is your mealworm bin to your mantid enclosures? I kept a tiny mealworm farm under my desk and it became infested with mites. I didn't try to salvage the farm... I had to dispose of it and clean the entire area with alcohol. Now my mealworm farm is far from my enclosures sitting on a bed of diatomaceous earth. The mites can't jump and the DE will kill them before they can cross. I keep my fruit fly cultures on a bed of DE as well. I haven't had a mite problem since.

I wonder if you could isolate your feeders and rinse them off before using. I know mealworms can take a quick rinse, but I don't know if the dubias could. 

I feel your pain.

 

[Ellithain]

Dubia bin is in the bottom cupboard of my snake rack on the left side separated from the rightside by a wooden divider. On the right I have my mealworms and pupae in separate icecream containers that usually sat on top of my springtail and isopod cultures (no idea how they aren't infested tbh) now the infested bins are clear on the other side of the room. I've been doing some research into predatory mites. Do you have any experience with them? Honestly it sounds like once you get grain mites its basically impossible to get rid of them even if you bug bomb it and start over. At least per the many forums I've been looking on. Not at all saying you're incorrect! Just saying I've been seeing some other ways to try to fix this and wondering if anyone has actually had success with predatory mites or were they a waste of time? I am going to try to rinse all the feeders and clean out bins tomorrow after work. I rinsed off all of the mantises and thoroughly cleaned their cups. Fingers crossed they're at least safe.. Does anyone also know if these mites can pose issues with reptiles? My snakes and monitor's eyes, nose, heat pits etc are all clear don't see anything in them but I want to know if I need to be watching them like a hawk too. 

 

[Ellithain]

Oh and the mantid enclosures are on the very top you can kinda see their cups in that picture. No idea how they got mites too since I've only fed one of them some cut up mealworm (since she was ignoring fruitflies)  the others were strictly on fruit flies. Now that I think about it, I found my fruitfly colony, that should have lasted me 6 months and only lasted 3, all dead today. Probably not so mysterious as to why now.. although I saw nothing in the cup that was moving.. At least I have another culture coming tomorrow. The fruit flies were previously sitting down there with the mealworms, springtails, and isopods on the right. 

 

[Synapze]

Do you have any experience with them? Honestly it sounds like once you get grain mites its basically impossible to get rid of them even if you bug bomb it and start over. At least per the many forums I've been looking on. 

No, just grain mites. I've read that keeping the humidity levels down in your bins is very important. I have started cutting the veg I feed them into smaller pieces and it seems to help with humidity. I swap the veg out every other day to control mold. Grain + humidity = mite invitation. 

Does anyone also know if these mites can pose issues with reptiles?

From what I've read, grain mites are harmless, but some people are allergic to them. You may find more useful info (and hopefully positive) info if you search the Vertebrates section. ?

Good luck! 

 

[Ellithain]

Thanks I’ll need it..

 

[MantisGirl13]

I hope that you can get rid of your mites and that none of your animals are affected by them.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Ellithain]

I appreciate the well wishes  I’m going to clean the dang cages everyday if I must! I’ll beat these stupid things! Feeing much better after a nights sleep about the whole thing. 

 

[Mantis Lady]

Good luck with cleaning everthing and get rid of the mites.

 

[MantisGirl13]

I like your spirit!  

- MantisGirl13

 

[Ellithain]

I can proudly say after washing all the laundry in my house, wiping every surface down with a bleach cleaner, cleaning every enclosure (and everything in them) four days in a row with soap and water, vacuuming two days in a row, "washing" my roaches, mealworms, darkling beetles with flour that I am basically grain mite free despite the 80% humidity in MN right now. I could see three alive grainmites in my dubia colony today (and I promptly cleaned them and their enclosure again) but that was all I could find in any of my enclosures. Its been a very long four days but I'm actually surprised how effective my cleaning has been. I'm not ruling out them coming back again as I've heard they are very difficult to completely wipe out, and we have crazy humidity right now, but hopefully when our cold dry winter comes it will put the final nail in the coffin.  Thanks all for the advice!

 

[Mantis Lady]

Hopefully they are gone now

 

[MantisGirl13]

I am glad that you were able to get rid of the mites! Good job! 

- MantisGirl13

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Grain mites are a pain. They don't tend to hurt anything but they can be a big annoyance, especially if their population booms. Usually it is less about trying to eradicate them and more at controlling the numbers so their existence is fairly negligible. If you can, try to keep any substrate on the dryer side. Another thing you can do for feeders like roaches is make sure you don't have any excess grain sitting in the enclosure. Feed just enough so your roaches clear it out completely in one day and wipe down the food area/dish regularly.

 

[Ellithain]

I thankfully haven't seen any in a week now. I think the cleaning and finally snapping out of our month long 80% humidity streak is what did it. I'm not saying they wont be back but at least I seem to have won for now lol. 

 

[MantisGirl13]

I am glad you seem to have gotten rid of them! I have not had any, thankfully.

- MantisGirl13

 

[kwright]

Just reviving this topic a bit. I found mites in my FF culture I bought from Petco. Can I make my own culture and transfer the flies and have no mites? ALL their cultures had mites when I went back for an exchange!! I am so frustrated. The FF colony is not breeding well and I have 3 hungry hierodula mem!

 

[ausar318]

I’ve never had any issues with mites (yet ?). Where do they come from? 

@kwright

if you are able to transfer the flies, you will want to be REALLY careful not to transfer the mites. I’ve read that they spread like crazy once you have them. 

 

[Ellithain]

I’ve never had any issues with mites (yet ?). Where do they come from? 

@kwright

if you are able to transfer the flies, you will want to be REALLY careful not to transfer the mites. I’ve read that they spread like crazy once you have them. 

I guess there are grain mite eggs in most forms of grain to begin with since they can be so difficult to completely eradicate/prevent. From what I hear if you have high humidity and leave flour out you can get them infesting your pantry. Kinda gross to think about but cooking kills them and I’ve heard that freezing it helps too. So now I put my chicken feed (that I feed my dubias) in the freezer in between feedings. I’m not certain but this is what I’ve read online through this ordeal.