So yesterday I placed some strawberries in Dubai colony. Tonight I look in there and I see very small white things on all the berries. They don't seem to be on the roaches at all, only on the fruit. However there are alot of them, I'm not sure what they are? If I was to guess I would prob say mites. Anyone know what they might be?
Mites?
- Thread starter Jerdog
- Start date
xanthoman
Avid Member
mites in dubia colony
to be honest, its really hard to say without some pics or more info, but the overwhelming likelihood, is they probably are some form of mite. there are literally thousands of species of mites, so for the purposes of this post i wont try to get into mite identification other than to say some are more of a problem than others. some are more common to people, others are more common to birds, others to reptiles, others to insects, plants. or even other mites.
regardless of the type of mite, there are still some basics that apply.
first its important to understand, that it is virtually impossible to create a 100% mite free environment.
if you were to closely examine at a magnified level, even the most meticulously kept cham cages, dubia colonies, cricket colonies, ff cultures, etc, you would likely find some # of some type of mite. so the issue becomes, keeping them under control.
this is where husbandry comes into play. proper cham husbandry isnt just limited to the immediate issues of lighting/temps/humidity/supps, it also extends to everything that relates to your chams. this would also include the overall health of your feeder colonies and the ways in which they are kept.
since your feeders are a cornerstone of your overall husbandry, its equally as important to manage the husbandry of your feeder colonies, ie the conditions under which they are kept, the same as you would manage your chams themselves.
ok, enough of that, lets get down to how to deal with the problem.
for the most part it deals with the issue of cage/colony cleanliness.
mites and their attraction to feeders, are just one of the many reasons that for most newer keepers, i advocate the use of cup feeding as opposed to free ranging your feeders in the cage. its also one of the reasons i recommend never feeding more than your chams (or feeders) are likely to eat in the immediate future. mites are just one of the reasons, i never feed my chams more than they are likely to eat at that one feeding, i never leave a surplus of feeders in my cage. food, feces or other debris excesses, almost invariably lead to mite excesses.
since i know nothing of how your chams, or feeders are kept, its difficult for me to get too specific in dealing with the problem, but its reasonable to assume that the root of the problem boils down to cage cleanliness.
1. first dont feed your feeder colonies more food than they will consume in the immediate future. with crickets, dubia etc, i usually feed at night, if there is food left in the morning, then you are likely feeding far more than they actually need. the idea is to feed your feeders, but not your mites. if your feeders are still slightly hungry after their feeding, they are more likely to do a better job of cleaning much of the debris that mites are attracted to.
2. im assuming that you use a typical rubbermaid container setup for your roach colony. mites tend to thrive in areas of poor air circulation, so you may want to re-evaluate how your containers are set up in regards to air circulation. i use the rubbermaid containers that are 21" long x16" wide X16" tall, on each end, i have a cutout for a screened section that is about 3"x6" towards the top of the container. on the lid itself, i have another screen that is roughly 3"x10".
3. since both feeder colonies and ff culture tend to attract mites, i recommend setting up an actual feeder colony station, that is away from the area of your cham housing. you may have noticed my recent post on how to keep mites out of your ff cultures. https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-culture-fruit-flys-68565/ much of the same concept applies. for the rubbermaid described above put it on a 2'x3' piece of plywood that has been covered with contact shelf paper sticky side up, tape the edges so that mites dont colonize under the paper and just use thumb tacks to secure the rest, so that the paper doesnt come up when you have to lift your colony.
4. thats all fine and dandy you say, but i already have mites in my colony? you need to understand that in order to correct the problem, you first need to correct the conditions that allowed them to thrive in the first place.
imo, what i do, since cost is minimal, i have a second identically setup container in waiting, when i clean my roach colony, rather that just return them to the same probably less than ideally sanitized container, i transfer them to the other pre-sanitized container, and i usually put in all new egg crates, feeding dishes etc. a well maintained roach colony can go some time without cleaning, 6 months is my usual cleaning interval, but since you already have a problem, i would clean weekly until it is under control, switching to the newly sanitized container each time. each time you do this you will have significantly less mites than the time before. (assuming you adhere to the roach colony husbandry practices already mentioned). having a second pre-sanitized container, greatly reduces the hassle of cleaning your roach colony.
5. actual cleaning of the colony, much to my gfs dismay, i usually use the bathtub for this, lol.
first tape a coffee filter over the drain so you dont have little roaches escaping into your drain system. place the occupied container in the tub, but dont dump it out, just pull all of the crates and other furnishings out and try to chase all of the roaches into the tub, now place everything but the roaches back in the original container and take it outside, where you can hose it off or deal with it at your leisure, so you dont re-infect your new container.
paint brushes and bamboo skewers are good for steering and handling roaches without damaging them. be sure to get all of the babies and eggs, normally i would save a small portion of frass (roach poo) but since we are trying to reduce a mite problem , that is not recomended here. another thing you could do would be to give them all about a 5 second shower at 80-90* before transferring them to the new container, you may lose a fair number of roaches, but they will be cleaner when going into their new container.
6. each time you do this, you will reduce the overall % of mites in your containers, plus you will begin to appreciate the importance of properly maintaining your colonies/cultures in the first place.
7. remember, that to a mite, a cord is like a super-hiway, so be sure to regularly smear all cords that lead to your containers with vaseline.
8. i always recommend a large lighted viewer as a valuable tool in cham/feeder husbandry, this will help you identify many issues like mites, before they become a problem.
9. spray all of your old containers, furnishings, paint brushes etc. with a solution of 20% bleach/ water and rinse thoroughly before returning them to the house. probably a good idea to scrub the tub out with a bleach water solution and rinse with scalding hot water afterwards, also a good idea to shower yourself once you are done, some mites are a problem for humans, but the bigger issue is you dont want to re-introduce them to your chams /feeders living area. feel free to pm if you continue to have problems, but remember the root of the problem boils down to over feeding/cage cleanliness. also many mites thrive on mold so never leave moldy food in your containers. many mites also thrive in conditions of excess humidity, so you might try less humidity/spraying in your colony. jmo
to be honest, its really hard to say without some pics or more info, but the overwhelming likelihood, is they probably are some form of mite. there are literally thousands of species of mites, so for the purposes of this post i wont try to get into mite identification other than to say some are more of a problem than others. some are more common to people, others are more common to birds, others to reptiles, others to insects, plants. or even other mites.
regardless of the type of mite, there are still some basics that apply.
first its important to understand, that it is virtually impossible to create a 100% mite free environment.
if you were to closely examine at a magnified level, even the most meticulously kept cham cages, dubia colonies, cricket colonies, ff cultures, etc, you would likely find some # of some type of mite. so the issue becomes, keeping them under control.
this is where husbandry comes into play. proper cham husbandry isnt just limited to the immediate issues of lighting/temps/humidity/supps, it also extends to everything that relates to your chams. this would also include the overall health of your feeder colonies and the ways in which they are kept.
since your feeders are a cornerstone of your overall husbandry, its equally as important to manage the husbandry of your feeder colonies, ie the conditions under which they are kept, the same as you would manage your chams themselves.
ok, enough of that, lets get down to how to deal with the problem.
for the most part it deals with the issue of cage/colony cleanliness.
mites and their attraction to feeders, are just one of the many reasons that for most newer keepers, i advocate the use of cup feeding as opposed to free ranging your feeders in the cage. its also one of the reasons i recommend never feeding more than your chams (or feeders) are likely to eat in the immediate future. mites are just one of the reasons, i never feed my chams more than they are likely to eat at that one feeding, i never leave a surplus of feeders in my cage. food, feces or other debris excesses, almost invariably lead to mite excesses.
since i know nothing of how your chams, or feeders are kept, its difficult for me to get too specific in dealing with the problem, but its reasonable to assume that the root of the problem boils down to cage cleanliness.
1. first dont feed your feeder colonies more food than they will consume in the immediate future. with crickets, dubia etc, i usually feed at night, if there is food left in the morning, then you are likely feeding far more than they actually need. the idea is to feed your feeders, but not your mites. if your feeders are still slightly hungry after their feeding, they are more likely to do a better job of cleaning much of the debris that mites are attracted to.
2. im assuming that you use a typical rubbermaid container setup for your roach colony. mites tend to thrive in areas of poor air circulation, so you may want to re-evaluate how your containers are set up in regards to air circulation. i use the rubbermaid containers that are 21" long x16" wide X16" tall, on each end, i have a cutout for a screened section that is about 3"x6" towards the top of the container. on the lid itself, i have another screen that is roughly 3"x10".
3. since both feeder colonies and ff culture tend to attract mites, i recommend setting up an actual feeder colony station, that is away from the area of your cham housing. you may have noticed my recent post on how to keep mites out of your ff cultures. https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-culture-fruit-flys-68565/ much of the same concept applies. for the rubbermaid described above put it on a 2'x3' piece of plywood that has been covered with contact shelf paper sticky side up, tape the edges so that mites dont colonize under the paper and just use thumb tacks to secure the rest, so that the paper doesnt come up when you have to lift your colony.
4. thats all fine and dandy you say, but i already have mites in my colony? you need to understand that in order to correct the problem, you first need to correct the conditions that allowed them to thrive in the first place.
imo, what i do, since cost is minimal, i have a second identically setup container in waiting, when i clean my roach colony, rather that just return them to the same probably less than ideally sanitized container, i transfer them to the other pre-sanitized container, and i usually put in all new egg crates, feeding dishes etc. a well maintained roach colony can go some time without cleaning, 6 months is my usual cleaning interval, but since you already have a problem, i would clean weekly until it is under control, switching to the newly sanitized container each time. each time you do this you will have significantly less mites than the time before. (assuming you adhere to the roach colony husbandry practices already mentioned). having a second pre-sanitized container, greatly reduces the hassle of cleaning your roach colony.
5. actual cleaning of the colony, much to my gfs dismay, i usually use the bathtub for this, lol.
first tape a coffee filter over the drain so you dont have little roaches escaping into your drain system. place the occupied container in the tub, but dont dump it out, just pull all of the crates and other furnishings out and try to chase all of the roaches into the tub, now place everything but the roaches back in the original container and take it outside, where you can hose it off or deal with it at your leisure, so you dont re-infect your new container.
paint brushes and bamboo skewers are good for steering and handling roaches without damaging them. be sure to get all of the babies and eggs, normally i would save a small portion of frass (roach poo) but since we are trying to reduce a mite problem , that is not recomended here. another thing you could do would be to give them all about a 5 second shower at 80-90* before transferring them to the new container, you may lose a fair number of roaches, but they will be cleaner when going into their new container.
6. each time you do this, you will reduce the overall % of mites in your containers, plus you will begin to appreciate the importance of properly maintaining your colonies/cultures in the first place.
7. remember, that to a mite, a cord is like a super-hiway, so be sure to regularly smear all cords that lead to your containers with vaseline.
8. i always recommend a large lighted viewer as a valuable tool in cham/feeder husbandry, this will help you identify many issues like mites, before they become a problem.
9. spray all of your old containers, furnishings, paint brushes etc. with a solution of 20% bleach/ water and rinse thoroughly before returning them to the house. probably a good idea to scrub the tub out with a bleach water solution and rinse with scalding hot water afterwards, also a good idea to shower yourself once you are done, some mites are a problem for humans, but the bigger issue is you dont want to re-introduce them to your chams /feeders living area. feel free to pm if you continue to have problems, but remember the root of the problem boils down to over feeding/cage cleanliness. also many mites thrive on mold so never leave moldy food in your containers. many mites also thrive in conditions of excess humidity, so you might try less humidity/spraying in your colony. jmo
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