Why does my face tingle...

[dmina]

every time I feed my mantis fruit flies?

Is it just me?

or does it happen to anyone else?

I get the creepy crawlies ... my face, forehead ... scalp...

Do you ever get past this?

It drives me nuts.. I know nothing is there, but the tingeling...

I was just checking?

 

[patrickfraser]

You got mites.

 

[Domanating]

Or fleas

 

[Paradoxica]

Yep, sounds like your fruit fly culture has grainmites.

 

[dmina]

Wait seriously? I was just kidding... I just thought ... as I watch them swarm the sides of the container.. it gives me the **** jebe's

ok... now I have to look those up..

 

[Aryia]

lol mites don't crawl that fast. You'll get over it if you have to feed daily, don't worry.

 

[DopplerMel2000]

This post made me chuckle! I kind of had that somewhat when I got my very first fruit fly culture. There were sooo many I couldn't believe it and I got a little **** jebe myself! The mites definitely freak me out a little though!

 

[PlayingMantis]

Sometimes a stray fruit fly would crawl up my arm (or leg) and I would feel a real tingle. But afterwards, I keep imagining FFs crawling on my ski.

 

[dmina]

All of my fruit fly cultures crashed.. I threw all of the cultures out.. washed up the whole area with soap and water, and then wiped it down with alcohol.

is the fruit fly culture the only place they will grow? or should I be checking crickets?, mealworms? I have a new order shipping out on Monday.. so I want to make sure this don't happen again.

 

[happy1892]

I have never been able to keep mites out of my cultures. I just let the cultures die after a short time. I use crushed rotten apple often which the mites do not seem to thrive in. I got my mites from Josh's Frogs and they keep coming back after a while without fruit fly cultures. Maybe they are not the same mites as from Josh's Frogs.

 

[Paradoxica]

According to Josh's Frogs...

http://youtu.be/TggwSeA3HAs?t=5m55s

 

[dmina]

Thank you... Just need to find a happy balance in my bug room!

Fruit flies with mites

Crickets with mold..

flies .. flying around my house

and a mealworm Beetle explosion!

Thank goodness these insects are small!

 

[soundspawn]

Anti mite paper has worked well for us.

Lay the paper down on a shelf, then put your cultures on it. If somehow one culture gets infested they can't spread to the others, and once your cultures are free of mites, no mites can enter.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Mite-Paper-18-10-Roll/dp/B005P0EBGE

 

[MWAInverts]

Good advice! Now that I'm starting to get back into mantids and will once again need to make cultures...sigh...lol, this will come in handy!

 

[mantisman 230]

mites never entered my cultures until their eventual demise

 

[soundspawn]

mites never entered my cultures until their eventual demise

While that sounds badass, I suspect it's really just an ominous way of saying whenever mites get in your cultures you throw the cultures away If you have a secret to extermination, please share.

 

[dmina]

Got paper ordered... lesson learned... I want to try and avoid that if at all possible...

Thanks everyone.. for letting me know what to look for.. It was really bugging me (no pun intended) well maybe...hehe

I thought I was going nuts... it didn't happen with the pinheads ... but I would get those flies to feed, and everything went itchy!

Nice to know I am not losing it...

 

[happy1892]

I thought I was going nuts... it didn't happen with the pinheads ... but I would get those flies to feed, and everything went itchy!

Nice to know I am not losing it...

Just because of that you thought you were going nuts? LOL! Unexplainable feelings happen to me all the time such as itches, pain in the bone, sharp pains, head aches if you touch my head in the right spot etc. Maybe those are just growing pains for me? So Dmina do you not have very many strange feelings? I mean physical, not emotional.

 

[Aryia]

To my knowledge, the white mites you find in fruitfly cultures are actually grain mites. They can come with the cultures but don't necessarily have to, they are in every household (though luckily we aren't aware of it). The substrate for fruit flies simply makes a very good breeding place for them which is why they infest it. So removing fruit fly cultures doesn't actually remove the mites with it since they're all around your house. The only thing you can try to do is prevent them from infesting your fly cultures via mite paper. I personally shift the location of my newly started fruitfly cultures whenever I notice infestations getting worse (since I'm paranoid about using any pesticide near my mantises), gives me some time before their numbers start building up again.