Your Reptile and Amphibian Resource and Information Site

Back to Centipedes-Millipedes Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area  

Centipedes-Millipedes Forum

Scarletsnake   Cacoseraph   Scarletsnake   Cacoseraph   Scarletsnake   Cacoseraph   Bad2thebone619   Leoman23   RyanMills   Whiplash Hornet   Agama   Matt_666  
 Member  Message

 #929604


Scarletsnake
View Profile

 What are these things??

Hi everyone! My boss has Giant African Millipedes at our office and I am used to seeing the harmless reddish mites that crawl around on them. But I’ve been noticing for the past week or so that now there are tiny (bout the same size as the mites) white things everywhere. At first I hardly noticed they were moving, they don’t go quickly at all. They collect in and around the food dish for the most part and a lot of them get washed down the drain when I replace the fruits/veggies each day. But today I saw a small number of them in the dish, came back and looked about an hour later and found the food was totally covered in the little white specs. I don’t see them on the millipedes themselves.
Does anyone know what they are? Are they harmful to the millipedes or to me?
08/08/06  03:30pm

 #935144


Cacoseraph
View Profile



   Message To: Scarletsnake   In reference to Message Id: 929604


 What are these things??

rather unlikely they are harmful to you, unless maybe you are allergic to their poop or something.

beyond that there are thousands upon thousands of mites... they sound like corpse eaters i constantly battle with. check VERY carefully on all the joints and places between armor plates... some mites are vampires.

here is a pic of some on a centipede. for the record this is my buddies pic, but i have his permission to post it (and host in in my photobucket)




ah, it scales the pic down and makes it hard to see
pic link
check that link out for a bigger size of the same pic
08/11/06  06:34pm

 #960743


Scarletsnake
View Profile



   Message To: Cacoseraph   In reference to Message Id: 935144


 What are these things??

Yeah that does look like them. They seem to be in and around the food more than actually on the millipedes. Also, I noticed them in the box turtle tank. I’m guessing my boss mixed up the millipede and turtle bowls while feeding all the animals over the weekend.

Are those corpse eater mites specific to millipedes and centipedes or will they hurt the turtles too? And are they just nuisance mites or will they kill the animals? Where do they come from?
08/28/06  11:33am

 #960822


Cacoseraph
View Profile



   Message To: Scarletsnake   In reference to Message Id: 960743


 What are these things??

unfortunately it seems that there is a dearth of knowledge about mites in the invertebrate hobby setting.

as far as i can tell, the corpse eaters don’t harm any pets outright, but a large number annoy some animals to distraction.

the vampires DO seem to harm animals, but only in large numbers. vampires are MUCH more resistant to dessication control than the corpse eaters, likely due to their supply of hydration on tap.

very humid environments seem to stimulate most mites to breeding blooms. moistness and abundant food supply will ensure any existing mites multiply in a most distressingly obvious exponential fashion

where do they come from? for predators the usual suspected vector is infected feeders. for herbivores i don’t know... maybe infected plant material or possibly they have been with the millis the whole time and just now reached numbers that are apparent. also, those little mite suckers can travel to a suprising degree and i wouldn’t be surprised if they phoresy rides for super distance traveling... so it is conceivable that the mites came from "the real world"
08/28/06  01:06pm

 #962271


Scarletsnake
View Profile



   Message To: Cacoseraph   In reference to Message Id: 960822


 What are these things??

Thanks for the info! It’s strange that since the mites have showed up the millipedes don’t come out as much. They stay underground and before this they were very active. Even though the mites aren’t on them as far as I can see, they must bother them somehow. We’ve cleaned the whole tank and substrate once but after a week the mites are back. These things are a freaking pain!!
08/29/06  10:09am

 #962316


Cacoseraph
View Profile



   Message To: Scarletsnake   In reference to Message Id: 962271


 What are these things??

i hate to tell you this... but i’ve never fully purged mites. i think this is partly because i have 100’s of animals in my collection and thousands of roaches in ~7 colonies so there is always someplace for them to hide.

what you can try is another rehouse, but this time keep the millipedes in a completely empty cage with a waterdish for a week (though a month would be much better). while they are in the barren temporary cage wash their permanent cage with a weak bleach solution (like, so it barely smells like bleach) then wash it with a weak soapy solution and then stick it in a shower for an hour (or four). this will make it very likely the permanent cage is purged. keeping the millis in the barren cage makes it much tougher for the mites to live. while in the barren cage only offer food for hours and then remove it before it can go bad or too many of the mites can find it.

sadly, all of this probably won’t 100% get rid of the mites... but 99.99% will die and it will take the survivors a much longer time to get back up to noticeable numbers.

a different track than that would be to get some predator mites. i have never used these so you would have to research them on your own, but it another tactic to consider
08/29/06  10:47am

 #1427788


Bad2thebone619
View Profile



   Message To: Cacoseraph   In reference to Message Id: 935144


 What are these things??

get a cotton swab and dip it in vegetable oil and touch the mites with swab or let it drip on the centipede and the should come off, mites have the same skin as scorpions so they can’t walk in the oil or feed, once they come off move your pede to a different container and clean the other out with bleach and water. the veg. oil is not harmful to the pede. if you soak him in water he will drown. so veg. oil worked for me.
09/01/07  01:54am

 #1522474


Leoman23
View Profile



   Message To: Bad2thebone619   In reference to Message Id: 1427788


 What are these things??

do what bad2thebone619 said
11/21/07  08:44pm

 #1681114


RyanMills
View Profile



   Message To: Leoman23   In reference to Message Id: 1522474


 What are these things??

what you see just develop over time, not sure how. I know that in my tarantula cages they showed up after time and I am not sure where they come from. As for the mites they come from breeders and unclean animals, you can get rid of all of the mites, just do the same as you would do for a boa constrictor with mites. CLean the cage with a bleach solution and water, throw out ALL BEDDING and wash thoroughly any toys or limbs you may have in the tank, ALSO make sure you clean at least 3-5 feet AROUND the tank, the mites can travel and have been known to escape the tank and then to return to the tank after it has been cleaned.

Doing this should ensure this problem to go away, mites are a pain in the butt!!!! I know with my snake you can rub petroleum jelly on them to suffocate the mites... There are other things you can use that would kill them as well but they are not coming to my head atm
03/29/08  07:38pm

 #1708742


Whiplash Hornet
View Profile



   Message To: RyanMills   In reference to Message Id: 1681114


 What are these things??

Are you sure that they’re mites? Baby millipedes are pure white and about 2-3mm long, this could be what they are though I will bow down to those who have already posted with their superior knowledge, but if they are offspring that explains how they got there and why you can’t get rid of them.

Hornet



04/19/08  04:35am

 #1858161


Agama
View Profile



   Message To: Cacoseraph   In reference to Message Id: 935144


 What are these things??

eggs maybe.
09/12/08  10:22pm

 #1892554


Matt_666
View Profile



   Message To: Agama   In reference to Message Id: 1858161


 What are these things??

scarletsnake,whats that big white thing under the centipedes arm?either noone else has noticed it or its normal lol!?!?
11/03/08  04:17pm


Back to Centipedes-Millipedes Forum   Forums   Home   Members Area