Mites

KitKatie329

KitKatie329

Sixth Instar
Since I've started heating my tanks I have had an explosion of grain mites. Aside from being kind of gross, are these doing any harm to my roaches in large amounts? If they're not then I'll leave them be, they don't bother me, but if they are I need to overhaul my tanks. TIA.

 
I've had bunches of grain mites too. I used to clean the cages and wipe them up all the time. This last time they exploded I was on my way out the door for a couple days, so I separated them from the other roaches and when I got back they were nowhere to be found. I don't think they harm anything.

 
EVIL GRAIN MITES!!!!!!!!!!!!! : )

OK.... So I had a massive explosion of grain mites and they killed 3 of my 10 Elliptorhina javanica (Halloween Madagascar Hissing Roach). I am still trying (3rd try) to get these guys into culture and this is a set back...one of many while trying to get a breeding colony going. I moved them to a new enclosure and all of the grain mites are gone. A few were still infected with damage to eyes and other body parts. I cleaned them well and placed a small amount of petrolatum on the effected parts (minus the eyes). Can anyone offer me any other ideas so that the 3 others with damage do not die. I think I have done everything I can do but I am not sure. The good news was after I moved them one of the females was airing her egg case and not aborting it as before. I thought the mite stress might have caused my females to abort but this does not appear to be the case. Thanks for any help you can offer.

 
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Wow, I've never heard of grain mites attacking a living animal before - are you sure they weren't something else? There are thousands of species of mites - most are harmless, but some can be parasitic. Could be that a local native went after your Halloweens out of confusion. Normally grain mites (little white plump things) go through cycles of population explosions and then their numbers drop down to nothing for a long time. I've had them around nearly as long as I've had my hermit crabs, and I've had them swarm maybe four times in the past three and a half years. They're always there, but there aren't enough to really notice on daily basis. I know there are some up in the roach tanks and I've also got Oribatids for sure, but I'm not sure what else is running around. Springtails (which are harmless) seem to out compete them for food and keep the mite numbers in check, if that helps any.

 
Sorry for intruding with my own question... It seems now that I've got new life in my hisser enclosure. I don't think there are anything on the hissers themselves but the cardboard items seem to be alive with tiny rather fast moving critters. There seems to be two kind of insects, others are light beige or whitish and somewhat oblong. Grain mites? These don't move that much. Others are round and seem orange or brownish and move very fast. I havent found magnifier so cant look any closer. The substrate is coconut fibre. I guess these critters are not dangerous to hissers? Is it possible that they spread somewhere else? We live in a flat so I'm not sure if our neighbours appreciate the diversity of life as much as we do... It would also be great to catch them and feed them to aquarium fish but havent managed to do so without squashing them. It would be really great if someone made a sticky topic called All possible cockroach roommates and listed scientific names and links to good pictures!

 
If they're oblong they're likely to be booklice or springtails, both of which are harmless. The roundish fast ones would probably be some sort of mite.

(I can't find anything here about cross-posting to other forums, so if it's not permitted please forgive me!) The forum I Admin at has a sticky on vivarium bugs: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=92537 and we also have a sticky on common mites: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=92530 Granted, it's not in relation to roaches, but it should help you ID things! I'm sure there are other wonderful resources out there for doing the same thing, but I use these all the time so I have them handy in my favorites menu. :)

 
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