Mites from outside, help!

IdeanM

Ootheca
I've gathered about a thousand pillbugs and they've been doing great, but now I went to check on them and there's hundreds if not thousands of tiny little bugs everywhere! They're smaller than springtails and brownish red, so I'm thinking they're probably mites. What should I do? Should I be freaking out right now? Will they hurt my pillbugs? They've also infested 3 of my springtail colonyies and my dubia roach colony. 

 
Those are indeed mites. Let the enclosure dry out a bit and that should knock the numbers back some. That or you can give each enclosure a good cleaning and basically start over. They're always going to be there, it's just trying to manage the numbers so they don't get out of control. You can also try ordering predatory mites and releasing those. Sometimes they just show up though, so it's your call whether you want to buy some or not.

Pretty much anything to knock the mites back will be good. It'll give your springtails time to gain ground and hopefully keep them in check. Do you feed your isopods something grain based?

 
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